Decrease our taxes and run a conservative government? Advertising and publicity - it elected Reagan and Arnold Snotslinger. With the right PR I bet we can make Steve Hilton into a folk hero!
I’m 100% AGAINST supporting a 50% naturalized , dual citizen who was raised, educated, acculturated in a foreign country to be Govenor of CA the world’s 5th,6th or whatever largest economy. I hope Republican voters wise up. No Party Preference voters need to halt Hilton.
People get adapted to the "same-old-stuff." Speaking of being adapted to stuff, I've been working on our 29-year-old Sub-Zero frig. One problem was a vibrating condenser fan that in turn vibrates and causes ticking noises to occur from the attached frig cosmetics used to blend the frig to the rest of the kitchen cabinets. From what I can tell, this noise has occurred for the lifetime of the frig. We moved into this house and after four years I decided to get the icemaker and door access of ice cubes and water all working again. In the process, I came across the condenser fan motor power wiring vibrating ... it appeared the fan blade assy. was unbalanced. Yes, the fan blade wasn't centered on the motor shaft. This is my example how humans simply get used to crap, just like a noisy refrigerator for decades. After I recentered the fan blade on the motor shaft, the frig is quiet as a mouse ... just the sound of a gentle breeze. Solution: Just fix it and the problem will go away.
I suspect there was heavy vote harvesting in Isla Vista/UCSB to pass the SBCC bond issue, since I heard very few were for it. Yet it passed with strong numbers. Good to see a precinct breakdown for that SBCC bond issue vote. But it appears the county elections office no longer makes this information readily available, like they have in the past .
When government is the largest employer in the city, how many government employee voters, along with their family members and friends, does it take to pass every and all tax increase or bond issue that comes down the pike?
We err when we fail to acknowledge we have created two classes of voters today: (1) those who directly and immediately benefit from any and all tax increases and bond measures as government employees (family members and friends) and (2) the rest of us who are stuck paying them.
This is a sheer numbers game we are facing. We created this self-serving government employee voting block, and I honestly do not know how we can ever get out from under it. Ignoring what we the people did to ourselves must be disabused first. We must run the numbers to determine the guaranteed yes votes already out there, and then beat the bushes rounding up every contrary voter we can find. And use industrial strength ear-plugs to drown out the wounded howls and threats of extortion if we do not pass more increased taxes and bond issues. .
This means walking precincts and getting a new message out - yes, you can fight city hall. Which is only round one. Next comes dealing with our own version of the deep state too - the self-important city staffers who can sabotage any election results locally, they same way we see this unelected administrative state sabotage elections at the national level.
Us against them is never a happy place for any community to find itself in. But the "them" as been against us to the point of financial exhaustion, so something must change. The recent SBCC bait and switch bond campaign now being lavished on a $100 million dollar (plus) gymnasium is but one example screaming in our faces.
CW: Stick around. We talk about this constantly. Pension protection has become job number one for our current one-party super majority state, county and city.
Private industry employees grumble about their own defined-contribution pensions, yet continue to happily protect full funding for government employee defined-benefit pensions. Discussed earlier are the sheer numbers of voters who keep passing new taxes and bond issues, are in fact often those very voters who will be directly benefiting from the passage of both.
Once a critical mass of directly self-interested voters has been reached, quite honestly all resistance to new taxes and bond issues is futile. It is existential for them to support any and all new taxation measures. This generates self-interested voter enthusiasm that is hard to match, by those who are only more incrementally impacted.
The same people who wanted State St. open for traffic, voted for more taxes. The same people who voted for a council that continues to waste tens of Millions of tax dollars to shut down the streets voted for more taxes.
The same people who drive to Goleta to shop at their open and thriving centers that have more the great access from the freeways, open 4 lane surface streets to allow them to get to the shops, vote for people who have squandered tax dollars to shut down the streets and take away needed parking for the retail shops.
So where is the rational planning that increased retail and vitality in Santa Barbara? It is gone because these same idiot voters who vote for high taxes, also vote for Sacramento high density buildings that will in the next few years crush what is left of Santa Barbara and open streets.
It would be interesting to see where the largest concentration of pro tax votes came from. How did this voting compare with Democrat more wealthy and over 50 crowd.
"Walther developed the first practical cast steel wheel for solid rubber tires. This was a basic but critical contribution to the evolution of the early trucking industry and the U.S. Army trucks in World War I"
Billed as guaranteeing maintenance of essential services, measure I was sold on lies. Amoung those lies are that fire stations would close, libraries would shutter, 911 service would end and Santa Barbara would be unable to retain local businesses and jobs. This is of course all bullshit. As Lou points out, by far the largest part of Santa Barbara's budget goes to salaries and pensions but it was not even mentioned. Did anyone really believe that essential services were at risk without a sales tax increase? Apparently yes, that or their paycheck comes from the city.
Extortion by our own elected representatives, that in fact panders to their own insider re-election horse trading, is reprehensible. When our elected representatives almost instantly get co-opted by the government employee unions they will soon bargain with, means all has been lost.
