Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/744519
SometimesIwonderhow much time the State of Cal- ifornia voter folks think we should spend on this election. This year we are faced with 17 statewide prop- ositions; nev- ertheless, we did not receive our ballot in- formation from the state until last week. By the time that arrived we had been bombarded with a vari- ety of ads that told us how we should vote, even before we could read the ballot. It seems to me the state voter folks expect us to speed read or to rely on the exagger- ations and propaganda from those trying to grab our atten- tion. Perhaps the state voting folks are even in cahoots with the public relations and ad- vertising community which is reaping in lots of money from this election. At last estimate over $425,000,000 had been spent for or against the 17 propositions. In the June pri- mary 8.9 million of 18 million registered voters bothered to vote; if that same num- ber turnout next month, those hawking the various mea- sures will spent almost $48 per vote. I find three propositions particularly interesting. The first is Proposition 54. The measure is an attempt to cre- ate more transparency in our state government, and it "pro- hibits Legislature from pass- ing any bill unless published on Internet for 72 hours be- fore vote. Requires Legislature to record its proceedings and post on Internet." There is a clear divide be- tween Democrats who con- trol the State Legislature and Republicans who do not. Re- publicans do support the mea- sure. Prop 54 was essen- tially paid for by Charles Munger Jr. who put up over $10,000,000. Munger is a physicist working at the Stan- ford Linear Accelerator, so he is no intellectual slouch. He got his Ph.D. in High Energy Physics from UC Berkeley. He has been active in trying to reform redistricting in the state, and is the son of a bil- lionaire. Like most physicists he tries to use logic when ap- proaching the world. Unfor- tunately, logic does not al- ways apply to politics. The argument against Prop 54 is "While it sounds good, requiring the legislature to wait three days before voting on a bill will give powerful lobbyists and well-funded spe- cial interests time to launch campaigns to attack biparti- san compromises. Special in- terests already have too much power in Sacramento. Prop 54 will give them more." Give me a break, it is not as if those very same special interests have not already been busy in the smoke-filled back rooms where the sausages called leg- islation are made. It seems to me if all is out in the open we, the citizens, can have an op- portunity to follow the money, so to speak. Neither the pro or the against Prop 54 seem to trust the system! I wonder why? I am inclined to vote yes. Proposition 59 is an advi- sory measure; its supporters assume the state will listen to public advice. It essentially asks the state to work to over- come the infamous Citizens United Supreme Court case which said corporations are like individuals and they can use money to support elec- tions and issues because they have the right to free speech. My feeling that if that is true, then they should be taxed like individuals rather than at the corporation tax rate of 35 per- cent. If that were the case corporations making over $415,000 per year would be taxed at 39.5 percent instead. This item is also a "party- divider" with Republicans against and Democrats for. My guess that passage is a wasted effort because the fate of Cit- izens United will depend on the Supreme Court, not Cal- ifornia. I do not like Citizens United, so I will support this futile measure. Proposition 53 is another interesting measure. On the surface, it sounds simple. It would require a statewide vote to approve state revenue bonds more than $2 billion. It is also supported by the Re- publican Party and opposed by the Democratic party. In- terestingly two people are funding the "for" campaign. Joan and Dean Cortopassi have put up over $5,000,000 to tell us to vote yes. The Cor- topassi's seem to have a chip on their shoulder. As reported on Ballotpe- dia," Cortopassi works in Stockton and throughout Cal- ifornia as an activist. His pri- mary concerns involve the state's spending on projects. Beginning in 2009, he sued the state over its State Wa- ter Project. Cortopassi aimed "to prove that the Mokelumne River where it passes his 3,000-acre ranch is unneces- sarily choked with sediment, straining the levees and in- creasing the risk of a flood." He claimed that the State Wa- ter Project, which carries wa- ter through the area via ca- nals and reservoirs, dropped enough sediment to raise the bottom of the river by three feet." Concerns about Cortopassi's attempt to get even with the state include the fact that the initiative would punish local- ities that rely on state bonds for local projects because they would have to wait for the rest of the state to vote on those bonds, thus delaying needed funds for local projects. All the major newspapers in the state are opposed to Prop 53 and so am I. It seems to me there are a few lessons we can learn from this statewide election. One is that we need to assure that our state voter bureaucrats are doing their jobs and get- ting us the information we need in a timelier manner. Maybe we need an initiative to make sure this happens… just kidding. Another lesson is that we need to encourage the media to do fact checking on the pre- posterous ads for and against the various propositions on the ballot. Of course, this may present the media with a con- flict of interest since they ben- efit from all this nonsense. Currently we must go to in- dependent sources, if we have the time, to check on these things. One site I like is Bal- lotpedia.com; sometimes NPR does some fact checking as well. Happy Halloween. