Commentary
by Andy Caldwell
We were led to believe that the County of Santa
Barbara was going to spend one million
dollars of our limited, local discretionary monies to help some 500 kids who,
because they are in our country illegally, don’t qualify for other government
subsidized health care. Pardon me, but I was flabbergasted to learn that a
couple making over $100,000, and here illegally (did I already say that?),
could qualify their kids for the program if they had six dependents! In
other words, they could be making about twice what the average family makes and
still qualify! Maybe you should call your County Supervisor and see if
your family qualifies for the program, even if you are here legally- you might
get lucky! The Board of Sups is certainly in a giving mood!
Did you hear about the two
construction projects that the media reported are going to cost $10 million
total? By the time we finish paying off this loan, the real cost is going
to be in the neighborhood of $20 million. More than half of the money is
slated for an addition to, and some remodeling of, the Betteravia Government Center in Santa Maria. Among
other things, County staff has proposed that a new hearing room be built and
that offices for the First, Second and Third District Supervisors be built to
accommodate them when they come pay us a visit- typically, twice a month!
I do not believe any of the construction projects are as necessary as funding
the construction of a new North County jail. The
fact that we have been under court order to release prisoners before their
sentence is up for the past several years (ostensibly because we can’t afford
to do anything about it), juxtaposed with this $20 million pork project, is
proof positive that our county does not have its spending priorities in the
right order.
Believe it or not, the last time I
spoke to the Board of Sups, Supervisor Janet Wolf indicated she took umbrage at
my remarks! Umbrage means resentful displeasure. Well, the feeling is
mutual! Supervisor Wolf is a nice enough person and she is fairly smart,
but I can’t say the same about the people she relies on for information!
Supervisor Wolf sent her executive staff assistant to investigate the
circumstances surrounding the proposed annexation by the City of Santa Maria of some property
along Santa Maria Way and
Bradley. The property owners requested the annexation, and the City and
the County reached a deal on how to shift taxes if the annexation goes
through. Wolf was led to believe that mobile home park owners in the area
were going to suffer because of disparate rent control policies between the
jurisdictions. Her staffer failed to get her
facts right, apparently because she relied upon Debra Brasket
as her information source, but that is another story!
The fact is,
the mobile home park to be annexed consists of residents who own their
property- rent is not an issue. Perhaps Wolf should have directed her
inquiry to Supervisors Centeno and Gray- the
Supervisors of this area? That would have been a novel idea! The
insult to injury is that the annexation could have been avoided altogether and
the tax base, remain in the county if the Board of Supervisors would simply
revise their ridiculous water policy that artificially restricts growth
throughout the unincorporated county.
I suggested to Supervisor Wolf that
she has a big problem in her own district that warrants her full attention.
This has to do with the county’s efforts to save a beach that some of her core
constituents don’t want saved! Goleta Beach is eroding
into the ocean and some people are happy about it because they think it is best
to leave things to the course of Mother Nature. On the other hand, we have
already spent a million dollars and some folks would like to see us spend
another $20 million to save this same beach before all is said and done. I
think a determination needs to be made sooner, rather than later, if the
litigious political climate in the South County will even
allow a fix before we spend another dime on the project.
Andy Caldwell is the Executive Director
of COLAB and a 39 year resident of the Central Coast.
Contact information is available at the COLAB website at www.colabsbc.org
