Killing Jobs and Loving It
by Andy Caldwell
South County politicians claim tourism is our most important industry, even though it pays mostly minimum wage. They like tourism because it generates sales taxes and transient occupancy taxes. Moreover, they claim that the oil industry hurts the tourist industry.
Our county sups have finally helped put the oil industry on hospice by way of regulatory fiats and prohibitions while foolishly attempting to replace the revenue of the same with proceeds from the marijuana industry. But in their greed, they helped to collapse the marijuana market by permitting too many acres of pot (enough to satisfy the demands of the entire state of California), thereby creating an economic pot bust.
As a result, bureaucrats who make their living off the oil industry by way of fees and red tape are finding themselves threatened with unemployment.
What to do?
Find another cash cow and quick. So, where did they find this new cash cow?
Not from manufacturing and industry, that is for sure. These sectors do not have the deep pockets or the thick skin to withstand the regulatory onslaught as does oil. These once mighty sectors that paid the highest wages in the county (except for the oil industry) fled years ago when the county’s air pollution district grew by nearly 2,500% in just ten years between 1982 and 1992 from a $503,000 budget to some $12,700,000. I know; I was there, working during that time for Sinton and Brown and Union Sugar. The Air Pollution Control District (APCD) helped put more than a dozen businesses out of business even though we don’t have an air pollution problem in our county.
The new cash cow?
Agriculture!
Namely, for starters, the winery industry. As it so happens, to make wine you must ferment the grapes. It has been that way since the beginning of time. Yet, for the first time in recorded history, fermenting grapes is now considered a threat to the very existence of planet earth by way of greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, our local APCD, tag teaming with the county’s planning and development department, has made it near impossible for this industry to thrive and grow.
Beside the concerns for the effects of the fermentation process, there has also been an attack on wineries by ranchette vigilantes seeking to limit the ability of wineries to market their wine and their properties via special events such as weddings. Whereas the county is in the process of trying to expand some uses of rural properties by way of the Ag Enterprise Ordinance, I believe it will all prove to be too little, too late.
All this explains why one of the most prestigious and the largest wine production facility in the county is pulling up stakes and heading to another California county that actually wants job creators to flourish. The Miller family is a legacy family here on the Central Coast. They own one of the top vineyards in the world. They have emphatically stated that they are leaving because Santa Barbara County has the most stringent regulations in the state, if not in the nation, as it pertains to their ability to make wine and grow their business.
That means we are going to lose another slew of jobs in both the ag and tourist sectors because wineries bring in the majority of tourists to our area. Meanwhile, 60% of the grapes grown in our county must be shipped elsewhere to be made into wine, meaning production jobs and the fermentation are simply being transferred elsewhere to our economic detriment sans any environmental benefit.
Beware of the sleight of hand by the county. Years ago, to MASK the impacts of their policies on the north county, the supervisors arbitrarily divided the north county into the “North County” and “Mid County”.
Recombine these two arbitrary divisions back into one actual north county and the damage is clear. As a result of the loss of all these good-paying jobs, north county residents are now receiving 72% to 90% of the various welfare benefits administered by the county.
That is, the only growth industry being overseen by our elected leaders is poverty.
Wait until SpaceX is checked for emissions. Who knows what's in the tailpipe of a Falcon 9.
The Demented Against Fermented! 🤦🏼♀️