Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 1-23-20 E-edition

Thursday, January 23, 2020 | A4 | Mid Valley TiMes Editorial & Opinions
Serving the Readers of the Reedley Exponent, Dimuba Sentinel and Sanger Herald.
A Mid Valley Publishing Newspaper
Founded March 26, 1891, in a two-story building on the corner of 11th and F streets, by A.S. Jones
Fred Hall — Publisher
In my OPINION Weaponizing impeachment
as a political tool
All through our lives, we've be-
come accustomed to the utterance “I'd
love to have been a fly on the wall”
when dealing with some sub rosa ac-
tivity on the part of our government
officials. We've especially thought of
such a moment when Jerry Nadler
and Adam Schiff, along with the co- conspiratorial House of Representa-
tives, brought their version of articles
of impeachment which contained no
allegation of a crime committed by the president.
We believe that the best perspective of the machina- tions of this current crop of Democrats now serving us in Washington — including Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schum- er and Adam Schiff — would be through the prism of some of the great old comedic acts, radio shows and early television.
Pause for just a moment and ponder that first time those “rocket scientists” first revealed the depth of allegations which had been generated against Donald Trump after all of these years of compounding Demo- crat disappointment. Alan Dershowitz, an avowed life- long Democrat and noted law professor from Harvard, minced no words when he declared there was nothing impeachable. Small wonder that Pelosi delayed as long as possible before delivering the articles to the Senate.
One can not envision a strategy session involving those “great” minds without being reminded of the utterance of William Bendix from "The Life of Riley," a radio classic. Riley (played by Bendix) would ulti- mately get himself in such a mess that inevitably he would utter “what a revolting development this is." Or how about when Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy worried about a problem they had created and falling back on “another fine mess you've gotten us into.” But perhaps the all-time favorite would be The Three Stooges, who would do something incredibly stupid and then take turns tin slapping each other around the head and shoulders. Come to think of it, Schiff appears to have been slapped in the head once too often.
The images generated may be humorous, but the re- ality of weaponizing impeachment as a political tool to attack a president — from either party — on the whims of a temper tantrum is dangerous. I realize how much Pelosi cares about the Constitution because she tells us on a daily basis, but this is malicious and destructive of those values and rights she claims to embrace.
Now, owing to the pile of excrement that the House impeachment managers carried so ceremoniously over to the Senate, we hear a great hue and cry about a fair trial, which never seemed to cross the minds of the House during its hearings. Part of that “fair trial” seems to involve the president and his defense team calling witnesses for the House prosecutors to help build their lame case. The thought of anything like that is so dumb that it's guaranteed to make one's head hurt.
The old shows and actors employed slapstick and pratfalls in which no one was ever injured. One can't say that about the current shenanigans and the damage that is being inflicted upon this country in the name of pure politics.
Perhaps that great American hero, Forrest Gump, had it exactly right. “Stupid is as stupid does.” Words to live by.
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
Now that I've finished with this, I believe I'll go check on the internet to see if one of Nancy Pelosi's gold pens has made it on there for sale. I feel as if one of them should be mine, because the taxpayer ulti- mately winds up paying for everything the government spends. Come to think of it, I didn't get my cocktail when the Democrats all went out to celebrate this sol- emn occasion.
But then, I can rest assured that Ms. Pelosi went home and prayed for our president after drinking to what she hoped would be his downfall.
An argument opposing Reedley's proposed sales tax, Measure B
Rick Curiel — Sanger Editor Jon Earnest — Reedley Editor Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus
QUOTE
“My life has no purpose, no direc- tion, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?”
— Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000)
Fred Hall
By Edward Hansen
Guest columnist
The cty of Reedley recent- ly distributed a flyer, entitled “Local Sales Tax Measure Fact Sheet” asking voters to sup- port a three-quarters of a cent sales tax increase to offset an approaching financial deficit expected to be over $2 million in the next few years. While a looming deficit is problem- atic, will continuing to raise the sales tax resolve our bud- get problems or is it just the “usual” method used to bal- ance a budget instead of dig- ging deeper to identify other business solutions?
The city’s current approved 2019-2020 City budget is $38,552,119. It took a massive 604 pages to detail this budget up from 473 pages in the prior fiscal year. Looks like explain- ing the budget is ballooning just as rapidly as the budget defi- cit itself. But, to be clear, this editorial is not intended to take “cheap shots” at our city em- ployees or City Council mem- bers. Reedley’s budget problem is everyone’s responsibility. It will “take a village” of citizen, city, and business leaders to get involved. However, increasing sales taxes will not resolve our budget fiasco.
