Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/537297
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS The latest tempest in a teapot at City Council involves both funding for the ac- tivities of the Chamber of Commerce and the source of that funding. It's kindofironictobe talking about taxation and representation on this very 4th of July weekend almost 240 years af- ter the Decla- ration of Inde- pendence was signed. Here we are in Red Bluff with a case where there was true representation that re- sulted in a taxation, but our representatives apparently do not want to follow our direc- tion in deciding how to spend those funds. The brouhaha began ear- lier this spring when the City Council addressed the is- sue of how and how much to fund the Chamber of Com- merce. The budget committee consisting of Suren Patel and Rob Schmid had presented a budget to the Council that included $35,000 to support the Chamber. Patel and Schmid seemed to think the Chamber sup- ported a lot of feel good events but was not really helping to grow tourism and increase visitation. Never- theless, by a 3 to 2 vote the Council increased that fund- ing to $70,000, with Patel and Schmid dissenting. After that a contract was drafted for the $70,000 amount, and the source of the funds in that proposed contract was identified as the Transient Occupancy Tax. The City Manager/Attor- ney recommend to the Coun- cil that they approve it as drafted. That's when the fun began. The focus the Council's dis- cussion was on whether the source of that $70,000 should be designated or not. Some Council members believe the source should be identified as the Transient Occupancy Tax, or TOT. Not all Council members agreed. That tax is ten percent on top of the room rates. The tax is derived from tourists and travelers, folks we want to encourage to visit and stay in the "Victorian City by the River," as we call ourselves. It's a little confusing to gain accurate figures by ex- amining the City's books. De- pending on where you look the amount collected and budgeted is anywhere from $685,000 to over $720,000. The Comprehensive Finan- cial Report for June 2014 showed receipts of over $720,000; the official budgets for last year and the year before show the $685,000 amount. Although the voters ap- proved this tax for the pur- poses of supporting "tour- ism and recreation" accord- ing to Councilman Schmid, it is difficult if not impossi- ble for the common voter to see just how those funds have been used. After reviewing both last year's budget and the pro- posed budget for 2015-16 I was unable to find any doc- umentation about how these special funds were used; in other words, even though the TOT is a unique source of funds, there is no accounting for its use. The City Budget for 2015- 16 shows total net gen- eral fund expenditures of $304,187 for Community De- velopment; these may or may not be associated with in- creasing visitors and tour- ists, and a total of $379,872 for Parks and Recreation af- ter anticipated fees are con- sidered. Even if you figure the Com- munity Development funds are used for tourism and vis- itor and add in the Parks and Recreation budget, you still get less than the TOT amount. On the city web page there is a spot for "Visitors;" it re- fers to another site that says Red Bluff is number 11 of the top 40 commuter cities. I am not sure how much that post and link cost, but it is a mi- nuscule effort at promoting the city. A review of the Chamber website highlights the many local events that the Cham- ber supports and, in some cases organizes. The connec- tion between those events and growth in tourism and visitors is not spelled out. However since Dave Gowen has been the Chamber CEO the TOT has increased; that means either that ho- tel and motel owners have in- creased their prices enough so that the ten percent tax would yield more revenue, not likely, or more people are stopping and visiting in Red Bluff. To get on with the story, the Council bickered back and forth over the proposed contract with the Chamber. While not exactly sounding like the Supreme Court Jus- tices, the Council took four votes, including one to re- duce funding to $35,000, be- fore it approved the $70,000 amount and removed all ref- erence to the TOT. There was concern that there was too much conten- tion over the TOT in nego- tiating with the Chamber, so rather than settle the is- sue, the Council just erased it from the contract. During this demonstra- tion of local statesmanship, Mayor Clay Parker made a real statesmanlike and sig- nificant statement. "We should at least do our best to do what the voters wanted." Most of us would agree with that sentiment. Both the city and the Chamber have had to do what Dave Gowen calls belt tightening. One has only to look at the paving and in- frastructure needs of town to see that there are a lot of things on the to do list for our city. The voters, however, ap- proved the TOT to improve tourism and recreation, and they recently approved an in- crease in the sales tax to sup- port recreation, law enforce- ment, and fire protection. It will be important that the city is able to use the des- ignated taxes for the pur- poses that we, the voters, in- tended, and not just pour them into the mix of same old, same old. It will also be important that our City Council listen to the words of the Mayor and do its best to do what we wanted. To use a trite phrase, the city has to show us the money. We expect an open and re- sponsible representative gov- ernment, nothing less. I think that is what the 4th of July is all about. