George Rebane
[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary that was aired on 31 August 2012.]
Last Tuesday August 28th the Nevada County Board of Supervisors took up Propositions 30 and 31 that we will vote on in November. The best I could make out at that well attended meeting was that Supervisor Nate Beason requested ‘the sense of the Board’ on these propositions. This he would take to the Regional Council of Rural Counties, and vote accordingly as our representative on that body.
You might recall that Proposition 30 is Governor Brown’s notorious tax increase. The Board, with Supervisor Lamphier abstaining, stated their opposition to the proposition, presumably because California’s fiscal health and the services it renders have declined with every tax increase in recent memory.
But what drew many of us to the Rood Center that morning was to witness the Board’s discussion and take on Prop31. This proposition has some great marquee points that convinced the state’s Republican Central Committee to endorse it, even though it would make future tax cuts near impossible. Among its highlights are the state’s change to a two-year budget cycle, and requiring all new expenditures in excess of $25M to be offset by new spending cuts and/or revenues.
However, the devious details of Prop31 are located in its deeper parts which outline new sustainability elements that must be included not only in the biennial state budget, but also in the budgets of all local jurisdictions. The bill specifies a list of budget “elements to improve performance and accountability”, and to “promote the purposes of achieving a prosperous economy, quality environment, and community equity, by working to achieve at least the following goals: increasing employment, improving education: decreasing poverty: decreasing crime, and improving health.”
Then it details that the adopted budget of each local jurisdiction shall explain “how the budget will promote … a prosperous economy, quality environment, and community equity.” And these must all tie together with how the state promotes “the vitality and global competitiveness of regional economies and foster greater collaboration among local governments with regions by providing priority consideration for state-administered funds …”. (emphasis mine)
And here’s the worry, Prop31 calls for state approved and eventually mandated plans for regional coordination of sustainable local economies in consideration of environmental impacts and “community equity”. All of that economic and social planning has to then be worked into and explained in every underfunded budget statewide. Oh my.
To many of us, these are all hot buttons for new government involvements in areas where they have been historically and demonstrably inept. And these concerns all come together under the unifying aegis of the United Nations’ overarching Agenda21 for global unification that so enamors progressives and repulses conservatives. There is a lot to Agenda21, and to learn more, just google it or visit my website.
In the end, our supervisors unanimously opposed Prop31 – three of them recognizing Agenda21 as the ‘camel’s nose under the tent’ to do exactly the opposite of what its proponents claim. Supervisors Lamphier and Beason’s oppositions were based only on the proposition’s impact on local control. But I was most surprised when Supervisor Beason went out of his way to state that he felt the proposition had nothing to do with promoting Agenda21.
Nevertheless, that surprising response did remind all who do make the connection, that Agenda21’s ongoing implementation is not heralded by fanfares, banners, and a marching band. Agenda21 arrives bit by piece, wearing the label of ‘sustainable development’ under which free enterprise is quietly replaced by public/private partnerships (read government sanctioned monopolies), equal justice for individuals is replaced by collective “social justice” programs of wealth redistribution, and mounting environmental regulations become the tightening control mechanisms that restrict the uses of private property and access to public lands.
Everyone who believes in liberty and local control should take a hard look at Proposition 31, and join our Board of Supervisors in opposing it.
My name is Rebane, and I expand on this and related themes in my Union columns and on georgerebane.com where the transcript of this commentary with related links is posted. These views are not necessarily shared by KVMR. Thank you for listening.
[Addendum] A more complete report on the impact of Prop31 is found on the calwatchdog.com website which spells out the evils of ‘regionalization’ that is a major plank in Agenda21’s efforts to remove local control. The nearby map indicates the Prop31 mandated revenue sharing regions. These apparently are the dots that Supes Beason and Lamphier were not able/willing to connect.
