Page 3 - Sanger Herald 6-20-19 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2019 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Random thoughts Waytogo Melissa!
By Dick Sheppard
It definitely feels like summer in Sanger.
The steering wheel was
so hot I pulled out my hand-
kerchief and used it like an
oven mitt the other after-
noon when I left the Herald
office a little early on one
of our 100 plus degree days. I slowly and carefully buckled the seat belt, knowing the buckle would be almost as hot as a branding iron.
When I got home I rummaged through the garage until I found the old accordion reflec- tor sunshade I have propped on the dash- board of my car every summer in Sanger no matter where I park, shade or sun.
By the way, summer doesn't officially begin until tomorrow morning, June 21, just
before noon.
•••
The temperature won't be the only thing
going up. Starting July 1, we will once again feel a bump at the pump when the California gas tax goes up another 5.6 cents a gallon. We keep being told the money is going to fix bridges and roadways, yet our bridges and roadways just keep getting worse.
Politicians who support the taxes - and apparently need the money for something besides road and bridge repair - say the taxes are estimated to generate $54 billion over a decade.
Meanwhile, gas experts are predicting the price of gasoline in most states with bet- ter roads and bridges than California will be dropping under $2 a gallon by the end of the year.
•••
Sanger has a more or less balanced budget
for the next fiscal year starting on July 1. Anoverallbudgetof $47millionwitha$13.6 milliongeneral fundwasapprovedbythe city council on June 13.
About 70 percent or $9.5 million of the general fund money will be used to pay wages, benefits, perks and stipends. Since most of that $9.5 million comes from Sanger residents in the form of taxes and fees you might be interested in what some of those wages, benefits, perks and stipends are. See the story on the front page of today's Sanger Herald.
•••ß
Not long ago Sanger's own Melissa
Hurtado, a recently elected state senator, was praised by Reedley city manager Nicole Zieba for leading a charge to save Reedley's armory for its hometown veterans.
This week Melissa received high praise from the City of Sanger for being one of the key players in a successful effort to get Governor Newsom to include $15 million
in his budget for Valley communities like Sangerthatneedhelpwithwatersupply issues.
Sanger will get $3 million to offset part of the cost of a big water storage tank we're told will solve water pressure issues in the city and another $1 million to help fix water prob- lems in the little unincorporated area south of Sanger known as Tombstone.
•••
For those several who asked, yes Johnny Perez has resigned as chairperson of the Measure S oversight committee, but he is still a member of the committee and, no I haven't seen anything about the July 2 oversight meeting being cancelled.
But there's still time.
•••
"We have met the enemy and he is us."
- Pogo Possum
Please direct your questions or comments to sangerherald@gmail.com.
Dick Sheppard
GUEST local commentary
Ending cycles of poverty; changing lives
In my OPINION
Is California's budget surplus
just another government myth?
By Lindsay Callahan
Tax season is now behind
us. Thisyear,United
Way Fresno and Madera
Counties processed 7,500
tax returns for free through
their Free Tax Preparation
Service and brought more
than $12 million in tax refundsbacktoourcommunities. Whata big difference this made in people’s lives! Additionally, 70,000 household returns includ- ed CalEITC or California Earned Income Tax refunds.
At first glance, these statistics don’t mean muchtous,dothey? However,peopledo. PeoplelikeJackie. Shetookadvantageofour Free Tax Preparation service for the first- timelastyear. Jackieisasingle,working mom of three, and right off the top, she saved $150 by coming to us instead of paying a tax preparer.
All total, with tax refunds and credits such asCalEITC,shewasabletobuyacar. The hours and hours she used to spend traveling on the bus to and from work, to college and to her kid’s schools were cut down to minutes, leaving her more time to work and to spend with her family.
However, what Jackie really wanted me to know, is that the extra money she received made a big difference in her life, changing it forthebetter! Shortly,she’llbegraduating and on the path to higher paying full-time employment and will be opening many more doors of opportunity for she and her family.
I hear stories like Jackie’s all the time: real people working and yet still struggling to get by. She is one of 1.8 million work- ing Californians that received CalEITC, a refundable tax credit for low-to-moderate- income working individuals and couples.
CalEITC helps families make ends meet. It allows them the margins to save for a rainy day, to buy new shoes without holes, to pay for childcare so they can continue to work. Most importantly, CalEITC inspires HOPE.
According to the Center for Budget and Public Policy, EITC expansion in the 1990’s
was credited with being the most important reason employment rose amongst single mothers. Additionally, approximately one- third of EITC eligible residents move out of eligibility annually. How? They have HOPE and, like Jackie, they get a better job, they work more hours and they end up exceeding the CalEITC income threshold, which is the way it is intended: a hand up, not a handout.
This income progression is important to our economy and the reason why earned income tax credits, both State and Federal, have historically received bi-partisan support ever since being first advanced in Reagan’s 1986 Tax Reform Act.
Now California has a historic opportunity to invest in all of our struggling working families and to turn the tide for our entire state. Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing to expand the CalEITC Cost of Living Refund to more households, help more people and increase the maximum eligible income to $30,000.
