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!.

Show Me the Money

The new City Manager from Riverside County and his very new Finance Director from San Diego have told the citizens of Chico that we must cut $4.8 million from our budget or there will be dire consequences. They, the ultra conservative local daily and their friends on the City Council say we must use a majority of this year's discretionary money to pay back money borrowed from fluid and stable rainy day funds during the recession and State money grab. 

I ask myself, "what's the rush." The impact will be a disaster to the citizens of Chico if they do it: 19 less police, 10 fewer firemen, no park grounds crew, barely any lifeguards, longer waits for business applications. The list goes on and on. 

It sounds far more like radical conservative political ideology than the best thing for the citizens of Chico. We're not running out of money. The economy is improving, big stores are opening up and tax revenues are increasing. Chico State is getting more money. All of the funds are solvent and increasing. Pay back a little at a time and put more police on the street, more firemen in our neighborhoods, don't fire the tree crew in Bidwell Park, don't fire the Arts Coordinator.

It appears as though a so Cal notion of "austerity" (starve the people a bit) is taking precedent over a prudent and gradual solution to our recovery. I may be wrong. So, show us the figures of how it might work more gradually and why we have to suffer so that inert funds may be repaid.

These are the times that try (hu)man's souls...

This blog will be a voice, a progressive voice that puts we the people, all the people, first. It will be about Chico, CA and it will be about issues that connect us to the world that surrounds us. These are challenging times, even in our wonderful, livable city of Chico California. So it's time to make sense of things. To ask not only the "what" questions, but the "why" questions. And, then it's time to get together and do something about it.