Can we even picture candidates with sufficient backbone to actually maintain an arm- length independence from the government employee unions after they have been elected? Or does labor peace so quickly become their new mantra and the path to their own re-election, that any prior campaign promises quickly become moot.
This is the real inside game getting played out, as soon as the polls close.
So if the ballot description of measure I explained that the city was having difficulty paying 300k firemen salaries or 500k payouts to librarians would it still have passed?
You get the drift, Jeff. Time to re-write all upcoming bond measures and tax increases. For the most part, all city money is essentially fungible. Therefore, manipulating the facts to create taxpayer extortion, instead of admitting upfront they already took the money for themselves, must end. It is our task to get that message out. How do we start?
How does the city stop the automatic personal funding escalators that are now built into their budgeting process, regardless of external economic realities? That is one good place to start - how do tax payers continue to lose money even when everything else is standing still?
Automatic COLA, step increases, longevity increments, mandatory pension funding increases, reclassifications ...........etc. These city expenses automatically go up, while revenues may stay flat or even decrease. Who then is forced to make up the difference? Diminished services and or increased taxes. While the city employees scamper away every time, made whole by their union-bargained contracts that take their "fair share" off the top.
As always, you clearly state so many of our current problems Lou. My greatest fear is that so many of us that were taught by our parents/teachers and others a strong distrust of government, will be dying out without passing on this important trait to the next generation. Unfortunately, the school system and absentee parenting, coupled with the Internet, seems to have taught subsequent generations to put their soul trust into government. i’m not sure how we get these people to read posts such as this on a regular basis to see the inherent dangers of blind trust in a government, but I think it’s very important to work as hard as we can to make sure they do. I hope all of you have instilled this VIRTUE into all of your children, and make sure they stay actively involved in local, state and national politics. I fear too many are distracted by technology, and are now currently living in their own little worlds that they hold in their hands. As those wonderfully talented nitwits once sang “teach your children well“
What would have happened if the city put funding their employee pensions on the ballot, instead of claiming we would be denied basic infrastructure repairs and maintenance if we did not pas this last tax increase.
Or SBCC did the same thing after they demonstrated no belt-tightening for their own personnel costs, but demanded district property owners fund their own long-standing SBCC infrastructure neglect?
If going for new taxes and bond issues were presented to voters as an admission of their own financial misfeasance putting their own personal financial needs ahead of the taxpayers, would they still pass?
We spent the money on ourselves and now we need you to make up for the rest of it, is essentially what they are telling us. Except the glossy campaign brochures state just the opposite. Why do we let them get away with this ......every single time?
What would happen if Opponents to bond & tax increases were allowed the same word count, rather than 50% less words to argue our opposition in The Official Ballot Guide?
What if, truth required rather than lies and lying by omission, mandated by CA State Legislature in The Official Ballot Guide?
Under Freedom of Speech the CA Sec of State has confirmed anything goes, no truth disclosures required in The Official Ballot Guide. Voter ignorance seems to be the goal of our government paid benefactors.
Stop trusting government officials and their mouthpieces.
Kamala Harris when she was AG was in charge of writing the short ballot language sysnopsis for voter-initiative measures. Which she tackled with great relish twice and re-wrote two voter initiated government employee pension reform initiatives ...using language to ensure they would fail. And both did.
After the pension reform organizers got more than enough signatures to put these well-needed pension reform measures on the statewide ballot. And tried to cure the language she used against the first ballot initiative.
But she did it to them again, and they actually gave up fighting for its passage after seeing how she worded the short ballot language knowing that would be what most voters would read without digging deeper into the full issue.
Basically what she wrote was : Do you support the unconstitutional taking of benefits from widows and orphans?
How different California finances would have been had they not been sabotaged by AG Kamala Harris. SEIU and the teachers unions owe Kamala Harris big time for that very calculated, anti-pension reform, sleight of hand.
I read this article by Lou Segal titled "Foolish Santa Barbara Taxpayers"
and I quote from same >
"I would like to blame the politicians, including everyone on the city council and the mayor (who should know better) for pandering to overpaid and self-serving city workers and their corrupt labor unions at the expense of the people they are supposed to serve."
Has anyone done FOI Act request against the County and City for What Is Really Going Down
in this Lil Ole Beach Den of Thieves Town. Think CORRUPT BOSS TWEED of TAMMY HALL.
PS1 - "Boss Tweed is chiefly remembered for the cronyism of his Tammany Hall political machine, through which he bilked the city of New York of massive sums of money."
SOUND FAMILIAR IT SHOULD WELCOME TO SANTA BARBARA ..............
The Voter majority likes paying high taxes and then complaining they have no money to pay rent.
Then they blame landlords, not government.
They like seeing homeless people left out in the cold foraging for food and drugs while they applaud spending $24 Billion ($2,000/tax payer) to support people who broke our laws seeking a better paying job than in their home country.
They defend people who choose to break the law from illegal aliens to Democrat rioters.
They applaud those who stand for terrorist organizations and do not condemn violence here or abroad.
They like having the worst academic schools in the country.
The Democrat tax payer enjoys this world of poverty and high taxes and poor education.
