The new county ethos is to pay county supervisors at the highest compensation rates paid by other counties. In order to maintain internal consistency, the county must also charge the lowest fees and taxes charged by other counties. To be a good county.
Someone else will need to balance the books required by this new ethos - pay high and charge low - because the current county supervisors are currently "too overworked" to undertake this necessary fiscal accounting task.
City of Santa Barbara is heavily invested keeping property taxes high, and new home sale prices even higher.
Ever higher new home sale prices are the City's dirty little budget-balancing secret, while they virtue-signal about demanding "affordable housing" and pass even more punitive private landlord rental restrictions.
In fact ,they are are mostly invested in making private property owners pay through the nose, while riding the wave of ever increasing new home sales prices so they don't have to cut any city expenses themselves.
Cry me a river when the city council continues to whine about "high home prices" in Santa Barbara, while in fact they are crying all the way to the bank.
From Noozhawk: "Property tax revenues continue to shine for the city. The projected budget for 2025 is about $51 million and $53.6 million for 2026.
“It is the most steadily growing revenue source that we have in the general fund,” DeMartini said. “It continues to weather storms in the real estate industry.”
This is the problem with the America First Movement is that it has extremists like the letter writer in the Letters to the Editor published by the Current excoriating Dan Crenshaw, a war hero who lost his eye fighting the enemy in Afghanistan as a member of Seal Team 3. Tucker Carlson, an armchair conspiratorialist, who never experienced combat or enlisted in the military, is making a ton of money spouting off about things he knows nothing about. Dan Crenshaw has voted consistently with the Trump agenda and has been a great advocate for the Conservative cause. The only sin committed by him is that he admitted that Biden won the 2020 election. Stop listening to people like Carlson who monetize outrage and division and is essentially a performance artist appealing to the base instincts of the far right fringe.
Very well put, Mr. Segal. It seems "America Firsters" are curiously susceptible to conspiracy theories and irrational nonsense; for examples: the "stolen election of 2020," the "crisis actors" involved with the Sandy Hook massacre, the "climate change is a hoax" claim, Obama was not born in America, that immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, "Pizza-gate" and the ludicrous claim about Democratic elites guzzling adrenochrome, Qanon, anon anon anon, just to name a few.
What is it with America Firsters? Why do they repeatedly turn their brains off to such bona fide heroes and rational spokespersons as John McCain, Adam Kinzinger and Dan Crenshaw, and listen instead to such Putin loyalists as Private Bonespurs Trump and (Mother) Tucker Carlson?
Did the Ukrainian War end on day one? Did the Gazan War end on day one? Did inflation reverse itself on day one? And how are our relationships with our allies coming along; Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Ukraine and all our NATO friends? Are things better than they were a year ago?
And how is the economy doing? Is it too early to declare it was better under Biden (and would probably continue to be so under Harris) or are you going to stick with the bogus claim--whispered into your ear by Trump and Carlson--that Biden was the worst President ever?
Yes, not only did the Letter-to-the-Editor writer disparage all the "RINO"s out there but he also called all Democrats "wackos" conveniently ignoring the fact that in addition to the 30,000 or so Federal employees Trump and DOGE have already removed (many of which they've since had to scramble to rehire because Trump didn't know what the hell he was doing) they've also removed the Inspector Generals of 17 different Federal agencies who jobs it was to--yup, you guessed it--sniff out waste, fraud and abuse.
Oh, and how is the stock market and your 401K portfolios and your investments in Donald and Melania meme coins doing? Ready to wave the white flag and admit this administration is grossly incompetent at best or acting in their own self-interest at worst?
And for the sake of brevity let's not even mention the idiocy of pulling out of the WHO, or putting RFK Jr in charge of the CDC, or the buffoon Cash Patel in charge of the FBI, or throwing up tariffs as if they have no consequences, or the likely shutdown of the National Parks, or the gutting of the EPA and DOE and USAID, or the extension of the tax cuts which will only add trillions to the debt.... we don't have time for that.