Earned income tax credits are designed
to encourage work and address the crisis we have created for working families. According to the 2018 United Ways of California Real Cost Measure Report, 96 percent of Fresno households currently struggling to get by have at least one working adult. This is not someone else’s story. You know someone
who is struggling. This could be your story... or your neighbor’s, your brother’s, your best friend’s. Struggle, under-employment, cost of living increases—they are all real.
We have to do better. We will not rise as
a city, a region, a nation, without hope for something better. We can break the cycles
of poverty! Governor Newsom’s bold pro- posal for $1.2 billion to expand CalEITC is an investment in our collective future. And it is surely much smaller than the cost of stop gap poverty management we’ve been paying into for decades. Let’s advance together. Working families deserve better. Please join me in supporting this proposal.
Lindsay Callahan is the President and CEO of United Way Fresno and Madera Counties. She can be reached at lcallahan@ uwfm.org.
By Fred Hall
tration, it might be illuminating to point out that Gavin Newson and Xavier Becerra have already filed four dozen lawsuits, mostly over policydifferences. Withalltheproblems currently being experienced in California it seems The Attorney General could make bet- ter use of his time and budget!
Newsom and Becerra are fighting Trump over $3.5 billion which they want to blow on something that, for all intents and purposes, is seen as being in its death throes. These are the kind of guys who make it embarrassing to tell out-of-state friends that you are from California—after all, we elected them!
It seems that every time we assume
that these people elected by the people of California to oversee the well-being of every- one manage to one-up themselves on stupid- ity. Towit: thispastweekthepandering group of politicians who “represent” us in Sacramento passed a health care bill which willprovidefreehealthcareforillegals. The additional cost to Medicaid for that hare- brained scheme will, in most estimates, run to $3 billion annually.
We're being told, by the liberal pundits and politicians, not to worry because California hasplentyofmoney! Really? Lasttimewe checked, the state had a $1.3 trillion debt
and a $258 billion unfunded state employee pensionfund. Addingtothatistheoften overlooked fact that tens of thousands of taxpayers are fleeing the state because
the quality of life here in the golden state isbecominguntenable. Housingisscarce andcostsareprohibitive. Energycostsare thehighestinthenation. Povertyincreases daily and homelessness is rampant. Given all that and all our political class can think of to provide more “entitlements” for illegals who can offer the most basic skills at the lowest wagesimaginable. Theirdragonoursociety faroutweighstheircontribution. Iknowthat may sound cold but it's just a hard dose of reality, something our politicians fail to deal with every day of their cushy government employment. I continue to hear the old adage about us getting the government we deserve but,honestly,weneedsomerelief!
Ronald Reagan probably said it better than anyone I've heard when he uttered “Ifyouwantlessofsomething,taxit. If youwantmoreofsomethingrewardit.” It just seems to me that we continue to reward wrong-doing.
But,asalways,that'sonlyoneman'sopin- ion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publisher Fred Hall oversees two other Mid Valley Publishing newspapers - Reedley Exponent, and Dinuba Sentinel. He can be contacted by phone at (559) 638-2244 or by email at fred@ midvalleypublishing.com.
Lindsay Callahan
Wouldn't it be great if
our politicians took some
sort of oath which is the
equivalent to that of phy-
sicians? “Primumnon
nocere.” That, in classic
Latin,translatesas: tohelp, oratleastdonoharm. The
time has come for that vast,
and growing, segment of our society that is bureaucratic to realize their job is not some kindofgiganticsocialexperiment! Treat the business of government as if you have to answertoshareholders. Inaperfectworld the political class would have to answer to critical voters—today, not so much.
If you happen to be one of those rare people who has ever doubted that there is a double standard for doing business in this country—one for us and one for the govern- ment—ask any of the farmers here in the Central Valley who have had their land taken bytheHighSpeedRailproject. Betteryet, try buying a parcel of land and then not pay- ing for it.
Eminent domain is bad enough where the government is allowed to seize one's land, basically on their terms, but now, months later, farmers are getting the run-around on payment for land that has been essentially ruined for agriculture.
Asimpleso-called “orderofpossession” by a Superior Court allows the State to take ownership of the land even if negotiations withthelandownerarecontinuing. Thereis no way for a land owner in California to hold a winning hand when the deck is so stacked against them.
Being “put down” is a euphemism we use when an animal reaches a point where life
is no longer viable and the suffering they endure makes the termination of their life preferabletotheirpain. Itjustseemstome that the time has come for the entire High SpeedRailprojecttobeputdown! Intheir case, throwing good money after bad makes nosenseatall sodropyourlawsuitagainst the Federal government for more taxpayer money and, for Heaven's sake, pay the farm- erswhohavebeenharmedbyyourstupid plan!
Everyone realizes that the mess is no longer viable—never was—and should be terminated. Makepeacewithitandrealize that Jerry Brown's legacy will be the mess hecreated,benefittingnoone. Manypeople, including numerous consultants, have been enrichedbythisboondoggle. Thetimeis here to cut our loses and move on.
Having mentioned the fact that California has filed suit in an effort to gain additional taxpayer money from the Trump adminis-
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