It allows them to claim the noble status of “victim”
They’ve made it clear.
They will only vote for who ever they are instructed to.
Accurate and extremely well articulated. What a sorry state of affairs. Inexplicably, voters vote for these ridiculous proposals. If we want different results we need to elect different people with common sense values who can offer common sense solutions.
HJB: This is a company town. it is foolish to think all those currently working for the government in any form, or benefiting from government funded benefit plans, will not vote their own self-interests.
Those are the facts. Now what do we do? They vote, but our dismal turn-out numbers demonstrate many who are not directly benefiting from those very same higher taxes and bond issues, do not. That is our challenge.
People who choose to not vote also enjoy paying high taxes and watching the humanitarian crisis of homeless Americans foraging through trash for food and giving $25 Billion/year to illegal aliens who choose to break our laws to seek a better paying job.
And guess what, they’re going to build them housing too.
By not voting they agree to everything the Democrat run government is doing.
If you are upset by these events you have two choices; leave CA or start waking your friends, family and neighbors up. Be persistent with your lazy, defeated friends who choose to not to full out the ballot sitting on their kitchen counter.
One correction: In California, personal care services like haircuts, manicures, and tattoos are generally not subject to sales tax, as they are considered nontaxable services. Sales tax in California primarily applies to the sale of tangible personal property (physical items like products or goods).
I am thankful that I do not have to calculate and pay a percentage of my service wage income back out as a sales tax, to support the ones the Brits would call WOGs, Wards of the Government. Meaning the ineffectual employees and the n'er-do-wells combined. Every time I drive by a "We Stand With Teachers" sign I cringe, knowing how abysmally the school system is doing, indoctrinating while ignoring the essentials of learning.
The juggernaut advances as individual debt soars.
The American spirit of can-do individualism is crushed beneath the weight of supporting the System that serves itself.
George Bernard Shaw wrote:
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
So it goes.
"We the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing."
Pat, it's complicated when it comes to personal services like haircuts. The barber or hair stylist must pay sales tax for the purchase of the shampoo/conditioner or coloring agent used in the course of the haircut. Although they do not charge you separately for the sales tax, they will have to recoup the sales tax charge in the price of the haircut.
"They will have to recoup the sales tax [and tariff] charge in the price of the haircut." The same is true of automobiles, shoes, clothing, etc. Tariffs are a form of taxation, which only Congress can impose (it's in the Constitution); not an authoritarian wannabe dictator by executive fiat. BTW, the price of your "Made in China" MAGA hat will also go up.
Mr. Segal, you posit that "It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that a majority of voters (who you term "fools") wanted to increase the cost of almost everything they buy... (by approving the local sales tax increase)...."
Fair enough. But if you expand your Santa Barbara based "micro" rhetorical question to the national "macro" you might understand why so many of us ("libtards") are gobsmacked as to why so many of you (MAGAs) voted for Trump, who is, by act of his tariffs, similarly increasing the cost of almost everything they buy.
Did you not see these cost-of-living increases coming despite the forecasts of all those Nobel laureate economists? Or are you cleverly suggesting that the preponderance of 2024 voters are, likewise, "fools"? If so, I would concur!
RJ: Tariffs are not taxes. That is just narrowly focused partisan clap trap. All prior tariffs needed realignment and we support these current bold measures taken now that readjusts the postWWII global trading model. You have control over your own willingness to "tax" yourself. While you ignore where costs of many items have already gone down. Plus you probably don't even need the cheap foreign crap that you think you need.
Hang on, of course this will be a rocky path because this has been put off for too long and increasing public debt to support a fake economy must end at some point. Time is now. So cut the Trump/Maga slurs for the few pennies you demand to save now. No one wants to go back to the Biden/Democrat mess so get on board.
JL, Tariffs are not a tax? Conservatives such as Ted Cruz, Rand Paul along with respected investor, Warren Buffet, appear to disagree with your “focused partisan claptrap” claim.
PS: it is a "tax" but only if you choose to buy a high-tariff item. Universal taxation is more mandatory since it is applied across the board no matter what we choose to purchase. But tariffs are not taxes, per se. They are discretionary and voluntary choices ultimately made by the consumer who has other options. Buy America,. chose low tariff made goods. And balance those discretionary consumer spendings, with saving you are now reaping in other purchases.
JL, Sounds like your’e in conflict with the following;
Free Markets:
Conservatives generally support free markets and free trade, believing that they lead to innovation and economic growth.
Limited Government:
A core tenet of conservatism is the belief that government should have limited powers and should not interfere unduly in the lives of individuals or the economy.
No conflict Peter. Limited government, free and competitive markets, rule of law, and protection of private property - we can all find a good path way between these fundamentals that works best for our own age and circumstances.
PS: For your reading pleasure, another perspective on "tariffs" and the economy. You can call this Kool-aid; we can continue to call it cooler heads are prevailing:
Call tariffs whatever you want. Tariffs will raise the cost of many of the products we buy. This is not a bold move, it’s the action of a bully pulling percentages out of his butt. As for the rocky path, you can bet trump and his cronies won’t be traveling that path. Remember, “watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves”.
