Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/7111
6A – Daily News – Monday, February 22, 2010 A MediaNews Group newspaper 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. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. 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 Opinion Tomorrow's Tehama County Tea Party Patriots' meeting brings the first of several opportunities to hear candidates address the issues at the core of the conservative group's values: fiscal responsibili- ty, limited government intrusion and adherence to the Constitution. Sheriff Clay Parker is running to extend his tenure; attorney William Murphy is a candidate for judge. Attendees can question them on those issues after a ten-minute pre- sentation from the candidates. Among other candidates, yet unscheduled, are Supervisor candi- date Dennis Garton, as well as con- gressional candidate, Col. Pete Stiglich (retired). Seating at the Trinity Missionary Baptist Church is limited; the meeting opens at 6 PM with a prayer, Pledge of Alle- giance and recognition of attending veterans. It's located at the west end of Hampton Rhodes Dr. off of Paskenta Rd, between Luther and Walnut. You'll find fellow citizens and patriots giving of their time to get informed of and involved in local, state and national issues and advance the values itemized above. Groups focus on the 2nd Amend- ment/emergency preparedness, candidates, city council meetings, petitions and letter-writing cam- paigns. Their devotion is palpable and their efforts are having an effect. One issue near the top of the California Tea Party agenda is the "Unplug the political machine" ini- tiative. It is intended to free public employees from forced contribu- tions to the political coffers and war chests of unions. They're spent solely on Democrat candidates and causes; employees, free to decide, would donate where they choose. What a concept – letting people decide for themselves how to spend their money, instead of union hacks and bosses that regard those funds as their partisan piggy bank. However, it's about more than just letting public workers keep more of their own money. The piggy bank gets tapped for any cause that the unions think will preserve the (currently unsustain- able) status quo of bloated state budgets and high-tax-and-regula- tory economic conditions. Job killing conditions, to be perfectly blunt. Let any elected official dare to utter a solution to California's fis- cally unsound budget that involves doing what any normal family would have to do to – reduce spending – and organized labor's vast resources extracted from pub- lic employee dues, are brought to bear to drive them from office. The mere threat from those unions with their bankrolls can constitute pre- emptive restraint from anyone in office taking common sense mea- sures to reign in the binge of spending in Sacramento. Unlike the Feds in Washington, DC, states must balance their books at some point. So, what to do about it? We can see what unions want to do by looking to our northern neighbor, Oregon, which passed two initiatives man- dating higher taxes on their citi- zens. The $7 million that pushed pas- sage of 66 and 67 were mostly from teachers and other public employee unions, who outspent the opponents of higher taxes about three to two. For their investment, the unions got 53 to 54 per- cent of voters to say "yes" to higher taxes – but just on those selfish, rich folks and the evil, greedy corpo- rations. Everyone else won't pay a thing, don'cha know, unless … Well, what could pos- sibly make the economic life of the non-rich, non- corporation masses any worse than their current 10 to 15 percent unem- ployment rate (about 5 percent for state employees)? It may be trite to point out the truism that businesses and corporations don't pay taxes – their customers pay them through higher prices. Remember, many of those greedy rich folks are actually owner/oper- ators of thriving businesses, or at least they were thriving at the prior level of taxation. Unlike government, they have to be profitable or go out of busi- ness, so when the state takes a big- ger chunk of their profit (meaning the income of the owner), they can either raise their prices (meaning everyone buying their goods or ser- vices parts with a little more of their income), or they can figure out how to reduce their payroll. That usually means workers will find their income not just reduced, but elimi- nated. What if that busi- ness owner, or corpora- tion directors, calcu- lates that they can move across the border (and not south to Cali- fornia), find lower taxes and more-than- pay for the move, leav- ing a better bottom line every year there after? You see, a majority of Oregon voters just decided, based in some degree on the propa- ganda and ads by pub- lic employee unions, to force essentially all Oregonians to part with some, or even all (if laid off) of their income, all so that state workers, departments and agencies don't have to cut budgets like the private sector must to stay afloat. Be grateful that the California Constitutional Convention appears to be going nowhere; it would have been a thinly-veiled ruse to assure the big government/big union forces of lower, easier hurdles to do the only thing they ever want: raise