People Get Ready

I’ve chosen this title from Curtis Mayfield’s 1965 gospel style hit song because we need to get ready for an attack on what I consider the soul of our beloved Amador County. The already painfully apparent and still ongoing storm damage to our roads is a perverted blessing for those wanting to raise the sales tax. I have discussed how this is the Caltrans corruption tax at length in my Ledger article “Roads, Buses and Bikes”. Anyone can probably read on the internet the bipartisan reports from the State Auditor and the Legislature Analyst’s Office along with Caltrans' testimony before the state legislature to verify my conclusions. Based upon my involvement with local transit the increased sales tax people are working behind the scenes. Sometime this year and most likely as the spring budget deliberations begin, a road show of manipulative public meetings may begin. Will the present Board of Supervisors and the Amador County Transportation Commission vote to support a “self help” tax? Will a public vote turn into class warfare between the more affluent (and recently arrived), and those of us who simply can’t afford it?

The compromise and/or sell out study for the Wild & Scenic designation for part of the Mokelumne River will probably be finished during the tenure of the present BOS.  Will selfishness rule the day and prevent future generations from freely making their necessary decisions about local resources?  Or are those behind these two schemes waiting until they can try to unseat Brian Oneto in two years? Could we have a rubber stamp board that could lock us into higher taxes and diminished resource freedom for decades to come?

Another straightjacket, although of a possible shorter duration, is Amador County rejoining insidious ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability). Our prior BOS cancelled our membership. But I would be shocked if certain forces in and around our county weren’t plotting to reinstate our membership in and assumed agreement with ICLEI. This would mean subservience to their restrictive globalist land use designs.

“People Get Ready, There’s A Train A Coming.” But this one is going in the opposite direction of Curtis Mayfield’s train.

Copyright 2017, Mark L. Bennett