I for one would rather go back to the Biden/Democratic mess, than to be in this present unpredictable corrupt chaotic shambles.
trump is trying to distract us with his tariffs and deportations, away from his corrupt businesses. The biggest one is his crypto business, the Mrs., Jr and Eric also happen to have their own crypto business. Supposedly it’s being run by his two sons as presidents are not supposed to have their own business while in office. I guess trump forgot about that. After his inauguration, what a surprise, he issued an executive order that upped the price of crypto. He made over $3 million in one day, he even made the announcement while giving a speech. And let’s not forget another executive order established a cryptocurrency reserve, again, who benefits from that the rich, of course
RJ: Tariffs are not a tax. No need to pay for cost of any tariff; avoid buying imported goods with an added tariff. Too many major US corporations are enablers. China pirateers, has been allowed to abuse its citizen workers while contributing to the destruction of our private sector working and middle classes. Some US companies have been forced out by over regulation from environmentalists, government and/or tax policies. Some countries have become tax avoidance destinations for our former major employers.
Some of us agree with and voted for “The Master Plan”. We accept tariffs hoping to bring back business and job creation to our country. Moreover, we’re tired of being taken advantage of by too many foreign countries, while ours is heavily indebted, our infrastructure crumbling, our poor demographic increasing (70% poverty in SB County), while we’re being increasingly burdened by enriching their foreign countries.
So far the Administration’s tariff plan appears to be working in our favor. Negotiations take time.
(Lisa, NB: there is an edit button for one's posts - look for the three little grey dots on the upper right hand side of the post and you get to go back and edit it. Thank goodness I say, as I freely take advantage of this feature myself.)
There you go again putting your Johnson in your mouth. Tariffs are a tool which will ultimately bring us more equitable trade deals. I am gobsmacked, utterly gobsmacked by your vocabulary.
Yes, voters are foolish, BUT are limited to candidates that serve the same machine. Are taxpayers funding the destruction of Santa Barbara? Are taxpayers funding the destruction of America? (See DOGE findings re USAID). Unfortunately, it’s been going on for far too long at the federal, state, and local levels.
Who controls [wields significant influence] re: the 'Clinton' [D] party?
Who paid _Hussein's Harvard Law Degree? Who financed _Hussein's political life? Who is Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal? Why are Hussein's school records under seal?
Competing factions [each with a horse in the race] seeking direct WH control [+USMIL][+Trillions _overseas transfer of US TAXPAYER funds]? All working together [coordinated][infiltration not invasion][Valerie Jarrett, and Huma Abedin] What happens to US TAXPAYER funds transferred overseas under guise of AID, MIL, CLIMATE, etc.?
Were US TAXPAYERS funding the destruction of America?
You don’t understand using the term racist. His name is Barack Hussein Obama, aka Barry Sotoro…using someone’s name is not racist…like I said, I remember you, the lady who gets off on casting dispersions…
his name was Barry Soetoro in his early years, for legal use aka Barack Obama, Barry Durham, Barack Durham, Barack Hussein Obama…third generation CIA…by any name, he’s a traitor to Our Country…
Lou- I agree 100%! It is simply astounding how moronic the populace is in this city, county and state.
Mike: Any suggestions how to get “moronic” tax and spend voters to vote to decrease our invasive, costly state, county and local governments?
Decrease our taxes and run a conservative government? Advertising and publicity - it elected Reagan and Arnold Snotslinger. With the right PR I bet we can make Steve Hilton into a folk hero!
I’m 100% AGAINST supporting a 50% naturalized , dual citizen who was raised, educated, acculturated in a foreign country to be Govenor of CA the world’s 5th,6th or whatever largest economy. I hope Republican voters wise up. No Party Preference voters need to halt Hilton.
No Mike THE WORD is not "MORONIC" it is CORRUPT and they all know it.
People get adapted to the "same-old-stuff." Speaking of being adapted to stuff, I've been working on our 29-year-old Sub-Zero frig. One problem was a vibrating condenser fan that in turn vibrates and causes ticking noises to occur from the attached frig cosmetics used to blend the frig to the rest of the kitchen cabinets. From what I can tell, this noise has occurred for the lifetime of the frig. We moved into this house and after four years I decided to get the icemaker and door access of ice cubes and water all working again. In the process, I came across the condenser fan motor power wiring vibrating ... it appeared the fan blade assy. was unbalanced. Yes, the fan blade wasn't centered on the motor shaft. This is my example how humans simply get used to crap, just like a noisy refrigerator for decades. After I recentered the fan blade on the motor shaft, the frig is quiet as a mouse ... just the sound of a gentle breeze. Solution: Just fix it and the problem will go away.
Come on.. it’s fraud, cheating or dominion
How many people in this group voted for More taxes?
It took them 1 month to count the presidential votes in California
They rig everything
I suspect there was heavy vote harvesting in Isla Vista/UCSB to pass the SBCC bond issue, since I heard very few were for it. Yet it passed with strong numbers. Good to see a precinct breakdown for that SBCC bond issue vote. But it appears the county elections office no longer makes this information readily available, like they have in the past .
