California Roads

photo – Google

California is a state filled with “Good Intentions”.  It’s two largest Cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as it’s State Capitol, Sacramento, are entrenched “Feel Good” Liberal Bastions offering Sanctuary to “undocumented” (illegal) “no questions asked or permitted of immigrants”.  In fact, the whole state is a proud “Sanctuary” and you can face prosecution in court if you ask to see proof of citizenship.

California had, and I believe still has, the highest Gasoline Taxes in the nation and despite the fact that those taxes, on paper, are supposed to be used for road maintenance and repair, it has some of the worst, if not worst, potholes and poor maintenance in the nation.  Good intentions do not fill potholes.  Many/most of those Gasoline Tax Dollars through “slight of hand” and “smoke and mirrors” end up being redirected/spent on other “pet projects” of the “Ruling Junta” on things like “Free College” for “undocumented” migrants, “Free Healthcare” for “undocumented migrants” and “dog and pony show” special projects that sound soooo good and accomplish little or nothing other than put taxpayer Dollars into the pockets of political supporters and their ilk.  

All to often public tax revenue is allocated out for political agendas.

See: CONRAD BLOWHARD STRIKES AGAIN  

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/conrad-blowhard-strikes-again/ 

SPENDING PLANS SUCH AS

Homeless Housing for the states number one in the nation homeless population.  Things like $41,000 tents on pallets,  $400,000 two hundred square foot remodeled hotel rooms for the drug and alcohol addicted homeless and other “Blue Sky” projects..  On a recent news broadcast it was reported that California spent last year $43,000,000,000 ($43 Billion Dollars) on “Homeless Housing” projects and now has more Homeless than before they spent the money.  Note: News Reports that California has “no data” on $24,000,000,000($24 Billion) of those dollars…  the money is gone… “Poof”.

AND

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=California+High+Speed+Rail+2.0

California High Speed Rail 2.0

Nine Billion Dollars Later (March 2019)

Its “never will be completed”, now estimated to cost in excess of $100,000,000,000 (that’s One Hundred Billion Dollars) High Speed Rail System which after some 10+ years of construction and numerous projections, has never hauled a single passenger a single mile. 

AND

Removing smaller dams, reservoirs and even hydro-electric plants.  US regulators have approved the largest dam removal project in the country’s history, which is slated to take place on the Klamath River in California.  A $500 million Dollar proposal to demolish four dams on the Klamath River has been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. (Associated Press). “Some people might ask in this time of great need for zero emissions, ‘Why are we removing the dams?’  The project has been a priority for environmental activists and Native American tribes for years.

Government is not so much intentionally “evil” as it is just addicted to programs that sound good without being thought through to possible unintentional outcomes, corruption, fraud, waste, graft, mismanagement, lack of accountability and poor judgement.  Government has a history of “solving problems” by throwing money at them and when that doesn’t work reaching a conclusion that the problem wasn’t solved because they didn’t throw enough money at it sooooo…..  lets increase spending.  But money and good Intentions don’t solve problems and they don’t fill potholes in the states roads.

Programs like these and many others are why California has a 70+ BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET DEFICIT, its State Capitol City – Sacramento has a 60+MILLION DOLLAR BUDGET DEFICIT and other major cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles have similar fiscal woes.  Mind you, most or all of the above were/are the product of the “Good Intentions” in the mind and agenda of some Bureaucrat at some point in time.  But…..

California Potholes – Google

GOOD INTENTIONS DON’T FILL POTHOLES

Late News Update – 4-10-24 – KCRA News: Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration announced a new directive on Wednesday that will require state employees to work in the office at least two days a week.  “Talk about your ‘Sweatshop’ working environment!” “Way to run a tight ship Governor!”

Bob Bandy – April 2024

I grew up in an era where I used to hear folks say that they lived for the day they would make their last mortgage payment, burn their mortgage and own their home “free and clear”.  Not quite.

My great grandfather was a Texas Ranger and his brother, John, was a (the first?) Tax Collector in Bandera County, Texas.  This I have documentation on and so, I can trace Property Taxes at least back to the circa 1880’s and feel sure they precede that by several decades.  Perhaps in early “Frontier” days on territorial lands you could “Homestead” a piece of land with no “Revenuer” knocking on your door and demanding you pay a fee to live on your own land.  Not today.  In today’s world you never really “own” your land and home, more like, rent it from the “Government”.  Try not paying your property taxes for a while and see what happens to “your” home.