Admittedly, Trump has done a good thing in tightening up the border, but other than that he is a habitual narcissistic liar and con artist only in this (presidency) for his own glorification. But don't fret, there may still be a glimmer of hope to save America--if that is indeed your goal--by enacting the 25th Amendment ASAP.
TJ: It you conclude any Climate Change™ rebuttal is a hoax, this leaves us exactly in the same place. Save your money and invest in something real, if you want to change the direction of this entire planet in the solar system and beyond. Otherwise, Mother Nature on Planet Earth will prove to be a very fickle mistress. Perhaps we should go back to sacrificing virgins into the mouths of volcanos, if we want to change the inexorable march of geologic time.
Oh, we're not all going to die from climate change - that's all just nuts. It might be a big inconvenience. I'm all for using old carbon for stuff like fertilizer, plastic and making steel and concrete.
Powering cars, blenders and all the other crap we should move towards renewables.
TJ: A mixture of currently available energy sources, including nuclear, is the better option. Continuing to explore and develop other options, including energy efficiencies has my vote too. I am extremely grateful we finally did replace the most ancient prior energy source found around the world - forced slave labor.
Any energy source is better than that grotesque and inhuman option found in virtually every society on the planet, until relatively recent times. I think we all regret we let it be such a dark stain on our own nation's history, because it is an antithesis for everything we claimed we stood for. Be thankful for progress away from that national blindness, even if only imperfect options still exist today.
I don't put Dan Crenshaw in the same category as Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney, both of whom have caused great harm to the conservative cause because of Trump derangement syndrome. There is a difference in pointing out the wacky nonsense of the grifters on the right who have latched on to Trump and mainstream Republicans who by and large support Trump because he supports a strong border, cutting back the size of govt, low taxes and bringing to an end the woke nonsense on the left, like having transgender men playing in women sports.
I was taught that the provision of Health Care maintains a person’s well being, attempts to prevent problems that will or could require medical intervention later. In comparison, Medical Care treats a person’s ills in an effort to restore their health, their wellbeing by identifying to fix what’s problematic. Our third party payor system funds mostly Medical Care, and very little preventive Health Care. Moreover, our country fails to educate and to expect its population to be healthy. The growth of the GDP is dependent on our expanded Medical Industrial Complex that instills fear to encourage the population to overutilized “free” medical care and pharmaceuticals paid for by others, their taxes. It’s beyond time to advertise on media healthy lifestyles and eating habits, moderation, and drug use as a last resort. TV ads in China motivate and inform of the government’s expectation of individual, personal responsibility for one’s health and well-being.
Remember the days prior to 1965: Medicare and Medicaid. Isn’t it time for each of us to take responsibility for our own health, and end ‘welfare for all’ via Medicare, Medicaid, Covered California, ObamaCare.
Does the national debt concern others? Do we pay it off the usual way by increasing inflation? Or by cutting spending while increasing revenues? All I hear is our local middle and professional classes determined to keep their welfare benefits.
Well said, Montecito: Health Care in the US is more interested in creating and marketing to the 'worried well", who in turn are used to harvest out any available health care dollars.
Which may help explain why our US health care costs more and provide worse results than any other more cost/benefit driven "socialized" health care systems in other industrialized countries. We have for too long celebrated our excellent US response to trauma care; but this required supportive funding by the more specious wellness prevention claims sold to this market created US worried-well.
There was a curious finding by UCSB researchers a few decades ago surveying various national health attitudes. When asked how is your health, they found most people answered independently from their own personal perspective. Only in the US did the UCSB researchers find the typical American response was ....... I went to my doctor and he told me ...........
All of which underscores don't write a blank check for "health care" until we can better define what exactly it is. Trauma care, wellness care, prevention care, disease mitigation care, endless demand care regardless of costs?
Harkening back to the very early "covid" (99.98% recovery flu) arguments -- if it saves just one life, it is worth doing ......XYZ .... And so we did. Ka-ching!
One of the excuses for approving Obamacare was the problem of insuring people with preexisting conditions. Did anyone ever blame the people who refused to get insurance until they got sick? Maybe they should have thought about it before they needed the insurance.
