Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/36706
6A Daily News – Saturday, July 16, 2011 Opinion Retroactive tax is the wrong thing to do D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 What if you were pulled Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer’s home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 over on I-5 and given a speed- ing ticket for driving 70 mph — the officer explaining he was citing you because the speed limit used to be 55 mph? You would be outraged. The same logic is being considered by the city in regards to transient occupan- cy tax for recreational vehi- cles. The Red Bluff City Coun- cil will vote Tuesday on whether to amend the ordi- nance regarding transient occupancy tax to include RV parks. We have no issue with that. But the city is proposing to charge Durango RV Resort retroactive taxes back to July 2010. Transient occupancy tax, or TOT, is a tax collected from visitors who stay in Red Bluff at hotels, guest homes or other facilities. It was instituted in 1965 an a portion of it goes to fund the activi- ties of the local chamber of commerce, which, in turn, promotes tourism and increased revenues to the city. As written, RV parks are clearly not included under the ordinance, which lists “...any hotel, inn, tourist home or house, dormitory, public or pri- vate club, mobile home or house trailer at a fixed location or other similar structure thereof.” To us, the fact that house trailers are specifically quali- fied as being in a fixed loca- tion makes it obvious the ordinance was not intended to include recreational vehicles. But the city is claiming recre- ational vehicles have been included in the ordinance all along, despite the fact they appear to be intentionally excluded from the ordinance. To that end, the city wants to amend the ordinance to specifically list recreational vehicle parks and camp- grounds. Again, that may be a good move on the part of the council. If the city somehow inter- preted the ordinance to include recre- ational vehicles from the start, why does it need to amend it? The answer is sim- ple: The existing wording suggests recreational vehicles are not subject to TOT. Following an audit of TOT collections, several motels, which are clearly subject to TOT collection, were found to have not paid their fair share. These hotels were given a pass on back taxes in exchange for an agreement to collect and pay TOT moving forward. Durango, which opened in 2008, has been offered the same pass on its first two years of operation. We believe, until the ordi- Editorial What do you think? Let us know nance is amended, the city is wrong in attempting to collect unpaid taxes. Even if you buy the need to amend an ordi- nance the city claims needs no revision, why has it taken a year to do so? And why should Durango pay for that delay? Should the coun- cil vote to approve the retroactive TOT collection, it would send a message to prospective businesses that they may be subject to the financial whims of the city. We encourage the council members to put themselves in Durango’s shoes and do what’s right. Editorials represent the collective opinion of the Daily News editorial board, which is made up of Publisher Greg Stevens and Editor Chip Thompson. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Reliance, trust and shoddiness Commentary Responsibility: A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoul- ders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor. In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star. From the Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce When our cats were younger we would give them the caps off the beverage bottles we used. They would spend a significant amount of time batting those caps all around the house; you could tell where they were from the sound as the caps caromed off of the hard floor surfaces. When they thought we were watching them too close- ly, the cats would sometimes pick up the cap and carry it somewhere almost clandestinely, like they were sneaking it away. Eventually those caps would disappear; we never knew where the great bottle cap graveyard was until the Tues- day before last when we did some serious housecleaning on that rainy day. There were 14 bottle caps behind the refrigerator and four more behind the stove. We had long forgotten about the bottle caps, but we recognized them immediately as well as the plain evidence we had not be faithful in cleaning those two areas over the years. Things get lost, they disappear, and then they show up when you least expect it. Sometimes my short term memory plays tricks on me. I grab a tool from the garage when I am working on a project, set it down within reach, and then am unable to find it five minutes later until I almost trip over it. Apparently I am easily distracted, most likely an age related prob- lem. I am not sure about what caus- es organizational concentration problems; I am thinking of the FBI who have allegedly been hunting James "Whitey" Bulger for 16 years before they found him living in the open in Santa Monica. A reputed mobster, Bulger was allegedly connected to 19 mur- ders. He was located when the FBI circulated his female companion's picture on the Internet. There were rumors that he had six people in the FBI on his payroll. When we watch crime process dramas on television, the "techno- geek" of the show is able to locate just about anybody in the time slot between frequent commercials telling me what questions I should ask my doctor. The "technogeek" uses apparently easily accessible relational data bases, cell phone signals, traffic cameras, ATM cameras, security cameras, satel- lite imaging, retrieved items from trashed hard drives, and even the speedy analysis of DNA to catch the bad guy, all before I have for- gotten which questions I need to ask my doctor. I sometimes have problems just retrieving docu- ments I have filed on my own computer. but I am not a geek. Then there is the case of the truck driver who slammed his big rig into the side of an Amtrak train at high speed 70 miles east of Reno, Nevada. It is unclear at this point why that collision happened. The railroad crossing gate was functioning properly; it was clear- ly visible from more than one half mile away. A review of the driver's records indicates several citations, including three for speeding while what was originally reported as driving a school bus in California. The report about school bus dri- ving was corrected and references to school buses were eliminated. We do not know if the driver was texting, daydreaming, or what. His cell phone has been recovered, so we may find out if it was a distrac- tion. What we do know is that at least six people are dead as of this writing, and at least five more are missing or unaccounted for as of this writing. It seems to me that the trucking company he was working for did not do a very good reference check on this driver. With unemployment so high the company probably could have been pretty selective in hiring drivers, unless its wage structure and/or working condi- tions were so poor as to not attract well qualified individuals. As a former school person I wondered at first how long he may have been employed by a state school district. I was relieved when the origi- nal allegations about school bus speeding were corrected; in my 25 years working with school bus drivers, I do not recall any of them ever being cited for speeding in a school bus, so I was shocked when the initial coverage spoke of speeding school buses. When hir- ing reference checking is very important. Shoddy reference checking will result in shoddy employees. Once I was helping a church Joe Harrop jide Olewaseun Noibi apparently was able to use a student body card, a day old boarding pass he picked up in the airport and a winning smile to board an airplane and sit in first class for a coast to coast flight. The thorough Trans- portation Security Administration (TSA) employee who let him into the gate area must have read the Air Traf- fic Controller manual by mistake and fallen asleep on the job. The stated mission of the TSA is “to protect the nation's transportation systems to ensure free- dom of movement for people and commerce,” apparently including freeloaders. find a minister, and I called refer- ences to talk to them about poten- tial candidates. One candidate had listed a prominent congregant from his church in Southern California on his reference list; I called the man who told me “He’s the laziest person I know” and proceeded on from there. The search committee was quick to remove that candidate from its list after my report. The rules, policies, and laws covering references vary from organization to organization, and often people will only tell you the applicant had or is working there and little else. This makes select- ing applicants more complicated; nevertheless, the trucking compa- ny certainly could have accessed their driver’s driving records. Speaking of shoddy work, Ola- While I can admit to negligence for not cleaning behind the refrig- erator and stove more frequently, the missing bottle caps were not potentially dangerous. I do have trouble accepting the fact that the FBI, a presumably elite criminal investigative organization could not find "Whitey" for sixteen years. I cannot understand that the same TSA people who give me a thorough pat down don’t pay attention to the names and dates on boarding passes, or apparently consider a student body card as a government issued ID. I cannot understand how a trucking compa- ny could hire a driver with such a shaky record. I promise to clean behind the refrigerator more frequently if the organizations above will promise to carry out their own responsibil- ities more responsibly. Joe Harrop is a retired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State.He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net.