Governments are “Taxaholics” and continue to find new ways to tax you, sometimes in not so obvious, subtle ways that go on “Till the Twelfth of Never”.

I am now a “Senior Citizen” that has worked his whole life.  I can remember some 40 to 50 years ago working as a carpenter and contractor building houses for folks in the Sacramento and Sierra Foothills area.  In those days if someone wanted a house built they would bring their blueprints to either one of the contactors I worked with or to me and we would go to the County Offices and secure a “Building Permit”.  My memory is not perfect but as I remember the total permit cost for a typical house would run in the $200 to $400 range.  Since then, Cities and Counties have seized the opportunity to raise money by not only increasing the cost of  building permits but the “secret” source of revenue with added on fees for all sorts of things to provide them an increased property tax revenue.  More in a moment.

It is tempting and would be easy at this point to launch into one of my tirades on all of the taxes, overt and covert, that we all pay on a day to day basis ad nauseum, but for the sake of this little essay, I want to focus attention on just this one area of onerous taxation that is somewhat subtle and NEVER goes away.

What used to be a $200-$400 building permit fee for most cities and counties in California has turned into a tens of thousands of dollars “Taxmageddon”  that has driven the cost of housing and living in California to the brink of meltdown and created a homeless nightmare statewide.  What used to be a $200-$400 fee has now morphed into a “Fee” generating income source for Cities, Counties and the State and a de-facto forever “surtax” on private real estate property.  As examples: a good friend of mine tells me that to get a building permit for a home in Roseville, California with fees now costs some $70,000 for the permit.  Another friend tells me that a building permit with fees in El Dorado County, California can cost as much as $100,000 just for them to permit you to build a home on “your” land.

An example of just one such fee:  For new home construction in El Dorado Hills they imposed a “Traffic Impact Fee” (effective thru June 2023 which may have since been raised).  On a new home of 1500 – 1999 square feet, the fee is $32,687.  In other words they are going to charge you $32,687 to drive on “their” roads to “your” land – and silly you,  you thought roads were paid for with your Gasoline Tax Dollars. (Their fee schedule is available on line) That is just one of a “laundry list” of fees for all kinds of things.  The point of this being that this fee cost is added to the cost of the home you are buying and will be paying mortgage rates on for some 30 years.  In addition, once you pay off your mortgage you will be paying property taxes based on the property value which is assessed on what you paid for the home which includes all the fees added at the time of construction.  So you will be paying forever a tax on all of the “Fees”.  To the Taxing Authorities this is a gift that keeps on giving.  As an added bonus,  new housing that costs more has raised the value of existing properties which as they are sold are now taxed at the inflated value in part caused by the fees on new construction.  The “Tax and Fee People” win again!

IN SIMPLE PLAIN ENGLISH – ALL THOSE FEES END UP IN THE TAX APPRAISED VALUE OF ‘YOUR’ HOME AND YOU WILL PAY PROPERTY TAX ON THOSE FEES ‘FOREVER’.

This inflation cycle goes on and on and the result is home ownership becomes more and more expensive and less and less affordable.  Hello “homelessness”.  So where does all this extra “Fee” revenue go?  Unfortunately too much of it ends up indirectly in the pockets of Bureaucrats and directly in the pockets of sycophant political supporters like “Consultants”, “Contractors”, “Advisors” etc. etc. for bloated “Public Works” contracts and the public sees:

  $44,000 (each) tents for the Homeless 

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=44%2C000+tents+for+the+homeless

AND

$478,000 Tiny Homeless apartments from a “remodeled” old run-down hotel at $1,707 per square foot.

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=conrad+blowhard+strikes+again

OR

California’s High Speed Rail 

Now estimated to cost another $100 Billion Dollars or more on completion

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=another+6+Billion+Dollar+rathole

At least you can take comfort in knowing your hard earned dollars are being spent wisely!

To paraphrase the “Johnny Mathis song – the “Twelfth Of Never” – (1956) 

“Until the twelfth of never – I’ll still be taxing you”.

