Unresolved State Issues

With terrorism and the prospect of war looming, unresolved statewide issues seem less important but taxpayers and consumers need to be extra diligent in watching their wallets.

Take, for example, the limited news reports regarding Ventura County’s negotiations with its employees union. The last anyone heard, with a pay raise in the bank, the only thing holding up a new contract were cost-of-living adjustments to the employees’ pensions. It mattered little that nearly 95% of the county’s service employees are already in line for the COLAs that come with their Social Security benefits, union negotiators were still pressing county administrators for what amounts to a taxpayer double-dip in the pension COLAs. And the people who will be supplying the money are being kept in the dark.

The same could be said for the state’s energy “crisis,” save for all the bad news coming out about how the state was considering plans to drain its residents’ financial resources to make up for all the bad power purchase deals the Davis administration has made. Long forgotten are the news articles about governmental and private industry actions contributing to the state’s energy woes that served as reminders of where the state could have gone to recover its consumers’ ill-taken money. In their stead are fresh stories about what happens now that all the previous crimes don’t seem to matter any more.

Having contracted for too much electricity, the state Department of Water Resources is seeking to force the utilities to sell all the electricity to which the state is contractually obligated before they can sell any of their more cheaply generated electricity. To make matters worse, the newly created Power Authority wants to increase the amount of more costly “renewable” energy the utilities have to sell their customers. All in all, it’s not a very promising outlook without even considering the money consumers and taxpayers are going to have to cough up to pay for the governor’s proposed bailout of the utilities.

It’s hard to tell whether the people who elected the current batch of local and state leaders are fiscal masochists bent on self-destruction or social sadists looking to bankrupt their neighbors. But all is not lost--there is another batch of elections next year and this ugly mess can be set right. Those who can still afford to live in California when spring 2002 comes would be wise to have a list handy to remind themselves whom it was that “led” them to where they are today!

BRUCE ROLAND

Ojai