The city of Reedley only nets about 17 cents of each tax dollar. Where does the remain- ing 83 cents go? Well, approxi- mately 74 cents goes to the state of California and 9 cents goes to Fresno County. The state gob- bles up the bulk of our sales tax
percent. The potential new tax rate of 9.225 percent would give Reedley the highest sales tax in our area and almost in the state among comparable city populations.
Reedley doesn’t deserve to be recognize as a city compet- ing for the highest sales tax rate. It seems like asking tax- payers to pay more sales tax is a “relied” upon method but it doesn’t solve our predica- ment. Also, in my opinion, it’s abusive. Reedley needs to step up efforts to encourage and at- tract more retail development. Unfortunately, in the past Reed- ley rejected a “big box” retailer like Walmart. That was regret- table. But, being asked to pay more sales tax seems to ignore a search to find long-term, “so- lution-oriented” strategies. How high will sales tax have to go be- fore we look to other answers that don’t require more taxes?
A sales tax increase seems like the usual ploy that gov- ernments rely upon to attack money problems. We need more creative management actions that will produce efficiency, at- tack spending, and attract more retail business. There’s no easy solution, but the “usual” solu- tion to increase sales tax is in- tolerable. In good conscience, I cannot justify voting to agree with this sales tax increase.
Edward Hansen is a Reedley resident.
Editor's Note:
The Times is running two guest editorials arguing for and against Measure B, a proposed three-quarters cent sales and use tax measure by the city of Reedley that will be on the March 2020 ballot. A guest editorial of similar length supporting the mea- sure ran in this spot in the Jan. 16 edition of The Times.
Edward Hansen
where it is spent on pet projects like the High Speed Rail and studies on “climate change.”
The city’s current estimated sales tax revenue in the ap- proved 2019-2020 budget is estimated at $1,768,749. Since Measure B funds are not shared with the State and County, the City may realize an additional million dollars or so if the three- quarter of cent sales tax is ap- proved. While that seems like a lot of money, it won’t solve the current or impending budget deficits. It’s just a “Band-Aid.”
The current sales tax rate in Reedley is 8.475 percent. If the sales tax increase is ap- proved, the city’s new sales tax would increase to 9.225 percent. While three-quarters of a cent doesn’t sound like much, it will put Reedley on the map in a bad way. According to the Cali- fornia City and County Sales & Use Tax Rates (effective July 1, 2019), the new 9.225 percent sales tax would have Reedley competing for one of the state’s highest sales tax rates — which is currently held by Los Ange- les County at a whopping 9.500
How long must Tom Flores wait?
Of all the things brought to the attention of Sanger City Council last week, football somehow made its way to the podium — and rightfully so.
No, it had nothing to do with high school football, or the fact that the Fresno State football team will once again have two former Apaches on its roster next season. This informational item went deeper into the his- tory and legacy of Sanger foot- ball in one Tom Flores.
As one who has not shared in the history of Sanger un- til most recently, I can testify that the people of Sanger are not the only ones waiting for the Apache legend to be in- ducted into the National Foot- ball League’s Hall of Fame.
This year, once again, his name was snubbed for this year’s class. And though it would have been the grand- est induction for the Sanger legend, to be inducted into the Centennial Class, something
tells me his time is coming soon.
Flores’ name was among eight former NFL coaches to make the Class of 2020 Centen- nial Slate Finalists list. Among those were two coaches many had the privilege to witness being announced, Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson. Their an- nouncements were televised live on CBS and FOX, as both serve as NFL commentators.
Among the names of coach- es who were also passed up were Don Coryell, Mike Hol- mgren, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves and Dick Vermeil. So Flores was in good company.
Now, an effort is being made in the city of Sanger to campaign for the induc- tion of Tom Flores into the NFL Hall of Fame as the city council agreed to draft a letter in support of his in- duction. Furthermore, a peti- tion is now being circulated throughout the city that will
be sent to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio. They city hopes to get as many as 25,000 signatures.
Rick Curiel
Tom Flores was the first Latino to play quarterback in the NFL. Among his other ac- colades, Flores shares a dis- tinct honor with only one other NFL legend, Mike Ditka. The two are the only ones in NFL history to win a Super Bowl as a player, assistant coach and head coach.
Whether he is inducted sooner or later, there is no denying the fact that Flores broke barriers and reached the pinnacle of achievement in the sport of football — multi- ple times. If that isn’t the mark of a Hall of Famer, than I don’t know what is.