Bob Bandy – March 2024

Some fourteen years ago, being dissatisfied with the field of Candidates running for President and other elected offices, I decided to launch my own campaign based on the principles and programs I could support as a Taxpayer.  My campaign did not result in my election but I am a patient man and believe my time is at hand.

*******************

In the last few days I have been subjected to the Senatorial Campaign Ads of  Current House of Representative member Adam Schiff and it has stirred my fires for public service anew.

Adam Schiff – Serial Liar – Perjurer 

This is a man of no integrity whatsoever who has lied to the American People for years.  For three years he swore to the American People that he had positive, hard evidence that Donald Trump had conspired with the Russian’s.  Turns out he had nothing. Just his lies.  He also committed perjury during the House of Representatives quest to have President Trump impeached by introducing into the Congressional Record a supposed incriminating dialog between President Trump and the President of the Ukraine.  This was later shown be a total fabrication on the part of Adam Schiff and another of his lies.

He should be a candidate for a stint in a Forced Labor Camp in North Korea. 

*******************

I have dusted off my old campaign agenda and find it still fits my dreams of returning America to greatness. 

MY CAMPAIGN PROMISES FOLLOW – VOTE FOR ME

Here is my platform and plan

California Governor Gavin Newsom

Facing a potential State Budget Deficit of some 68 Billion (with a B) Dollars, which the good governor claims is really only half of that, I am hearing rumblings that he plans to resurrect a “hush-hush” Administration Plan from back in 2017 to increase tax revenues and in the process help in the war on Global Climate Change.  I first wrote about this plan back in November 2017 but understand that it was then put on hold due to the difficulty in finding, training and hiring willing Monitors to implement and enforce compliance.  With a new Artificial Intelligence DNA Serum perfected by Pfizer, it is now possible to put enforcement operatives in the field and the aforementioned plan is now viable.  Details of the plan follow in my reprint of the article below:

****************************

FAIR SHARE TAXES AND GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

November 11, 2017

I have information from reliable but nameless and secret sources that the State of California is very near announcement of a two fold plan for a Fair Share Universal Tax to help fund the War on Global Climate Change.

First, in recognition that exhaling releases carbon dioxide gas which is a contributor to Global Climate Change,  every resident or visitor to the State of California will be required to have a micro chip implant that will both monitor and report each time they exhale to the State of California.

This data will be forwarded to the Franchise Tax Board who will calculate the tax due and be responsible for collecting the scheduled tax from “Breathers”.  At the time of this writing the tax rate being considered is one tenth of a cent per exhale.  This may seem  a paltry sum until one calculates that the average adult respiratory rate is about 15 times per minute or 900 times per hour.  Do a little math and the average cost of exhaling in California will be about 90 cents an hour or $21.60 a day.

This tax can be avoided by simply no longer exhaling and residents and visitors can take comfort in the fact that inhaling is still free.  At least for now.

For the Second phase of this battle consideration is being given to the fact that methane is also a contributor to Global Climate Change and it is the responsibility of all of us to pay our Fair Share Tax in the battle to monitor and reduce the release of this gas into California’s breathable air resources.

It is also a scientific fact that flatulence is a major contributor to the release of methane into the atmosphere. Therefore, California is creating a new agency to monitor and tax the unwanted release of this gas.  To fund this Board and its employees a new source of revenue will be created through the establishment of a Flatulence Air Resource Tax. (Pseudonym FARTax)

Under development is a new monitoring device to be worn by all residents and visitors on the rear upper portion of the thigh which will sense, tabulate and report to the Board all releases of methane gas by the wearer.

The Board will then forward this information to the California Franchise Tax Board who will be responsible for billing and collecting the approved tax.  At this writing a rate of $1.00 per release is under consideration.  Think of it as an exhaust gas tax.

Taxpayers can avoid this tax by simply not releasing any methane gas through the monitored process.

The State agency for this Board is reporting some difficulty in recruiting, hiring and training workers who will be responsible for checking and monitoring individuals at random to be sure they are wearing the methane release and sound monitoring device and that it is working properly.

Formal announcement of this new Fair Share Tax and implementation of monitoring should be released through the media within the next 60 days.

