Forbes has Stanislaus County ranked the 20th hardest hit county in the country for foreclosures. We have 1,170 houses that have negative equity. Out of these houses, 28.4% are entering foreclosure. People are barely hanging on, and our elected leaders are licking their chops at the prospect of raising our sales tax by 0.5% to pay for road improvements. I guess it will be better to push a few more of these unfortunate souls into foreclosure, and bankruptcy in order to facilitate road improvements. We could require the developers to pay for much of this cost, but the developers own our politicians, and that will certainly not happen.

I think the supporters of this new road tax are out of touch with the realities of our local economy. There is no way that two thirds of our voters will vote to make their lives more expensive. Many of the voters are living on extremely tight budgets, and are trying to hang on until things get better. The answer for our elected officials is not higher taxes. The answer is learning how to spend the money more wisely. Modesto has been on a roll lately wasting our tax dollars. Expensive law suits, $250,000.00 pay increases, millions spent for consultants that should be handled in house by city staff. Stanislaus County gives away $15 Million so that the rich can play at the Gallo Arts Center. I will have much more to say about this story as the time grows nearer to the election. The cities of Stanislaus County are already fighting over the money like they have this thing all locked up. I believe that the voters will let them know just how unpopular tax increases are during a recession.          Tux 

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