taxes and get more money. Don Polson can be reached at donplsn@yahoo.com. Candidates, big government, big unions Commentary N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY 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 Don Polson The way I see it My bent on the Bend The Sacramento River Bend land north-west of Red Bluff has become a site of great scrutiny per- taining to past and planned access improvements and amenities. When coupled with the desires of merchants in the area to attract tourists to Red Bluff, Cottonwood, Anderson, and Redding conflicts arise with those that would rather keep the area as is for grazing and personal recreational use. The area is a valuable historic and natural resource that presents many recreational and educational opportunities. From the lush ripar- ian terrain surrounding the Sacra- mento River and its tributaries to the expanse of the rolling hills of the blue oak savannah, the Sacra- mento River Bend Area offers diverse habitat for bald eagles, osprey, migratory and song birds, deer, and salmon as well as hunt- ing, camping, hiking, boating, pic- nicking, and wildlife viewing for the recreating public. Proposals to create a Sacra- mento River National Recreation Area have been a political football between Rep. Wally Herger, and Sen. Barbara Boxer for years, with the two pushing competing ver- sions of a bill that would grant the area more federal funding and recognition. Wally introduced the Sacramento River National Recre- ation Area Establishment Act of 2007 (H.R. 1241), to "establish the Sacramento River National Recre- ation Area consisting of certain public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Tehama and Shasta Counties, California." Nearly two years later Mr. Herger now objects to the latest Boxer bill putting the area in the Bureau of Land Management's National Land Conservation Sys- tem (NCLS) and the way her bill approaches the grazing rights of local lease-holders of this public land. According to Natural Resource Specialist Kelly Williams the NCLS may be the only way to ensure the Bend area gets the funding it needs to replace its sometimes bullet-pocked signs and washed-out roads that could become an embarrassment if the area gets national attention. My desire would be to some- how satisfy both sides of this con- flict by crafting a solution some- where in the grey, between the white of perfect preservation and the black of unlimited develop- ment. Unfortunately, as evidenced by the ongoing "football game," such balances are extremely diffi- cult if not impossible to achieve because of the various perspec- tives from which folks view the challenge. Those that have used the area in relative privacy and freedom will naturally chafe at the idea of more users and regulations, while those that want to attract people to stimulate tourism don't fully appreciate the beauty and quiet of a preserve. The best solution may be found in the saying that "fences make good neighbors." In this case we need not settle on grey, since some areas might be white and others off- white as long as enough land is available to facil- itate such neighborli- ness. I suggest none but the most strident free- market zealots would rationalize the black of unimpeded develop- ment of this precious habitat. It seems nonetheless elusive to me that an accommoda- tion can be made to develop and attract tourist activity while at the same time protecting a pristine and lightly used area for use pri- marily by locals and wildlife. My recommendation is to keep the Bend largely as-is for use by the lease-holders and the limited number of local recreational users while concentrating tourist devel- opment projects closer to home at the Sacramento River Discovery Center and Red Bluff's River Park. The Discovery Center can tout its educational displays and exhibits, hands-on instructional programs, watershed rehabilitation opportu- nities and other means to enhance the public's understand- ing, appreciation, wise use, and stewardship of resources that make up the Sacramento River watershed. The tourism and business potential of the Sacramento River as it runs thru Red Bluff is immense, and vastly underutilized. Many ideas have been expressed that can improve access and use for a wide variety of applications consider- ing our long and sunny summers. Making accommodations for fresh food vendors, water sports enthusiasts, and out- door entertainment can stimulate universally desired activity in the vicinity of nearby hotels, restau- rants, and merchants without sig- nificantly changing the Sacramen- to River Bend area. To stimulate economic activity for local busi- nesses federal dollars are best focused attracting tourists to Red Bluff itself rather than our limited- access natural areas. Richard Mazzucchi can be reached at living-green@att.net. Richard Mazzucchi Positive Point STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 4164 P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento 94249; (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319- 2102 STATE SENATOR — Sam Aanestad (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 2054, Sacramen- to, CA 95814. (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), 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. Your officials