Mike, let me be really clear about something that differentiates honest, informed, engaged, educated, reasonable and fair minded Citizens from the opinions of the BEE editorial staff;  DISTRUSTING LOCAL GOVERNMENT IS NOT PARANOIA.  IT IS COMMON SENSE; ESPECIALLY WHEN DISCUSSING TAX INCREASES AND ROAD MANAGEMENT!!

                   Mike, please understand, we know that you have a job to do, you want to provide for your family, and part of your job is to protect the interests of an inept set of local governments.  We think you drew the short straw regarding criticizing Ted Howze, and we suspect that you may even feel the shame we ask you to internalize.  But, face it, you signed the opinion, so you are going to take the heat.  Let me explain why I strongly disagree with the opinion.

                   Ted Howze represents the good people of Turlock; ALL 70,000 good people of Turlock.  You know, the ones who pay taxes, and those who do not; the ones who drive city streets and county roads; the ones whose wallets and bank accounts are being squeezed by corrupt governments who over spend by millions of dollars; the Citizens whose tax monies are being spent on bloated government salaries; the Citizens whose services are cut when governments “run out of money”.   When an honest elected official like Ted Howze says that his Council wants absolute guarantees that a tax increase levied against these Citizens is spent honestly, THAT IS NOT EGO, NOR IS IT PARANOIA.  That is a good man faithfully representing the Citizens who elected him.

                   You say, “...it (working for your constituents) must be set aside when working with others for the greater good.”  What exactly does that mean?  Should Howze and his Council throw their tax paying constituents under the bus on behalf of some “others”?   Just who are  the “others”?  Do you, or the BEE, or StanCOG decide where the Citizens of Turlock should spend their tax dollars?  It seems to me that your editorial spouts an opinion that is exactly what Howze, his Council, and the Citizens of Turlock, need to be protected against.  And that is all Howze wants, PROTECTION FROM AN INEPT GOVERNMENT.

                   Your opinion admits, no, it embraces the idea that a pressing issue in our county is “...crumbling and inadequate roads.”  Well, Mike, just how did this happen?  Is it because our governments spent the proper amount of tax money in maintaining these roads?  Is it because our governments were responsible with the vast amounts of tax money they control, and took care of our roads?  Or, is it because our local governments have short changed the road maintenance funding by Millions of dollars every year?  Is it because governments are good and do the right thing?   Or, could it be that our governments did the same thing with roads that they did with the library?  They stole funds from the library, and then asked us to increase our tax to pay for the library.  Now, they close the library and fire librarians ANYHOW.  Preventing this abuse is exactly what honest, informed, and concerned elected officials should prevent from happening.  Howze IS doing exactly that.  He demands that his 70,000 constituent’s money be spent the way THEY want, not the way some distant governmental body wants.

                   You know that great minds often arrive at the same conclusions.  This road tax situation is one of them.  The Stanislaus Taxpayers Association and the Turlock Council came to the same conclusion, independently of each other.  A plausible explanation for this agreement could be that we both actually read the entire ordinance.

The Taxpayers thought that the “final draft” released on June 6^th for discussion only 3 working days later, had WAY too much

“wiggle room” for two things.  The were, 1) who controls distribution of the tax revenues, and, 2) what projects are going to be guaranteed for completion?  The Taxpayers offered our common sense suggestions for changing the ordinance, and they were accepted.   Howze and his Council had similar concerns, and offered common sense solutions, which were accepted  Apparently, the BEE does not see that there were problems with the ordinance, and does not agree with the common sense solutions.  Thus, a nasty and personal attack on Howze appears in the Sunday edition of the BEE.  Perhaps a careful reading of the ordinance would have prevented this.

                   Mike, you may think that I am being hard on you.  Well, you might consider the words you printed, and the impact they may have.  Those words certainly irritated me.  I think you are absolutely incorrect.  Moreover, you trust local government.  The BEE editorial staff may want increased taxes, and or may have a vendetta against Ted Howze.   My guess is that the majority of your readers do not agree with your opinion.

Finally, let me make another thing very clear.  The proposed road tax is not something my associates agree with.  It comes at a VERY bad time.  The Middle Class taxpayer is suffering.  Governments have intentionally defunded road maintenance in order to bludgeon the tax payer into a lousy choice, using a threat; the threat is, either raise your taxes or your lousy roads will stay lousy.  The BEE apparently supports that threat.  It does so to the extent of attacking those who simply want to add guarantees where there were none.

Finally, did you know that StanCOG is using about $600,000 of our transportation tax money, to try and sell us on the idea that we should raise our taxes?  Of course you did, the BEE printed the story.   So, you agree that our roads are crumbling, you tell us we are full of ego when we ask for an honest ordinance, you tell us we do not participate in decision making enough, and you DEFINITELY want us to throw ourselves under the bus of inept government.  Apparently, you do not seem to care that it is transit money that is funding a sales campaign.   Amazing.

You, and the other editors of the BEE, should feel ashamed. 

Thank you, Dave

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