Hello JENN ..... Oh you are EXACTLY over the NAZI BOMBING TARGET
"They rig everything"
Like our Old B-27's Bombing the NAZIs during WWII weblink below>
https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/aircraft/42-29807
When government is the largest employer in the city, how many government employee voters, along with their family members and friends, does it take to pass every and all tax increase or bond issue that comes down the pike?
We err when we fail to acknowledge we have created two classes of voters today: (1) those who directly and immediately benefit from any and all tax increases and bond measures as government employees (family members and friends) and (2) the rest of us who are stuck paying them.
This is a sheer numbers game we are facing. We created this self-serving government employee voting block, and I honestly do not know how we can ever get out from under it. Ignoring what we the people did to ourselves must be disabused first. We must run the numbers to determine the guaranteed yes votes already out there, and then beat the bushes rounding up every contrary voter we can find. And use industrial strength ear-plugs to drown out the wounded howls and threats of extortion if we do not pass more increased taxes and bond issues. .
This means walking precincts and getting a new message out - yes, you can fight city hall. Which is only round one. Next comes dealing with our own version of the deep state too - the self-important city staffers who can sabotage any election results locally, they same way we see this unelected administrative state sabotage elections at the national level.
Us against them is never a happy place for any community to find itself in. But the "them" as been against us to the point of financial exhaustion, so something must change. The recent SBCC bait and switch bond campaign now being lavished on a $100 million dollar (plus) gymnasium is but one example screaming in our faces.
I continue to marvel at the fact that city, county, and state pensions are rarely discussed as out-of-control costs compared to private industry.
CW: Stick around. We talk about this constantly. Pension protection has become job number one for our current one-party super majority state, county and city.
Private industry employees grumble about their own defined-contribution pensions, yet continue to happily protect full funding for government employee defined-benefit pensions. Discussed earlier are the sheer numbers of voters who keep passing new taxes and bond issues, are in fact often those very voters who will be directly benefiting from the passage of both.
Once a critical mass of directly self-interested voters has been reached, quite honestly all resistance to new taxes and bond issues is futile. It is existential for them to support any and all new taxation measures. This generates self-interested voter enthusiasm that is hard to match, by those who are only more incrementally impacted.
Chuck White it is way beyound "rarely discussed" to criminal activity
minimally Honest Service Fraud and should be RICO RACKETEERING.
You are rigth about ONE THING OUT OF CONTROL SANTA BARBARA
has become in fact CORRUPT TAMMY HALL see my post above...........
How about them apples.
The same people who wanted State St. open for traffic, voted for more taxes. The same people who voted for a council that continues to waste tens of Millions of tax dollars to shut down the streets voted for more taxes.
The same people who drive to Goleta to shop at their open and thriving centers that have more the great access from the freeways, open 4 lane surface streets to allow them to get to the shops, vote for people who have squandered tax dollars to shut down the streets and take away needed parking for the retail shops.
So where is the rational planning that increased retail and vitality in Santa Barbara? It is gone because these same idiot voters who vote for high taxes, also vote for Sacramento high density buildings that will in the next few years crush what is left of Santa Barbara and open streets.
Now how do we clone more Mr. Segal's for votes?
CarsAreBasic you may not be totally acurrate that DA PEOPLE VOTED FOR ALL THIS
CORRUPTION. Me Thinks the Votes On Passing HUGE LOCAL TAX INCREASE MAYBE
SUSPECT. Whada Think?
The votes had to come from some where.
It would be interesting to see where the largest concentration of pro tax votes came from. How did this voting compare with Democrat more wealthy and over 50 crowd.
TrucksAreBasic, to CarsAreBasic you miss the entire Corrupt Point
Those VOTES maybe manufactured a common scheme of vote-rigging
in Democratic Countries. Oh I come from a Trucking Family>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Walther_Sr.
"Walther developed the first practical cast steel wheel for solid rubber tires. This was a basic but critical contribution to the evolution of the early trucking industry and the U.S. Army trucks in World War I"
Billed as guaranteeing maintenance of essential services, measure I was sold on lies. Amoung those lies are that fire stations would close, libraries would shutter, 911 service would end and Santa Barbara would be unable to retain local businesses and jobs. This is of course all bullshit. As Lou points out, by far the largest part of Santa Barbara's budget goes to salaries and pensions but it was not even mentioned. Did anyone really believe that essential services were at risk without a sales tax increase? Apparently yes, that or their paycheck comes from the city.
Extortion by our own elected representatives, that in fact panders to their own insider re-election horse trading, is reprehensible. When our elected representatives almost instantly get co-opted by the government employee unions they will soon bargain with, means all has been lost.
Can we even picture candidates with sufficient backbone to actually maintain an arm- length independence from the government employee unions after they have been elected? Or does labor peace so quickly become their new mantra and the path to their own re-election, that any prior campaign promises quickly become moot.
This is the real inside game getting played out, as soon as the polls close.
So if the ballot description of measure I explained that the city was having difficulty paying 300k firemen salaries or 500k payouts to librarians would it still have passed?
