PAT ORR
APPLE VALLEY REVIEW
A recent release from Sharon Runner’s camp says that one of the first pieces of legislation she will propose is to make it legal to “appoint” someone to a State Senate or Assembly seat when there is only one qualified candidate running for that office and forgo the expense of an election whose outcome is certain – like hers to the 21st State Senate Seat March 17.
That a good, sound, fiscally responsible idea that I proposed in last week’s column. Gosh, I hope she's as responsive to all my suggestions when she gets to Sacramento.
Another I would like to propose is a bill that would suspend all prevailing wage requirements on any California road building project as long as state gasoline taxes continue to be levied against us. This, it seems to me, is a gift of public funds to union labor that contracts most of the roadwork. Politicians arbitrarily inflate the costs to build new roads by pandering to their biggest union contributors, then beg us for more taxes because it costs so much to build roads. A nice fraud we California voters continue to fall for year after year.
Based on what's being floated in Sacramento, 2016 is likely to see several new tax increase ballot propositions because some feel it's now a slam dunk to get non-taxpayers (which is quickly becoming a majority of Californians) to vote more taxes for the rest of us to pay.
It's never too early
State Attorney General Kamala Harris has declared her intent to seek Diane Feinstein’s Senate seat in 2016. Not to be outdone, Assistant Gov. Gavin Newsome has declared he will start collecting nickels and dimes to fund his campaign to replace Jerry Brown in 2018.
I hate to be a geographic racist, but we only have one elected state office holder who doesn’t hail from the San Francisco Bay area – clearly the most far-left, politically liberal part of our “left coast.”
Is there no other part of this great state that can produce a viable candidate? Pete Wilson came from San Diego and his quiet, cool beach boy demeanor was the envy of the nation. We had a car dealer from Long Beach, George Deukmejian, and an actor from Hollywood via Boron – Ronald Reagan. We even imported a past Governor from Austria and now we can’t break San Francisco’s stranglehold on our state.
Yes, San Bernardino County District Attorney Ramos has announced he will run for the State Attorney General’s spot in 2016, but keep your eye on George Gascon, the Cuban-born former police chief who was appointed to be the San Francisco DA by Newsome after Kamala Harris moved up and out.
Locally, people keep whispering in my ear that Angela Valles is itching to replace Robert Lovingood as First District Supervisor in 2016 now that she is at loose ends without a political role to play – by her own choice. There's a lot of union money out there frustrated that they couldn’t get a sitting Congresswoman elected to the Fourth District Supervisorial seat in 2014 to flip the Board to three decidedly liberal votes. The next chance comes in 2016 when Lovingood and Janice Rutherford will be the targets of choice.
Compare and contrast
A recent press release from Apple Valley Ranchos discussed a five-year $35 million commitment to infrastructure replacement costs with planned expenditures of about $9 million for 7 miles of replacement pipeline. That works out to about $1.3 million per mile.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, on the other hand, needs billions in pipe replacement and they have announced a five year $1.3 billion plan at a little under $3 million per mile – if the LA City Council can see the political benefit to granting water rate increases and bond debt to pull it all off. Now clearly there is no “apple to apples” cost comparison between an Apple Valley Municipal water system and the mighty LA DWP, but the political issues of raising water rates and property taxes to fund outdated pipes and the higher costs of government employees and contractors to do the work is worth discussion.
— Pat Orr is a local business owner, community volunteer and political junkie.