Lou, I do agree with you that transgender men playing in women's sports is reflective of "woke nonsense" even if there are only ten such men-cum-women out of some 500,000 NCAA athletes competing. I also agree that minors should not be allowed to undergo gender reassignment, nor trans men allowed to use women's bathroom. But these are rare and obviously sensational "shiny object" issues deployed to take attention off of the truly disastrous policy changes taking place; such as the defunding and privatization of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
With all due respect, there is no defunding of Medicare and Social Security. What there is is a tremendous amount of demagoguery around this subject. The truth is Social Security and Medicare are on a path to fiscal insolvency unless actions are take in the near future to reform these programs. They account for 2/3 of govt spending and are the prime cause of our massive deficits and humongous public debt. Medicaid spending has exploded in the last 5 yrs as the previous govt used it as a piggy bank to fund substandard care for millions of low income Americans, including, in the case of Ca, providing it for illegal immigrants. Entitlement spending is the number one economic problem in America today and could threaten our economic future if not dealt with responsibly. Instead, it's a political pinata used by politicians to gain political advantage.
Give it a rest RJ -this is the hoary old Democrat stealth argument every election season: He (XYZ) is going to take away your Social Security and Medicare.
Guess what - Social Security and Medicare under Democrat administration is taking both away on their own by their mal-administration.
BTW: What exactly is "health care" anyway, as long as you call it a Thing as if we all knew exactly what it meant. It is a commodity; not a blank check. You buy and sell something called "health care".
Who pays for this Thing is what is really on the table right now. Not defining what exactly it is and how are reasonable metrics applied to this Thing is the gravest issue. Help us out RJ - please define "health care".
The new county ethos is to pay county supervisors at the highest compensation rates paid by other counties. In order to maintain internal consistency, the county must also charge the lowest fees and taxes charged by other counties. To be a good county.
Someone else will need to balance the books required by this new ethos - pay high and charge low - because the current county supervisors are currently "too overworked" to undertake this necessary fiscal accounting task.
Totally agree with David's comments on getting the RINO's out of the party.
City of Santa Barbara is heavily invested keeping property taxes high, and new home sale prices even higher.
Ever higher new home sale prices are the City's dirty little budget-balancing secret, while they virtue-signal about demanding "affordable housing" and pass even more punitive private landlord rental restrictions.
In fact ,they are are mostly invested in making private property owners pay through the nose, while riding the wave of ever increasing new home sales prices so they don't have to cut any city expenses themselves.
Cry me a river when the city council continues to whine about "high home prices" in Santa Barbara, while in fact they are crying all the way to the bank.
From Noozhawk: "Property tax revenues continue to shine for the city. The projected budget for 2025 is about $51 million and $53.6 million for 2026.
“It is the most steadily growing revenue source that we have in the general fund,” DeMartini said. “It continues to weather storms in the real estate industry.”
This is the problem with the America First Movement is that it has extremists like the letter writer in the Letters to the Editor published by the Current excoriating Dan Crenshaw, a war hero who lost his eye fighting the enemy in Afghanistan as a member of Seal Team 3. Tucker Carlson, an armchair conspiratorialist, who never experienced combat or enlisted in the military, is making a ton of money spouting off about things he knows nothing about. Dan Crenshaw has voted consistently with the Trump agenda and has been a great advocate for the Conservative cause. The only sin committed by him is that he admitted that Biden won the 2020 election. Stop listening to people like Carlson who monetize outrage and division and is essentially a performance artist appealing to the base instincts of the far right fringe.
Very well put, Mr. Segal. It seems "America Firsters" are curiously susceptible to conspiracy theories and irrational nonsense; for examples: the "stolen election of 2020," the "crisis actors" involved with the Sandy Hook massacre, the "climate change is a hoax" claim, Obama was not born in America, that immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, "Pizza-gate" and the ludicrous claim about Democratic elites guzzling adrenochrome, Qanon, anon anon anon, just to name a few.