You get the drift, Jeff. Time to re-write all upcoming bond measures and tax increases. For the most part, all city money is essentially fungible. Therefore, manipulating the facts to create taxpayer extortion, instead of admitting upfront they already took the money for themselves, must end. It is our task to get that message out. How do we start?
How does the city stop the automatic personal funding escalators that are now built into their budgeting process, regardless of external economic realities? That is one good place to start - how do tax payers continue to lose money even when everything else is standing still?
Automatic COLA, step increases, longevity increments, mandatory pension funding increases, reclassifications ...........etc. These city expenses automatically go up, while revenues may stay flat or even decrease. Who then is forced to make up the difference? Diminished services and or increased taxes. While the city employees scamper away every time, made whole by their union-bargained contracts that take their "fair share" off the top.
JL - love your little nuggets - 'Stick around', 'You get the drift.'
Lou,, I think your article speaks for a good portion of us. If what you write about were only an April Fool's joke and not a reality!
As always, you clearly state so many of our current problems Lou. My greatest fear is that so many of us that were taught by our parents/teachers and others a strong distrust of government, will be dying out without passing on this important trait to the next generation. Unfortunately, the school system and absentee parenting, coupled with the Internet, seems to have taught subsequent generations to put their soul trust into government. i’m not sure how we get these people to read posts such as this on a regular basis to see the inherent dangers of blind trust in a government, but I think it’s very important to work as hard as we can to make sure they do. I hope all of you have instilled this VIRTUE into all of your children, and make sure they stay actively involved in local, state and national politics. I fear too many are distracted by technology, and are now currently living in their own little worlds that they hold in their hands. As those wonderfully talented nitwits once sang “teach your children well“
What would have happened if the city put funding their employee pensions on the ballot, instead of claiming we would be denied basic infrastructure repairs and maintenance if we did not pas this last tax increase.
Or SBCC did the same thing after they demonstrated no belt-tightening for their own personnel costs, but demanded district property owners fund their own long-standing SBCC infrastructure neglect?
If going for new taxes and bond issues were presented to voters as an admission of their own financial misfeasance putting their own personal financial needs ahead of the taxpayers, would they still pass?
We spent the money on ourselves and now we need you to make up for the rest of it, is essentially what they are telling us. Except the glossy campaign brochures state just the opposite. Why do we let them get away with this ......every single time?
What would happen if Opponents to bond & tax increases were allowed the same word count, rather than 50% less words to argue our opposition in The Official Ballot Guide?
What if, truth required rather than lies and lying by omission, mandated by CA State Legislature in The Official Ballot Guide?
Under Freedom of Speech the CA Sec of State has confirmed anything goes, no truth disclosures required in The Official Ballot Guide. Voter ignorance seems to be the goal of our government paid benefactors.
Stop trusting government officials and their mouthpieces.
Kamala Harris when she was AG was in charge of writing the short ballot language sysnopsis for voter-initiative measures. Which she tackled with great relish twice and re-wrote two voter initiated government employee pension reform initiatives ...using language to ensure they would fail. And both did.
After the pension reform organizers got more than enough signatures to put these well-needed pension reform measures on the statewide ballot. And tried to cure the language she used against the first ballot initiative.
But she did it to them again, and they actually gave up fighting for its passage after seeing how she worded the short ballot language knowing that would be what most voters would read without digging deeper into the full issue.
Basically what she wrote was : Do you support the unconstitutional taking of benefits from widows and orphans?
How different California finances would have been had they not been sabotaged by AG Kamala Harris. SEIU and the teachers unions owe Kamala Harris big time for that very calculated, anti-pension reform, sleight of hand.
I read this article by Lou Segal titled "Foolish Santa Barbara Taxpayers"
and I quote from same >
"I would like to blame the politicians, including everyone on the city council and the mayor (who should know better) for pandering to overpaid and self-serving city workers and their corrupt labor unions at the expense of the people they are supposed to serve."
Has anyone done FOI Act request against the County and City for What Is Really Going Down
in this Lil Ole Beach Den of Thieves Town. Think CORRUPT BOSS TWEED of TAMMY HALL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall
Any "Honest Service Fraud" Cases or worse filed against SB County or the City???
Just How Many Other Lawsuits are Filed Against the County or City??????
Come on Folks be like JUDICIAL WATCH GET FILING YOUR FOI REQUESTS
https://x.com/TomFitton/status/1918656004503253385 (Obstruction of Justice In SB???)
Howard Walther, Member of a Military Family.
PS1 - "Boss Tweed is chiefly remembered for the cronyism of his Tammany Hall political machine, through which he bilked the city of New York of massive sums of money."
SOUND FAMILIAR IT SHOULD WELCOME TO SANTA BARBARA ..............
The Voter majority likes paying high taxes and then complaining they have no money to pay rent.
Then they blame landlords, not government.
They like seeing homeless people left out in the cold foraging for food and drugs while they applaud spending $24 Billion ($2,000/tax payer) to support people who broke our laws seeking a better paying job than in their home country.
They defend people who choose to break the law from illegal aliens to Democrat rioters.
