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WEDNESDAY MARCH 21, 2012 Breaking news at: Chicken in Beef Mustard Country Fare www.redbluffdailynews.com See Page 5A RED BLUFF Spartans baseball SPORTS 1B Partly cloudy 65/49 Weather forecast 8B DAILYNEWS TEHAMACOUNTY DAILY 50¢ 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 Poll worker lauded Fairground By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer Tehama District Fairboard is considering two mod- els, a Joint Powers Authority and a non-profit, for its new style of management, director Tonya Redamonti announced Tuesday. The Fairboard Ad-Hoc committee has been meeting with the committee from the Board of Supervisors along with County Counsel Arthur Wylene and Chief Administrator Bill Goodwin, she said. "It's been very productive and we've been dis- cussing several ideas and wants and needs moving for- ward," Redamonti said. "There are a lot of options out there." The fairboard has been looking at options for chang- ing its management style for several months in response to Gov. Jerry Brown's elimination of state funding for fairs. The fairground, also known as the 30th District Agricultural Association, suffered a loss of 25 percent of its budget, equivalent to about $200,000. The biggest hurdle is figuring out a way to move for- ward without going through Legislature, Redamonti said. "We also have to differentiate between the fair and Daily News photo by Andrea Wagner Secretary of State Debra Bowen at the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday presented Susan Knox of Vina with a certificate of recognition for the Knox and Brown family's 67 years of service as election poll volunteer workers. By ANDREA WAGNER DN Staff Writer California Secretary of State Debra Bowen stood before the Tehama County Board of Supervi- sors Tuesday to recognize a local family's many years of service as election poll volunteers. Of about 100,000 poll workers in California, the state decided to recognize one person from each county for their ongoing dedica- tion, Bowen said. The experienced veterans that serve year after year make the most notable contributions to the polling places, she said. Bowen offered a certificate of recognition to Susan "Irish Sue" Knox of Vina, whose family has helped with voting in Tehama County as far back as 1944. The Knox and Brown family represents some of the longest- serving county election officials and poll workers in the state, she said. "We couldn't do it without all the Irish Sues of this state," Bowen said. Knox stepped forward to accept the certificate while a photo showing members of her Brown calls his tax 'superior,' tackles budget gap SACRAMENTO (AP) — The governor on Tues- day countered new ads air- ing in Los Angeles and San Francisco for a tax proposal that competes with one he is proposing for the November ballot, saying his measure is superior because it would help fund schools and address California's $9.2 billion budget deficit. Gov. Jerry Brown made the case for just one tax initiative, suggesting the competing proposal by wealthy Los Angeles attorney Molly Munger lacked broad support among voters. ''The taxes I'm propos- ing — the sales and the very high income people — goes to the schools,'' Brown told reporters before speaking to a group of optometrists in Sacra- mento. He said the new tax rev- enue would help the state meet its funding require- ments for public schools, which would then free up discretionary money for social services and public safety programs. Supporters of Munger's initiative say her initiative bypasses Sacramento and sends money directly to schools. The new ad cam- paign by ''Our Children, Our Future'' appeals to voters by saying California is ranked 47th in the nation in per student funding. The campaign declined to say how much it spent on the ads. Just a fraction of Munger's initiative would help the state deficit. It allocates about $3 billion a year for the first four years to pay off school bond debt, which frees up gen- eral fund money for other programs such as health care. ''We realize that the budget is more than educa- tion, but we also realize we have a generation of kids who have taken the brunt of cuts and they can't wait any longer,'' said Patty Scripter, legislative direc- tor for the California State Parent Teacher Associa- tion. Republicans have said higher taxes would hurt the state's economic 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 See TAX, page 7A family from 1944 was projected on an overhead screen. Six generations have worked at the local poll that started in the Vina Elementary School, Knox said. She recalled counting ballot tallies by hand as a young woman at Herb Flournoy's house as well. "Tehama County is just a won- derful community to be in," Knox said as she thanked Bowen for the award. the fairgrounds," Redamonti said. "When people think of the fair, they don't think of the other 160 events held at the fairground." It would not just be the fair lost if an alternate model and funding source is not found, so Redamonti pro- posed aligning the fairgrounds with the branding effort Roger Brooks unveiled a few weeks ago by naming the group's efforts to save the fairground. The two choices she brought before the board were Tehama Country Peak Events Center and Tehama Country Peak Performance Center. The board opted to wait 30 days before deciding in order to contact the branding group and bring it on board and allow for the community at large to give input. But changing the management style is not a matter that could be put off. "The next two years we have funding," President Ray Bianchi said. "There are some funds from last year that we will use to balance this year. We have a two- year window of opportunity to create a new model that all the players want to be a part of. I think we can do it." CEO Mark Eidman said unlike some of the fairs he ——— Andrea Wagner can be reached at 527-2153, extension 114 or awagner@redbluffdailynews.com. has talked to, this fairboard knows who all the players are and has a working relationship with them. Redamonti encouraged the board to reach out to the directors at other fairs. See URGENT, page 7A Special agent discusses Medicare fraud By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer Office of the Inspector General Special Agent Steven Lack was in Red Bluff Tuesday to speak at Red Bluff Rotary about the war on Medicare fraud. "Medicare is a $600 billion program," Lack said, asking whether any- one knew what percent- age of claims were fraud- ulent. "It's 10 percent, so that's $60 billion and the government recovered $5 billion so you only lost $55 billion this year." Medicare was a $100 billion a year program 10 years ago and, while the amount has changed, the percentage of fraud has typically stayed around 10 percent, he said. "99.9 percent of healthcare providers are honest and ethical," Lack said. "It's the one-tenth of 1 percent that ruins it for everyone else." Lack, who specializes in corporate fraud, said there are two major types of fraud — the crooks and those who don't look like crooks. The crooks are those who are in organized crime, he said. "It's Russian and Eastern European orga- nized crime," Lack said. "It's like an amoeba. You cut it down, it multi- plies." funding needs urgent action Daily News photo by Julie Zeeb Office of the Inspector General Special Agent Steven Lack spoke to Red Bluff Rotary Tuesday about the fight against Medicare fraud. There are business- men who pay doctors as much as $10,000 a year to bill Medicare on behalf of their business, which may run lots of bogus tests. "It's less danger, it takes less time and it's less likely to be investi- gated," Lack said. "That's why they come." Those types of crime are usually between $6 billion and $7 billion, he said. The other major crime is in the pharmaceutical realm — off-label mar- keting. An example of that is a pharmaceutical compa- ny selling a pill for con- gestive heart failure to a doctor who then gives it to his patient. What the Federal Drug Adminis- tration (FDA) had in mind when it approved patient use of items directly from the doctor was that it was a one- time thing. "They don't look like crooks, but they took money and put people at risk," Lack said. "The money in drugs in huge." The average Medicare fraud investigation takes about two and a half years, but Lack said he has had a case that took 12 years. In corporate fraud, Lack's office can usually See FRAUD, page 7A