All tax rates are subject to review and increase depending on Battlefield Assessment Reports from the ongoing War against Global Climate Change and subject to review and correction by former Vice President Al Gore.

What could possibly go wrong?

*****************************

The time has come to implement and enforce this important new law to save California from Bankruptcy!

Bob Bandy – January 2024

photo – California Globe – January 12, 2024

SOMETIMES IT IS TOO EASY

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP

Back in March 2023 I wrote a spoof article titled: SPIN DOCTORS – LIPSTICK ON LIES.  Conrad Blowhard makes his appearance in an excerpt from my article sub-headlined: “A SPIN CITY NARRATIVE” and my article follows these excerpts from The California Globe article by Kathy Grimes titled:

$478,000 Per Unit: Homeless ‘Tiny’ Apartments Now Open in Sacramento – Cost to build – $1,707 per square foot

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg proudly announced “Sacramento’s historic Capitol Park Hotel reopens this week as St. Clare at Capitol Park, a permanent supportive housing complex for people experiencing homelessness.”

Calling the state’s homeless vagrant population “unhoused” has justified spending billions of taxpayer dollars on housing for the homeless in lovely new apartments, renovated hotels, and tiny homes.

The Globe first reported on this fishy project in 2019:

The city just closed a triage shelter for the vagrants living on the streets. Mayor Steinberg is pinning his hopes on the Capitol Park Hotel which was used for decades as housing for low-income disabled adults. The city is kicking them out, and renovating the hotel for $23 million. Steinberg says it will have 180 beds for homeless by August.

As one neighbor said in response to Steinberg’s press conference, “these are the drug addicts and mentally ill who refuse the city services. To call them ‘homeless’ is an insult to those that are truly down on their luck. They are ‘vagrants, ‘criminals,’ ‘druggies,’ and ‘junkies’ who have chosen this lifestyle.”

Truer words could not be spoken……

……….Steinberg spoke of the “homeless” without addressing their open lawlessness, drug dealing, theft, people masturbating in public, shooting up heroin in the open, soliciting drugs and prostitution in public, and defecating and urinating on streets in front of local businesses. It’s not a pretty picture. According to Mayor Steinberg, “it’s a housing crisis.”

The “housing crisis” and the “unhoused” are apparently worth a really large bounty per head to the City of Sacramento – they are the “facilitators” for the hotel and apartment renovations, bringing billions to the cities in California from the federal and state governments.

That “housing complex for people experiencing homelessness” ballooned up per unit cost by 2020 to $445,000 each. Mercy Housing began the project with a $34 million price to convert the Downtown Sacramento building’s 180 hotel rooms into 134 studio units of about 280 square feet each. The project grew to a $64 million project, that we know of at this point.

That’s $478,ooo per 280 square foot room –  $1,707 per square foot. The average square foot cost of real estate right now in Sacramento is about $300 to $400 per square foot.

The complete California Globe article is available on their website:  THECALIFORNIAGLOBE.COM

******************************

My original article excerpted from something I wrote back in March 2023 follows:

A SPIN CITY NARRATIVE

Conrad Blowhard is the Mayor of Spin City, California.  His city has become infested with homeless encampments and vagrants numbering in the thousands.  To some this would seem a problem but Mayor Blowhard sees an opportunity.  

He will convince his City Council that in an effort to help the homeless and decrease their numbers on the cities streets and alleys he would like them to pass a funding bill in the amount of 80 Million Dollars with the proceeds dedicated to renovating a dilapidated, nearly abandoned hotel down on “Skid Row” and convert it’s 80 rooms into housing for the homeless.  The City Council passes the funding request and pats themselves on the back for “caring” about the homeless.

Closed bidding contracts are let out to major contractors who are supporters and donors to the Mayor for the work to be done.  A ceremonial event is held at the Foggy Bottom Hotel with the Mayor swinging a sledge hammer through a faded door of a shoddy 200 square foot room in front of live television cameras.  Everybody applauds.

Work begins.  Some effort is made to rid the building of most of the rats, termites and other vermin which infest it.  The leaking roof is patched.  Contractors workers “freshen up” the rooms with new paint, carpet, updated (cheap) fixtures from China and new window coverings.  Cost per room innovated is $400,000.  In addition, the hotel gets a new name:  “NEW BEGINNING’S” and a single fresh coat of exterior paint. 