They applaud those who stand for terrorist organizations and do not condemn violence here or abroad.
They like having the worst academic schools in the country.
The Democrat tax payer enjoys this world of poverty and high taxes and poor education.
It allows them to claim the noble status of “victim”
They’ve made it clear.
They will only vote for who ever they are instructed to.
Despite seeing and acknowledging these truths.
Accurate and extremely well articulated. What a sorry state of affairs. Inexplicably, voters vote for these ridiculous proposals. If we want different results we need to elect different people with common sense values who can offer common sense solutions.
HJB: This is a company town. it is foolish to think all those currently working for the government in any form, or benefiting from government funded benefit plans, will not vote their own self-interests.
Those are the facts. Now what do we do? They vote, but our dismal turn-out numbers demonstrate many who are not directly benefiting from those very same higher taxes and bond issues, do not. That is our challenge.
People who choose to not vote also enjoy paying high taxes and watching the humanitarian crisis of homeless Americans foraging through trash for food and giving $25 Billion/year to illegal aliens who choose to break our laws to seek a better paying job.
And guess what, they’re going to build them housing too.
By not voting they agree to everything the Democrat run government is doing.
If you are upset by these events you have two choices; leave CA or start waking your friends, family and neighbors up. Be persistent with your lazy, defeated friends who choose to not to full out the ballot sitting on their kitchen counter.
One correction: In California, personal care services like haircuts, manicures, and tattoos are generally not subject to sales tax, as they are considered nontaxable services. Sales tax in California primarily applies to the sale of tangible personal property (physical items like products or goods).
I am thankful that I do not have to calculate and pay a percentage of my service wage income back out as a sales tax, to support the ones the Brits would call WOGs, Wards of the Government. Meaning the ineffectual employees and the n'er-do-wells combined. Every time I drive by a "We Stand With Teachers" sign I cringe, knowing how abysmally the school system is doing, indoctrinating while ignoring the essentials of learning.
The juggernaut advances as individual debt soars.
The American spirit of can-do individualism is crushed beneath the weight of supporting the System that serves itself.
George Bernard Shaw wrote:
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
So it goes.
"We the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing."
Pat, you almost make me want to get a really cool Celtic design tattoo that says "I love Pat Fish". (!!!)
In the past, Sacto was talking about taxing services too - like attorneys fees, so never sleep, never rest.
I loved every single word spoken here. Perfect summation of my thoughts.
@Pat Fish but also everyone else. Thank you.
Pat, it's complicated when it comes to personal services like haircuts. The barber or hair stylist must pay sales tax for the purchase of the shampoo/conditioner or coloring agent used in the course of the haircut. Although they do not charge you separately for the sales tax, they will have to recoup the sales tax charge in the price of the haircut.
"They will have to recoup the sales tax [and tariff] charge in the price of the haircut." The same is true of automobiles, shoes, clothing, etc. Tariffs are a form of taxation, which only Congress can impose (it's in the Constitution); not an authoritarian wannabe dictator by executive fiat. BTW, the price of your "Made in China" MAGA hat will also go up.
Mr. Segal, you posit that "It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that a majority of voters (who you term "fools") wanted to increase the cost of almost everything they buy... (by approving the local sales tax increase)...."
Fair enough. But if you expand your Santa Barbara based "micro" rhetorical question to the national "macro" you might understand why so many of us ("libtards") are gobsmacked as to why so many of you (MAGAs) voted for Trump, who is, by act of his tariffs, similarly increasing the cost of almost everything they buy.
Did you not see these cost-of-living increases coming despite the forecasts of all those Nobel laureate economists? Or are you cleverly suggesting that the preponderance of 2024 voters are, likewise, "fools"? If so, I would concur!
RJ: Tariffs are not taxes. That is just narrowly focused partisan clap trap. All prior tariffs needed realignment and we support these current bold measures taken now that readjusts the postWWII global trading model. You have control over your own willingness to "tax" yourself. While you ignore where costs of many items have already gone down. Plus you probably don't even need the cheap foreign crap that you think you need.
Hang on, of course this will be a rocky path because this has been put off for too long and increasing public debt to support a fake economy must end at some point. Time is now. So cut the Trump/Maga slurs for the few pennies you demand to save now. No one wants to go back to the Biden/Democrat mess so get on board.
JL, Tariffs are not a tax? Conservatives such as Ted Cruz, Rand Paul along with respected investor, Warren Buffet, appear to disagree with your “focused partisan claptrap” claim.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/republicans-and-a-conservative-think-tank-sound-the-alarm-over-trumps-tariffs-203200197.html
PS: it is a "tax" but only if you choose to buy a high-tariff item. Universal taxation is more mandatory since it is applied across the board no matter what we choose to purchase. But tariffs are not taxes, per se. They are discretionary and voluntary choices ultimately made by the consumer who has other options. Buy America,. chose low tariff made goods. And balance those discretionary consumer spendings, with saving you are now reaping in other purchases.
JL, Sounds like your’e in conflict with the following;
Free Markets:
Conservatives generally support free markets and free trade, believing that they lead to innovation and economic growth.