What is it with America Firsters? Why do they repeatedly turn their brains off to such bona fide heroes and rational spokespersons as John McCain, Adam Kinzinger and Dan Crenshaw, and listen instead to such Putin loyalists as Private Bonespurs Trump and (Mother) Tucker Carlson?
Did the Ukrainian War end on day one? Did the Gazan War end on day one? Did inflation reverse itself on day one? And how are our relationships with our allies coming along; Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Ukraine and all our NATO friends? Are things better than they were a year ago?
And how is the economy doing? Is it too early to declare it was better under Biden (and would probably continue to be so under Harris) or are you going to stick with the bogus claim--whispered into your ear by Trump and Carlson--that Biden was the worst President ever?
Yes, not only did the Letter-to-the-Editor writer disparage all the "RINO"s out there but he also called all Democrats "wackos" conveniently ignoring the fact that in addition to the 30,000 or so Federal employees Trump and DOGE have already removed (many of which they've since had to scramble to rehire because Trump didn't know what the hell he was doing) they've also removed the Inspector Generals of 17 different Federal agencies who jobs it was to--yup, you guessed it--sniff out waste, fraud and abuse.
Oh, and how is the stock market and your 401K portfolios and your investments in Donald and Melania meme coins doing? Ready to wave the white flag and admit this administration is grossly incompetent at best or acting in their own self-interest at worst?
And for the sake of brevity let's not even mention the idiocy of pulling out of the WHO, or putting RFK Jr in charge of the CDC, or the buffoon Cash Patel in charge of the FBI, or throwing up tariffs as if they have no consequences, or the likely shutdown of the National Parks, or the gutting of the EPA and DOE and USAID, or the extension of the tax cuts which will only add trillions to the debt.... we don't have time for that.
Admittedly, Trump has done a good thing in tightening up the border, but other than that he is a habitual narcissistic liar and con artist only in this (presidency) for his own glorification. But don't fret, there may still be a glimmer of hope to save America--if that is indeed your goal--by enacting the 25th Amendment ASAP.
Hope this helps.
Climate Change™ is a hoax. A one-size fits all gaslighting hoax. Science saying that; not a conspiracy theory.
Climate: The Movie (The Cold Truth) A documentary https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31851190/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Follow the money. The movie The Cold Truth was funded by organizations that are known for promoting climate change skepticism. Key sponsors include:
CO2 Coalition, The Heartland Institute (conservative think tank that has historically challenged mainstream climate science).
This film was not a gold-standard science documentary. It's a nicely don propaganda piece though.....
If this is all that it takes to prove a hoax.....
TJ: It you conclude any Climate Change™ rebuttal is a hoax, this leaves us exactly in the same place. Save your money and invest in something real, if you want to change the direction of this entire planet in the solar system and beyond. Otherwise, Mother Nature on Planet Earth will prove to be a very fickle mistress. Perhaps we should go back to sacrificing virgins into the mouths of volcanos, if we want to change the inexorable march of geologic time.
Oh, we're not all going to die from climate change - that's all just nuts. It might be a big inconvenience. I'm all for using old carbon for stuff like fertilizer, plastic and making steel and concrete.
Powering cars, blenders and all the other crap we should move towards renewables.
TJ: A mixture of currently available energy sources, including nuclear, is the better option. Continuing to explore and develop other options, including energy efficiencies has my vote too. I am extremely grateful we finally did replace the most ancient prior energy source found around the world - forced slave labor.
Any energy source is better than that grotesque and inhuman option found in virtually every society on the planet, until relatively recent times. I think we all regret we let it be such a dark stain on our own nation's history, because it is an antithesis for everything we claimed we stood for. Be thankful for progress away from that national blindness, even if only imperfect options still exist today.
I don't put Dan Crenshaw in the same category as Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney, both of whom have caused great harm to the conservative cause because of Trump derangement syndrome. There is a difference in pointing out the wacky nonsense of the grifters on the right who have latched on to Trump and mainstream Republicans who by and large support Trump because he supports a strong border, cutting back the size of govt, low taxes and bringing to an end the woke nonsense on the left, like having transgender men playing in women sports.
