Just Say No

Back in the Day, the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute and like minded radical conservative think tanks came up with a strategy to turn the minds of the American population. Forget the New Deal, Social Security, Disability Insurance, Medicare and the American infrastructure. They would make government the enemy. Former union leader Ronald Reagan became a standard bearer and blamed everything on big government. 

They would then defund city, state and federal governments, schools and health care until they no longer worked, say "government doesn't work," and then sell everything off to their sponsors in big business. This went hand-in-hand with the destruction of unions, specifically the public employee unions who supported the Democratic Party. 

The Post Office is a perfect example. First, Congress prohibited it from competing directly with private sector firms like Fed Ex and UPS in the lucrative package transport business. Then they mandated postal service funding pre-retiree benefits to the tune of $5.5 billion per year. Without that mandate, the Post Office would be in the black. A postal system that was once the envy of the industrialized world was fed a series of poison pills and is being left to die. In cities all across the nation, Post Office buildings are being sold off to developers. Are we getting better service than 25 years ago? Not by a long shot.

What has this got to do with Chico, California? For the past decade, quality of life has been our city government's highest priority and it has served our community well. The City Council has prioritized: building and buying from local businesses, maintaining a greenline and controlling development, leading the us toward more sustainability, promoting tourism and the creative cultures and strengthening the link between town and gown.

Now, after a deep recession and the terrible theft of tax revenue by the State, three new top administrators from a very conservative part of Southern California tell us that the solution to our problems is to "right size" city government. We'll have less public safety due to reduced police, fire and park ranger protection, our beautiful park will be closed a lot, our creative economy and the arts will manage themselves, and you'll wait longer to get business permits and plans to build. Why? Because we need to siphon tax revenues to pay back funds drawn down during the emergencies of the past four years. And, we need to do that now. Not with a prudent plan as our economy recovers. Now.

If you don't like the idea that "government can have a role in enhancing people's lives," and want to render it inoperable, make significant cuts and then find that the city can't do its job. Someone will suggest the privatization of city services and the selling off city resources. Voila! No more alleged "big government."

This is not efficiency; this is ideology that has been brought to our city from "back in the day."  The proposed June 18th budget is a radical restructuring of the Chico Way at a time when the economy is improving. It's unhealthy for Chico's people and for Chico's economy. Now is not the time for Chico to become just another struggling California city.

Call your City Counselors today and tell them to vote no on the June 18th "austerity solution." JUST SAY NO!.