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop Show me the money Cartoonist's take Bewareofcomputerscam Editor: While doing a Google search a pop-up appeared telling me my computer has some sort of virus. A lady was talking and tell- ing me how critical the prob- lem was. I was directed to call a phone number — 866-831- 9468 — which was supposedly Microsoft. I was unable to do anything else on my computer. It was frozen with that pop-up on the screen and the lady's voice go- ing on and on about how I needed to call immediately. So I called. It didn't sink in until later that the man who answered simply said "hello?" I told him what was going on. He asked for my name and phone num- ber, then somehow took con- trol of my computer. He showed me how someone had hacked into my system and said all of my personal data was compromised. He then said I need to pay a level 5 certified technician to do the following: fix the PC, fix the network, fix the IP address, fix damages, remove unauthor- ized servers, remove virus and remove suspicious files. Kudos Global Systems does repairs. He said the cost would be $149.99 for 1 year protec- tion plus repairs or $299.99 for lifetime protection plus re- pairs. I told him I would take the $149.99 and he started giv- ing me a spiel about how the other was so much better and blah, blah, blah. That's when I finally got suspicious. I told him I had to talk to my husband and he said he would hold. We left the phone sitting there for proba- bly 15 to 20 minutes while we went to our other computer to try to figure out if he was on the up and up. My husband got on the phone with him and he gave his name as John and when my husband said we would not be doing anything yet he got another phone num- ber — 844-728-8511, where he could contact him directly. I then called Microsoft at 800-426-9400 and I was told to leave a call back number, which I did. A few minutes later I answered my phone and the voice on the other end sounded exactly like John. I didn't think much about it un- til he told me I would have to pay $99.99 or $149.99 to have it fixed. I hung up and filed a com- plaint with the Federal Trade Commission. — Micki Wilson, Rancho Tehama It only makes sense Editor: As most would acknowl- edge, we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of one of the worst droughts in recent mem- ory, with no end in sight. Re- strictions on water use, ris- ing prices, reductions in water deliveries and loss of existing wells have become all too com- monplace. The last thing you'd expect to see these days is a large new orchard being planted. While many existing orchards and crops are being abandoned due to lack of available water, that's not the case along Gas Point Road. Take a Sunday drive approx- imately 11 miles due west and you can see for yourself. Acre upon acre upon acre of newly planted trees, with evidence of more to come. Now, don't get me wrong. I love orchards as much as the next guy. For sure, they pro- vide consumers with a bounty of fruits and nuts, add signif- icantly to the area's economic vitality and are just plain nice to look at. But, orchards demand lots of water. Lots and lots of wa- ter. And, sinking multiple Ag wells to satisfy this demand without first assessing their possible negative impact on the aquifer and existing area wells is just plain nuts. Turns out all you need are land that's zoned for agricul- ture and the money to dig a well. With that in hand, you're free to pump as much water as you'd like. The Director of the Shasta County Department of Re- source Management, respond- ing to a recent query that raised legitimate concerns about the impact of Ag wells dug to support the new or- chard, provided this advice: "Our permit applications do not delve into the specific use of the well other than to dis- tinguish new wells from ex- isting wells that need repairs, deepening, etc., and agricul- tural wells from domestic, in- dustrial, or public water sys- tem wells. We do not regulate pumping volumes or overall usage (at least not yet)." So, it appears the Ag world gets a pass when it comes to extracting water from the aquifer. Dig the well and pump away. I bet a lot of land devel- opers would love to get that kind of treatment from the county when they propose new home sub-divisions. The county needs to get off the stick and implement re- quired impact reviews for all new Ag projects that can po- tentially pump large volumes of water for irrigation. Delay is not an option. Dare I say, it only makes sense. — Pete Stiglich, Cottonwood ObamaCare tax long overdue Editor: During the 45 year work ca- reer, private sector employees have fully covered their age 65 to death Medicare costs, through a 2.9 percent com- bined employee plus employer tax on gross income. ObamaCare subsidy receiv- ers should similarly be taxed, at a 10 percent rate, shared by the employee and employer, to cover their birth to age 65 health insurance. The state insurance pro- grams are experiencing def- icits from having to subsi- dize ObamaCare insurance policies. Oregon has just an- nounced an average 25.6% pol- icy increase to better match the treatment costs to the pre- miums paid. Everyone has a responsibil- ity to fully pay for their life- time healthcare costs, with the exception of those with ex- treme cost disabilities. Too few are willing to give up luxuries of large screen ca- ble TV, cell phones, vacations, restaurant meals and gas guz- zling vehicles to pay for their ObamaCare. — Joseph Neff, Corning Your opinions There was concern that there was too much contention over the TOT in negotiating with the Chamber, so rather than settle the issue, the Council just erased it from the contract. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. Kudos to the organizers for bringing togeth- er a truly diverse panel to consider a way forward beyond banning Granny Six-Plant. Matthew Meyer: On the recent medical marijuana forum at the community center. These all are hard jobs but working at the wrecking yard and having to pull parts off cars for customers is crappy. If it's 110in town it's close to 120in the yard because of all the metal from the cars. We all have to make a living so we have to deal with what ever mother nature throws our way. Justyn Alfredo Palos: On those who have to work outside during a heat wave. Joe Harrop OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, July 4, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B5