Conservatism: Limited government; Protection of Private Property; Rule of Law; Free and Competitive Markets. Some conspiracy theory. Sign me up.
I was taught that the provision of Health Care maintains a person’s well being, attempts to prevent problems that will or could require medical intervention later. In comparison, Medical Care treats a person’s ills in an effort to restore their health, their wellbeing by identifying to fix what’s problematic. Our third party payor system funds mostly Medical Care, and very little preventive Health Care. Moreover, our country fails to educate and to expect its population to be healthy. The growth of the GDP is dependent on our expanded Medical Industrial Complex that instills fear to encourage the population to overutilized “free” medical care and pharmaceuticals paid for by others, their taxes. It’s beyond time to advertise on media healthy lifestyles and eating habits, moderation, and drug use as a last resort. TV ads in China motivate and inform of the government’s expectation of individual, personal responsibility for one’s health and well-being.
Remember the days prior to 1965: Medicare and Medicaid. Isn’t it time for each of us to take responsibility for our own health, and end ‘welfare for all’ via Medicare, Medicaid, Covered California, ObamaCare.
Does the national debt concern others? Do we pay it off the usual way by increasing inflation? Or by cutting spending while increasing revenues? All I hear is our local middle and professional classes determined to keep their welfare benefits.
Well said, Montecito: Health Care in the US is more interested in creating and marketing to the 'worried well", who in turn are used to harvest out any available health care dollars.
Which may help explain why our US health care costs more and provide worse results than any other more cost/benefit driven "socialized" health care systems in other industrialized countries. We have for too long celebrated our excellent US response to trauma care; but this required supportive funding by the more specious wellness prevention claims sold to this market created US worried-well.
There was a curious finding by UCSB researchers a few decades ago surveying various national health attitudes. When asked how is your health, they found most people answered independently from their own personal perspective. Only in the US did the UCSB researchers find the typical American response was ....... I went to my doctor and he told me ...........
All of which underscores don't write a blank check for "health care" until we can better define what exactly it is. Trauma care, wellness care, prevention care, disease mitigation care, endless demand care regardless of costs?
Harkening back to the very early "covid" (99.98% recovery flu) arguments -- if it saves just one life, it is worth doing ......XYZ .... And so we did. Ka-ching!
One of the excuses for approving Obamacare was the problem of insuring people with preexisting conditions. Did anyone ever blame the people who refused to get insurance until they got sick? Maybe they should have thought about it before they needed the insurance.
Lou, I do agree with you that transgender men playing in women's sports is reflective of "woke nonsense" even if there are only ten such men-cum-women out of some 500,000 NCAA athletes competing. I also agree that minors should not be allowed to undergo gender reassignment, nor trans men allowed to use women's bathroom. But these are rare and obviously sensational "shiny object" issues deployed to take attention off of the truly disastrous policy changes taking place; such as the defunding and privatization of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
With all due respect, there is no defunding of Medicare and Social Security. What there is is a tremendous amount of demagoguery around this subject. The truth is Social Security and Medicare are on a path to fiscal insolvency unless actions are take in the near future to reform these programs. They account for 2/3 of govt spending and are the prime cause of our massive deficits and humongous public debt. Medicaid spending has exploded in the last 5 yrs as the previous govt used it as a piggy bank to fund substandard care for millions of low income Americans, including, in the case of Ca, providing it for illegal immigrants. Entitlement spending is the number one economic problem in America today and could threaten our economic future if not dealt with responsibly. Instead, it's a political pinata used by politicians to gain political advantage.
Give it a rest RJ -this is the hoary old Democrat stealth argument every election season: He (XYZ) is going to take away your Social Security and Medicare.
Guess what - Social Security and Medicare under Democrat administration is taking both away on their own by their mal-administration.
BTW: What exactly is "health care" anyway, as long as you call it a Thing as if we all knew exactly what it meant. It is a commodity; not a blank check. You buy and sell something called "health care".
Who pays for this Thing is what is really on the table right now. Not defining what exactly it is and how are reasonable metrics applied to this Thing is the gravest issue. Help us out RJ - please define "health care".