Grand Opening Day arrives.  Brass Bands and Ribbon Cutting.  Mayor Blowhard and City Council members make grandiose speeches about how they have solved the cities Homeless Crisis.  A few ragged homeless people are seen entering the building to take occupancy of their renovated 200 square foot “apartments”.

The Mayor’s handpicked contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers go out and spend their profits on new boats, sports cars and luxury vacations but not forgetting to “tithe” back some of those profits to the Majors campaign re-election coffers.

The 80 “new” tenants of the once dilapidated hotel settle in and begin the task of de-renovation on the hotel to turn it back into a Skid Row Manor.  

The whole process is “spun” as a huge success and praise and credit is layered on all who participated in the project.  What could possibly go wrong.  Housing was provided, at least temporarily, for 80 homeless people for only 80 Million Dollars.  “WINK – WINK”.

Bob Bandy – March 2023

P.S. I would like to give inspirational credit to Michael J. Fox and his long ago television series “Spin City”.

Bob Bandy – January 2024

Biden administration sends $6 billion

to California for high-speed rail projects

KCRA NEWS – DECEMBER 8 2023

More than $6 billion is going to high-speed electric rail projects in California President Joe Biden made the announcement today in Las Vegas.

The money is slated for two different projects, one connecting Las Vegas and Los Angeles and another linking Bakersfield with Merced.  Supporters hope the billions of dollars will get the high-speed rail system back on track.

“This massive federal investment takes us one step closer to high-speed rail as a reality,” said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, (D) San Francisco.  More than $3 billion is set to help build nearly 175 miles of track between Bakersfield and Merced.

In 2008, Californians gave the green light to the 500-mile project, which promised to carry passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours on a fully electric train traveling at speeds of up to 220 miles per hour.

******************************

RIPE FRUIT FOR A CONSPIRACY THEORY

Given the fact that Washington D.C. and Sacramento are filled with fiscal financial morons, even they have to know that $6 Billion Dollars would not be enough funding to pay for a “Right of Way” access route for a high speed rail system between downtown Los Angeles and Las Vegas even with “Imminent Domain” theft of land.  California has already spent $9.8 Billion Dollars on a much reduced in size High Speed Rail System between Merced and Bakersfield  (Governor Jerry Brown’s original plan was for the High Speed Rail System to travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles).  Some 8 years  and 9.8 Billion Dollars later this Fiscal Black Hole has never carried a single passenger a single mile and almost assuredly never will.  These Big Budget “Pie In The Sky” projects are most often nothing more that a thinly veiled payoff to Political Supporters and Politically Loyal Labor Unions. 

For the conspiracy plan, maybe just maybe, this is Joe Biden’s way of throwing a $6 Billion dollar “bone” to his buddy and protege Gavin Newsom who is facing a 2023-2024 State Fiscal Budget Deficit of $68 Billion Dollars.  Once the state gets the $6 Billion who is to say they can’t just “delay” the rail project and use the $6 Billion Dollars to help finance a loan to balance the budget.  California already does this with gas tax dollars that are supposedly committed to roads.  That will be, of course, after some number of Millions of Dollars end up in selected pockets for “Feasibility and Engineering Studies” as well as “Executive Conferences” in specially selected “getaway retreats in private surroundings”.

Also it might help Governor Newsom in his “shadow” run for the Presidency just in case President Biden takes a further downturn and finds himself in a room with Winnie the Pooh wallpaper and a full time nurse helping him with his “jammies”, slippers, and warm cocoa “medicine”.  In such a situation  the Democratic Party would need a ready “stand-in” and Gavin is waiting in the wings.

As for High Speed Rail, California can continue with their current alternate system between Merced and Bakersfield.

Nine Billion Dollars Later

For my earlier writings on this subject you might want to visit:   

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=high+speed+rail+2.0

Or, you can just type High Speed Rail 2.0 in the search box on this page.

I have found that sometimes it is better to laugh at the Clowns than get frustrated with their antics.

Bob Bandy – December 2023