Two excellent articles in the Bee recently deal with local politicians being forced out of office by huge contributions from special interest groups.

The first article was written by Jeff Jardine, the second was written by John Michael Flint. Both delve into the subject of local politicians being forced out of office by the huge monetary contributions of special interest groups to candidates that are willing to "Sell Their Soul" to the developers. It is no secret that the developers own everyone on the Modesto City Council, and the Stanislaus Board of Supervisors. Some are mostly loyal to one developer in particular, while others are loyal to rival developers in Salida, but the bottom line is that development is KING in this area. This comes at the expense of the average taxpayer, because all this development DOES NOT PAY FOR ITSELF. The developers get our elected officials to shift a great deal of the infrastructure cost on the taxpayers. This is done by insisting that we need a huge expansion of our water treatment facility, when that is not true. It is done by insisting that we also build a second new water treatment plant to provide water on the South side of the Tuolumne. To top things off, we also need a huge expansion of our sewer treatment plant. All of this is being done to pave the way for huge development in the near future that well make Modesto seem like San Jose. Our elected officials try to downplay the fact that all of this infrastructure is being forced on us by the developers. The developers, with the help of their loyal elected officials, are only going to pay for a small portion of the cost of the new infrastructure. The rest will be put on the shoulders of the taxpayers.

When we vote, we need to pay close attention to which candidates are getting all the big money from the developers.

If you list these candidates, you will also see that they are the ones that are endorsed by the Modesto Bee, Chamber of Commerce, Police, and Firemen. It's a ''GOOD OLD BOYS NETWORK.'' These entities are currently working together to make sure that developer friendly candidates get elected. The average taxpayer should avoid these candidates like poison, because that is what they are. They do not represent the average Joe. Concerned citizens need to step forward, and run grass roots  campaigns, and tell the voters that they will represent the taxpayer's interests first. We need to spread the word about what is going on, and most importantly get involved. There is entirely too much apathy about our local politics. TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT OUR WEB-SITE.  Working together, we can all make a difference.      Tux

Comments (2)

Considering a Run for Office written by budthomas on May 13, 2007 Well, the comments such as this that really re-enforce the absolute fact that people are completely fed up with the local representation. The local government is completely out of control, and it's a seemingly sinking ship, which all the politicians are attempting to loot as much as they can. This is totally outrageous! What a bunch of selfish COWARDS they are! STOP DOING WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOUR POCKET, AND START DOING WHAT'S RIGHT FOR THE COMMUNITY! I'm fed up and ready to do something about all this corruption, lack of responsibility, passing the buck, and pure laziness and question of ethical actions...If I at least run for office, I'm sure I'll be somehow blackballed by the Mayor and his puppets, but at least my voice will be heard! Modesto NEEDS a change! Bud Thomas Test written by norcal on August 14, 2006 This is a test Comment

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