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WELCOME TO THE SABATINO REPORT December 27, 2006 Today’s Bee story, “Future iffy for 2nd try on tax” with quotes from Craig Lewis, chairman of the “Yes on K” committee deserves some response. LEWIS: “We’ve learned a lot from this election, but, quite frankly, we haven’t made a decision about trying again.” SR: What have you learned Mr. Lewis? That spending a half million dollars, on a “big lies” campaign, failed to fool 42% of the voters. LEWIS: “We’ll reach out to the community. We want to talk to individuals and organizations.” SR: We know a lot of people you didn’t talk to Mr. Lewis. By looking at your campaign mailers we think you wanted the support and endorsement of the important people. LEWIS: “We are going to step back, listen and learn. Maybe there are better ideas out there. If there’s a better way, let’s hear it. We’re all ears.” SR: Why did you and the Modesto Bee refuse to acknowledge the existence of the ballot measure proposed by former mayor Carmen Sabatino? The Mayor used the San Joaquin County ballot measure as a model. Guess what? San Joaquin renewed their tax measure in November while $500,000 failed to buy the passage of the Stanislaus measure. The Sabatino measure was crafted in fairness with our local roads in mind. He is willing to support a measure where cities will receive a piece of the pie. He is not willing to give tax dollars to the few. Below is a reprint of the 9/07//06 article from The Sabatino Report, published before the November election. September 27, 2006 THINK ABOUT IT WHY WOULD WE TRUST THE SAME DEVELOPERS WHO TOOK MILLIONS OF YOUR TAX DOLLARS AND GAVE YOU THE SCANDALS OF VILLAGE ONE, THE LANDFILL, HIGH WATER RATES, HIGH GARBAGE RATES AND NOW WILL TAKE BILLIONS OF YOUR TAX DOLLARS IF THE MEASURE K TRANSPORTATION TAX PASSES TRANSPORTATION TAX OF 2002 In 2002 the Mayors of the nine cities, members of the Board of Supervisors, city and county staff, and even the publisher of the Bee, worked on a transportation ballot measure that has been completely ignored. We need to fix transportation but not with Measure K. Demand that the Bee explain the difference between the 2002 tax proposal and what they want you to vote on in November. Why would we trust the same people who gave you the scandals of Village 1, $100 million in uncollected taxpayer money that could have fixed Floyd Ave. The landfill spent $14 million on property appraised at $10.75 million and can not be sold for $7million today. The water rates, are so confusing they are difficult to understand and evaluate. We will have to wait until the city understands them. The garbage rates, by overcharging garbage rate payers $19 million to buy the landfill. They don’t explain where the $5 million difference went.. . Spending over a half-million dollars of your tax dollars to prosecute Mayor Carmen Sabatino and according to Mike Zagaris, make him ‘political road-kill”? Why would we trust them with billions of dollars when they have not paid their fair share for the infrastructure they now want to improve? The homeowners of Village 1 do not and will not have the infrastructure they paid for. THINK ABOUT IT…THEY WANT THE MONEY TO ACCOMODATE MORE HOUSES. SABATINO REPORT ON BEE ARTICLE First shots fired in bid to increase sales tax Modesto Bee 9/3/2006 By MICHAEL G. MOONEY Craig Lewis and his committee say they will spend over a half-million dollars of their money to “educate” you to vote for the one-half per cent sales tax. They want you to believe they are willing to spend their own money to pass this tax because they are good-hearted community leaders! They really want to use tax dollars to increase the profit on their developments. Mickey Peabody who was the administrative assistant to Supervisor Pat Paul has been assigned the most unfortunate quote, “money raised through the tax will be under the scrutiny and direction of a special Citizens’ committee---not controlled by politicians.” Politician Peabody knows better! The citizens committee now controls the politicians. That is why nobody trusts government. They can spend a half-million dollars to elect, unseat, or destroy public officials. The Mayor’s of Oakdale and Turlock chose not to run. Can anyone blame them? PERSPECTIVES TO THINK ABOUT As Mayor of Modesto I brought the nine cities of Stanislaus County together to propose a transportation tax. Most of our workshops were held in the Modesto Bee conference room. Supervisor Ray Simon, CEO Reagan Wilson, and County Counsel Krausnick among others scuttled that ballot measure before it got to the ballot. Why? Craig Lewis came to my office with the committee and said he could not support the transportation tax as long as Gary Dixon remained as CEO of the Stanislaus Council of Governments. Lewis wanted Dixon fired as a condition of his support. When Ray Simon showed up for a STANCOG meeting, Gary Dixon greeted him by saying “This is your first visit.” Simon replied, “And it will be my last.” What has led to Simon’s conversion to support a tax? Could it have anything to do with his continued desire to control taxpayer money?
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