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop Voting in the dark, or speed reading Cartoonist's take VoteyesonMeasureM Editor: It has been 30 years since the Supervisors in Tehama County have been given a raise. If they can manage to only work a 40 hours a week they make $6.53 an hour, usually they work closer to 60 hours a week and make $4.14 an hour. In almost every other county in California the position of su- pervisor is a step towards higher office either at the state level or possibly the national level. I have been hearing quite a few people complaining that we are not rep- resented properly in Sacramento. The most recent instance of a Tehama County resident being elected was Clair Engle in 1942. If we can manage to pass this we should find more people in- terested in running for this po- sition. Tehama County has the low- est paid supervisors in the entire state. Please remember that you only get what you pay for. — Bill Dixon, Red Bluff Teachers endorsecandidate Editor: On behalf of the Red Bluff High School's California Teach- ers Association, it is my pleasure to announce our support and rec- ommendation of school board member Lida Chase. Ms. Chase is a current incum- bent and has proven to be a ded- icated and committed school board member, one who looks out for the best interest in stu- dents above all else. We hope the Tehama County community joins us and votes Lida Chase for Red Bluff Joint Union High School District board. — Paul Trujillo, Red Bluff A corrupt cover up Editor: I don't know how reasonable people can refuse to recognize the corruption and collusion of the Democratic National Com- mittee, the Democrat Party, the Obama Administration and the liberal media to cover up and protect Hillary Clinton from ac- countability for her political ca- reer of avarice, deceit and cor- ruption. It is abundantly clear that the liberal media would rather talk about what Trump said on tape about women and give credence and time to unsubstantiated ac- cusations, many have been de- bunked, of women claiming Trump groped them years ago and all of a sudden they crawl out of the woodwork just before the presidential debates start. Also, include the beauty con- test winner that gained 70 pounds, which was a breach of contract, no doubt. Again accu- sations accusing Trump of mak- ing improper remarks about her getting fat, so what. There used to be some requirements for the winners of beauty contests some of which is to maintain the im- age that won the contest and to have some moral decency in her life. Evidently Miss Piggy had neither. Compare the time and ink the liberal media expended on this petty BS to some real cor- ruption from the Hillary Cam- paign, the Democratic National Committee and the Democrat Party that hired a felon to start fights at Trump rallies and is on record of visiting the White House 432 times, about 30 of them were with the president. Add to that Benghazi, the Clinton private e-mail server, the Clinton Foundation and a list of wrong- doing and total corruption longer than Trump is tall. There's more, State Depart- ment senior official Patrick Ken- nedy, who is now at the center of quid pro quo allegations that he offered to help the FBI get more slots for agencies overseas in ex- change for downgrading a Hill- ary e-mail to unclassified. The liberal media seems to mention Hillary's corruption and wrongdoing only in passing but will repeatedly go on and on in ad nauseam slamming Trump for petty BS and political incor- rectness if they think it will bring him down. How much time was spent de- meaning Trump for his answer to Chris Wallace's gotcha ques- tion, "Will you accept the out- come of the election win or lose?" Why didn't Hillary get the same question? Trump's answer was he would wait and see, so to speak. With all the fraud, collu- sion in the media, the established Republicans and Hillary's cam- paign Trump would have been foolish to give any other answer. Al Gore yelled bloody murder when he lost to G. W. Bush. He ordered a recount, claimed voter fraud after he wanted to keep the votes from our military serv- ing overseas from being counted. There was no media condemna- tion or non-partisan piling on for Gore, but Trump, how much time and ink was spent on condemn- ing Trump for just saying I'll wait and see. If Hillary loses a close race does anyone believe she will ac- cept the outcome? — Les Wolfe, Red Bluff State association lauds county's efforts Editor: I'd like to offer my congratu- lations to Tehama County and Washington Street Productions for the Getting People to Work program. It was recently recognized with a Challenge Award from the California State Association of Counties. Challenge Awards rec- ognize innovative and effective programs and services that rep- resent best practices in Califor- nia counties. Getting People to Work is a Welfare-to-Work program, aimed at Cal-WORKs clients who need additional job training and skills to find employment. The pro- gram uses state funding to put people to work for at least 30 days in a woodworking shop. The workers learn valuable skills, strong work habits and get paid $11 an hour. Much of the raw ma- terials are donated or salvaged, and the items they make are sold to the public with the proceeds returned to the program. Congratulations to Tehama County for fostering this innova- tive and effective program. — Matt Cate, California State Association of Counties Don't sweat the small stuff Editor: I appreciated PBS's near-in- stant availability of an online transcript of the first Trump- Clinton debate. Albeit, its associ- ated commentary almost exclu- sively trashed Trump. The media generally seems predisposed to this — probably because Trump doesn't kiss their asses. He'd rather be honest and forthright than politically cor- rect. Perhaps Trump's worst mo- ment was espousing that police should be allowed to stop and frisk to ensure citizens aren't car- rying weapons. Trump himself likely suffers little risk of being searched, arrested, jailed, fined and receiving a career-killing criminal record. That is, for be- ing found to be carrying an un- registered weapon, resisting ar- rest, giving a false name, etc. Accordingly, I can see how Trump might see being stopped as no big deal. However, as pres- ident, Trump would have advi- sors to apprise him of these im- plications. Accordingly, voters shouldn't evaluate candidates for their positions on small issues, but rather only on major ones like immigration. The media also trashes Trump for not perfectly reciting facts. This is similarly unfair. Live de- bates aren't contract negotia- tions. Rather, they're just forums for gaining some insight into candidates' knowledge, positions, perceptiveness, logical ability and conviction. — Nathan Esplanade, Rancho Tehama Your opinions It seems to me the state voter folks expect us to speed read or to rely on the exaggerations and propaganda from those trying to grab our attention. Perhaps the state voting folks are even in cahoots with the public relations and advertising community which is reaping in lots of money from this election. GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD 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, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS State and National Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558- 3160, governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507 Cannon House Of- fice Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Fran- cisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Rich- ard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, Kris- tina Miller, 824-7033 Your officials Joe Harrop OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, October 29, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A8