Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 4-1-21 E-edition

Thursday, April 1, 2021 | 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 Taxes bring poor return
on investment in California
This year, tax day has been delayed
until Monday, May 17 — meaning that
up to that date, we will all have been
working for the government to pay our
taxes. Operating hand-in-glove with
that bit of information is the fact that 74
percent of Americans believe that the
government has not spent tax dollars
wisely during the COVID-19 pandemic,
and that amounts to trillions of dollars.
That's a tacit warning to bureaucrats
and politicians that we're not as dumb as they think!
In an effort to compare the quality and efficiency of state government in the handling of tax revenues, a group called WalletHub used 30 different metrics to measure performance across five categories. Those cat- egories which impact us all include education, health, safety, economy, infrastructure and pollution. Adjust- ment was made for the drastically different rates at which citizens are taxed in each state. Rankings are based on a system of one to 50, with one being best and 50 being the worst return on investment.
California ranks number 49 on overall return on invest- ment; number 45 on total taxes per capita; number 16 on education; number 27 on health; number 36 on safety; num- ber 45 on economy; and 47 on infrastructure and pollution.
It seemed like a good idea to share these performance numbers in case anyone had any doubts about why there is a recall petition for Gavin Newsom! Perhaps that also should extend to many of our legislators who seem to have no idea of what the hell they are doing.
If I remember correctly, Newsom was the lesser of two evils running in that gubernatorial race. The bad news is that the only candidate worse than Newsom would have been Antonio Villaraigosa, and it's my un- derstanding that he is contemplating a run for the office. With the voter rolls being so heavily weighted in favor of Democrats, that's a frightening prospect.
A classic example of bumbling ineptitude can be found in California's “thumb on the scale” approach to the price of motor fuel in an attempt to build a high speed rail for which there is no demand and an under- ground railroad in Silicon Valley. Neither makes any sense. The average price of regular gasoline in Texas is $2.42 per gallon, while in California the average price is $3.68 for that very same gallon. If you use a tank a week, which is low for most of us, the monetary disparity is about $1,000 each year.
We note, with some interest, how the state is promot- ing the sale and use of electric cars. That isn't going to work because the politicians still haven't figured out how to collect a road use tax on electrics. When that “kicks in” one can bet that operational costs will be as high or higher than the gasoline engine. California has never es- chewed the opportunity to collect a fee or tax on anything.
Without government putting their finger on the scale by offering rebates on the electrics most are cost pro- hibitive and yet, advertising from the state has been targeting low income areas as prime potential. What do we do with all those batteries when they go bad? What is going to happen with people of modest means when they are faced with the nearly prohibitive cost of replacing the batteries for their vehicle? That, alone, is going to leave a really ugly footprint requiring the disposal costs of ridding the environment of their presence.
When discussing the wasteful monetary priorities by this state's bureaucracy, it's a little too easy to wander astray from our original intent to examine the poor re- turn on investment from taxes here in California. As a general rule, thanks for this convoluted mess should go to the men and women we have elected to represent our interests in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. Lobbyist seem to be able to quickly bring “our representatives” under their control. There doesn't seem to be a dime's worth of difference in the political parties. However. it always seems that the Democrats are more embarrass- ing in their overt bumbling incompetence.
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
A thank-you to our readers and
request for your continued support
Jon Earnest — Reedley Editor Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus
Fred Hall
By Fred Hall
Roughly 40 years ago, a number of families stepped up and bought a struggling 100-year old newspaper group. Nowhere in their mission state- ment was there any mention of profits. They asked only that it be self-supporting, but with advertising and subscription rates kept as low as possible so as to be affordable to everyone in the community.
Probably the best way to preface this week's opinion piece would be to take a brief time-out to offer sincere, heart- felt thanks to all of you who have been faithful readers and loyal advertisers for all these decades. For well more than 100 years, you and your ances- tors, have provided a franchise for us to publish. Without your resolute support, we would not exist. Thanks for reading.
Big city media can no lon- ger or is unwilling to dedicate the financial resources to re- port on small town happenings.
Alternative news sources are, more often than not, unedited and therefore unreliable.
As we make our way through life, it's remarkable how the seasons and our cir- cumstances change — often in completely unanticipated ways. Back in the 1960s when I entered the business in Wichita Falls, Texas, we had both morn- ing and afternoon newspapers For those families — and they were family owned — it rep- resented tremendous political clout and was akin to a license to print money. Much different from today.
By the year 2000, most newspapers were owned by conglomerates and were oper- ated for the bottom line and not the community. Our little news- paper was one of the few still owned by local families whose goal was not profit but commu- nity service. I don't think I have to remind you of the amount of stress created by the CO- VID-19 lockdown when there are limited cash reserves. Al-
though the cost of everything with which we have to deal — from government regulations to the cost of power, paper, ink and other consumables — we have strived to keep subscrip- tions and advertising costs low because we realize times are tough for everyone.
Having “one's back against the wall” and “between a rock and a hard place” are a couple of the old saws that come to mind. The politics of the inter- net and COVID are doing irrep- arable harm to America. We simply ask that you consider us your newspaper and continue your support whenever possi- ble. We'rededicatedtoprovid- ing a reliable news source for this community for many more years. Again, from the bottom of our heart, thank you! We hope to never disappoint. God willing, we will be able to serve another 100 years!
Fred Hall is publisher for The Times.
Central Valley's return to red tier means more activities returning
So just what does the return this week to the red tier mean for Sanger, Reedley, Parlier, Dinuba residents? For starters, it's more freedom and leeway to visit and frequent business- es on an indoor basis.
Now, there's the opportu- nity to eat indoors, visit your local gym or fitness center to work out indoors. You're also able to visit retail stores large and small at up to 50 percent capacity, which probably is unlikely to change much what people have been doing at businesses large and small. I honestly can't remember in recent weeks any concerted
effort to limit attendance at larger "big box"-type stores. Probably the biggest benefit in our everyday experience is if we like to eat out. Now, people can sit and eat indoors, although the state's guidelines call for a maximum 25 percent capacity or 100 people, what- ever is fewer.
Fresno County probably re- alizes that people may not con- tinue doing what they've done the past few months — mask- ing up and practicing physical distancing — so health officials continue to advise the public to mask up to prevent spread of the COVID-19 virus. main 6
feet of distance and do most ac- tivities outdoors when possible.
Whatever
Valley residents
have been doing
the past month
or two — and
the most likely answer is get- ting vaccinated — it's been working. Numbers have con- tinued to drop, although spring break is another test to see if we're continuing in the right direction.
Jon Earnest is news-sports editor for The Times.
QUOTE
“There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelli- gence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.”
— Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Jon Earnest
Feedback wanted on new Reedley library
The Friends of the Library need your help! The current Reedley library building, closed for more than a year, may not open again because of environmental problems. We need to know what people want in a new and larger building. Please let us know by answer- ing a survey.
Survey forms can be picked up at the temporary library lo-
cation, or you can write your thoughts down and give it to the librarian. You also could let us know on our Facebook page.
• What would you like the outside of the building to look like? Modern, classic, Old West, historic Reedley?
• What would you like to see inside this library? Meeting rooms? Study rooms? A teen center? What else would you like?
•What can the library do to support what you want?What
programs, what else?
The temporary Reedley
branch library is located at the Senior Center in the Com- munity Building, and is open only on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. There is curbside service.
The Friends of the Reedley Library is an all-volunteer or- ganization. We currently meet once a month on Zoom.
Glen Quiring President, Friends of Reedley Library
Letters from readers