Elsebusch on Redevelopment

Local gadfly and Taxpayer's League member, David Elsebusch, had an opinion piece in the Eureka Reporter this morning. He warns us of some of the concerns we should have about the Board of Supervisors' using Headwaters Fund money for redevelopment. A proper concern although I'm not sure I reach the exact same conclusion he does but the commentary is well written, at least at the start.

I've said before that, while many libertarians might oppose government involvement in redevelopment, I'm not so sure I do. I'm not sure to what extent they should be involved, though, and they're probably involved more than they should be, in Humboldt. I think the local city council members like diverting money to redevelopment because it allows them to isolate money from their general funds and then go look for other sources to fund the general fund. I wouldn't be surprised if the Board of Supervisors does similar things with the money they use for redevelopment but I can't say for sure.

What gets me is local politicos always making a big government project out of development with all kinds of funding, rules, regulations, committees and such. Why not just make all of Humboldt County an Enterprise Zone with low taxes and low regulations and then private people and businesses might want to relocate and clean up areas at less cost to the taxpayer?