Limited Government:
A core tenet of conservatism is the belief that government should have limited powers and should not interfere unduly in the lives of individuals or the economy.
No conflict Peter. Limited government, free and competitive markets, rule of law, and protection of private property - we can all find a good path way between these fundamentals that works best for our own age and circumstances.
PS: For your reading pleasure, another perspective on "tariffs" and the economy. You can call this Kool-aid; we can continue to call it cooler heads are prevailing:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/05/05/of-course-the-media-is-running-away-from-this-failed-narrative-was-blew-up-in-their-faces-n2656543
Call tariffs whatever you want. Tariffs will raise the cost of many of the products we buy. This is not a bold move, it’s the action of a bully pulling percentages out of his butt. As for the rocky path, you can bet trump and his cronies won’t be traveling that path. Remember, “watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves”.
I for one would rather go back to the Biden/Democratic mess, than to be in this present unpredictable corrupt chaotic shambles.
trump is trying to distract us with his tariffs and deportations, away from his corrupt businesses. The biggest one is his crypto business, the Mrs., Jr and Eric also happen to have their own crypto business. Supposedly it’s being run by his two sons as presidents are not supposed to have their own business while in office. I guess trump forgot about that. After his inauguration, what a surprise, he issued an executive order that upped the price of crypto. He made over $3 million in one day, he even made the announcement while giving a speech. And let’s not forget another executive order established a cryptocurrency reserve, again, who benefits from that the rich, of course
RJ: Tariffs are not a tax. No need to pay for cost of any tariff; avoid buying imported goods with an added tariff. Too many major US corporations are enablers. China pirateers, has been allowed to abuse its citizen workers while contributing to the destruction of our private sector working and middle classes. Some US companies have been forced out by over regulation from environmentalists, government and/or tax policies. Some countries have become tax avoidance destinations for our former major employers.
Some of us agree with and voted for “The Master Plan”. We accept tariffs hoping to bring back business and job creation to our country. Moreover, we’re tired of being taken advantage of by too many foreign countries, while ours is heavily indebted, our infrastructure crumbling, our poor demographic increasing (70% poverty in SB County), while we’re being increasingly burdened by enriching their foreign countries.
So far the Administration’s tariff plan appears to be working in our favor. Negotiations take time.
You just lost the argument at ‘Nobel Laureate’ but anyway, I digress. You’re being presumptuous-
not everyone you disagree with vote for Trump. Should I assume you wrote in Bernie Sanders?
*voted
(Lisa, NB: there is an edit button for one's posts - look for the three little grey dots on the upper right hand side of the post and you get to go back and edit it. Thank goodness I say, as I freely take advantage of this feature myself.)
ok. Got it. Thx
I was just going to suggest that - I use it a lot!
There you go again putting your Johnson in your mouth. Tariffs are a tool which will ultimately bring us more equitable trade deals. I am gobsmacked, utterly gobsmacked by your vocabulary.
Yes, voters are foolish, BUT are limited to candidates that serve the same machine. Are taxpayers funding the destruction of Santa Barbara? Are taxpayers funding the destruction of America? (See DOGE findings re USAID). Unfortunately, it’s been going on for far too long at the federal, state, and local levels.
Who controls [wields significant influence] re: the 'Clinton' [D] party?
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/22919
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/24651
Who controlled [wields significant influence] re: the 'Hussein' [D] party?
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/30480
Different factions of foreign control?
Who paid _Hussein's Harvard Law Degree? Who financed _Hussein's political life? Who is Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal? Why are Hussein's school records under seal?
Competing factions [each with a horse in the race] seeking direct WH control [+USMIL][+Trillions _overseas transfer of US TAXPAYER funds]? All working together [coordinated][infiltration not invasion][Valerie Jarrett, and Huma Abedin] What happens to US TAXPAYER funds transferred overseas under guise of AID, MIL, CLIMATE, etc.?
Were US TAXPAYERS funding the destruction of America?
Nice DLDawson Dig Deep for Sheep Dip!
You don’t understand using the term racist. His name is Barack Hussein Obama, aka Barry Sotoro…using someone’s name is not racist…like I said, I remember you, the lady who gets off on casting dispersions…
Legally yes, aka Barry Sotoro…
https://www.fec.gov/resources/legal-resources/litigation/berg_complaint.pdf
his name was Barry Soetoro in his early years, for legal use aka Barack Obama, Barry Durham, Barack Durham, Barack Hussein Obama…third generation CIA…by any name, he’s a traitor to Our Country…
https://rumble.com/v5nbkv5-candace-owens-drops-major-revelationobama-stepdad-was-cia-op-per-judge-joe-.html
https://rumble.com/v41c0mg-obamas-fake-birth-certificate-exposed-is-going-viral.-judge-joe-brown-has-m.html
I remember you…everyone who criticizes non-whites are racists?
You also called me antisemitic for criticizing George Soros…had enough of your slanders…get some counseling
More conjecture/slander…shows you love to hate others…are you reading Tarot cards?
I would venture to guess you hate all people who ARE white.
There, you said it Julia…haters got to hate