A Berg Moment
I have the Redwood Times bookmarked but don't check it all that often. I found this article in the latest issue interesting. It's all about our very own State Assemblybabe, Patty Berg.
It starts out dealing with the possibility of the towns of Redway and Garberville incorporating. I guess there might be reasons one would want to have a town incorporated, but I'm not sure that there's a lot of good ones.
The story then lists a number of issues and Berg's comments on them. One I found of interest was her statement that the state population is increasing but the state's infrastructure isn't. Hmmm...I guess that depends on how you look at it.
Seems like most people in the know believe the infrastructure is deteriorating. By that I'm referring to roads, buildings and such. But state spending has increased faster than could be attributed to both population growth and inflation for umpteen years, or so I've been told. Never mind the 20,000 plus new state employees we gained during the dot com boom.
What gives? I guess it just goes to show that, in some people's view, government will never be big enough or have enough money.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:07 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
How do you feel about redevelopment. Another tool for government to get bigger. The County will see $500 million generated over 45 years. Administration will cost around $62 million. That is why County officials are trying to fast track and "sell" redevelopment.
We've dealt with redevelopment here off and on over the last year.
I'm not necessarily opposed to government involvement in redevelopment. I'm just not sure to what extent it should involved.
A couple problems I have with government run redevelopment efforts:
First, a large percentage of the revenue that comes from redevelopment areas goes right back to the redevelopment agencies, not into any sort of public services. So, while demand for government services may increase, not much revenue is brought in from redevelopment to provide those services.
Second, is an offshoot of the first; That's why so many government types like redevelopment. It allows them to have a separate source of funding for their pet projects. They can do pretty much what they want with money slated for redevelopment and then just call for tax increases to provide for whatever shortfalls end up in basic government services like police and fire.
And what of the homeless™?
I voted for Berg in the last elections but she has lost my vote for being so wishy washy. She is looking more and more like a "career politician" who will do or say anything to stay elected.
she has done nothing for this area, and her sitting in that meeting while they talked about stalling the state budget to gain partisan advantage is unforgivable, and should never be forgotten
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