In hopes of clarifying

Following up on today's post about the proposed split of Santa Barbara County, I wanted to revisit the topic in the hope of clarifying. Specifically, to give background to some of my comments:

Nowadays, these people want to spend a literal fortune, some $500 million, on alternative transportation measures including the construction of a commuter rail project to transport commuters from Ventura County to Goleta. To think that our county residents would volunteer to pay the full cost of this project without a buy in from the residents of Ventura is mind-boggling to say the least, but is nonetheless under full consideration by the members of the SBCAG. It is my opinion that the South County should pay for the rail out of their own stream of funds, because this project doesn't serve the North County and besides, they cost us all the fortune by delaying this inevitable widening project in the first place.

The most frustrating aspect of the debate this day has to do with the staff of SBCAG. These staff members have been continually seeking to subvert the majority will of the board members who have stated time and time again that what they are interested in doing is renewing Measure D as it is set to expire in a couple of years. But these staff members, some of whom would lose their jobs if Measure D is not renewed, are becoming desperate in their attempt to insure the renewal measure passes. They are literally pandering to the fringe promising them whatever it takes to get their support for the renewal even at the literal expense of the majority of the voting public. They believe they have most of the politicians on SBCAG over a barrel. The staff knows these community leaders are reliant upon Measure D in order to fund local road maintenance, so they figure they will go along for the ride, no matter how much it costs, in order to pacify the fringe.

In a nutshell, here is where we stand. The original Measure D was a half-cent sales tax. Simply renewing Measure D won't pay for the rail nor half of all the other alternatives that the fringe is demanding. So, the staff of SBCAG is planning on floating not just a renewal of Measure D but an additional new quarter cent sales tax to fund all the extras. And though their chicanery is obvious, the proposal is to mix and match these two sales tax measures so that voters will not be able to simple choose between road maintenance in one measure and alternative transportation measures in the second measure. No, staff is recommending that each sales tax measures contain both road projects and alternative transportation projects. Furthermore, staff recently made a deal with the fringe groups and promised to divert even more of the traditional funding formula away from roads without approval by the board of SBCAG! For this, I think we should consider sending staff down the road!

Beware of local politicians going along with this ruse because money is the mother's milk of politics. The SBCAG staff is promising everything to everybody and you are going to be paying for it all for the next 30 years every time you make a single purchase anywhere in this county. These projects are going to cost you the consumer more than a billion dollars with a good portion of that money going to projects like rail service to Ventura and bike lanes to nowhere! Services that North County residents will likely never use.

Measure D has been good for our county and should be renewed, but we shouldn't be held hostage to pay for things we don't want or need.

While the question of Measure D is an entirely separate issue, it is indicative of the problem that exists between the South Coast and North County. So when I say things like "Tax money is siphoned down to the South coast where it is spent on things that North County residents don't ever see. That is what fuels the drive for a split," this is the kind of ridiculousness I refer to.