Opinion and Commentary By Donna Westfall – October 16, 2023
Del Norte County is among the 10 poorest counties in California.
Del Norte County has almost 12% of our declining population living in poverty.
What is our population, just over 27,000.
Declining population. Declining school enrollment. But ever increasing taxes.
We are the northernmost town in California, just a 20-30 minute drive to Brookings, Oregon where gas prices tend to stay 50 cents to almost a $1 less per gallon than California gas prices.
What we need are at least three Supervisors that look out for the constituent, the taxpayers that are footing the bill for this enormous budget. We currently don’t have three Supervisors that will do this.
What we need are at least three Supervisors that will take the steps to DECREASE expenses and cut programs that are no longer valid. We currently don’t have three Supervisors that will do this.
What we need are people of the public that wake up and concern themselves with the slippery slope our local government has created with this bloated budget.
Government was never supposed to cover every aspect of our lives. But in tax-happy California and Del Norte County, government is creeping in like the blob, soon nobody will be able to think or act on their own.
When will it end? Hard to tell because we can’t seem to arouse people with any financial smarts to step up and join the ranks of government.
Wonder if anyone has calculated how many trips our supervisors have taken and the money spent when they could have attended via zoom? Particularly District 3 Supervisor, Chris Howard. I believe he holds the record for most trips taken.
Let’s look at one idiotic proposal of the Board of Supervisors in conjunction with the Crescent City Harbor District and the Crescent City, City Council. That’s to resurrect the Tri Agency. They want to put wind farms out in the ocean. Just another expense, and expensive pipe dream that will never see the light of day. Didn’t any of them do their homework and find out why this is a bad idea?
Now, they probably could have explored bringing in or starting businesses or manufacturing plants that could create jobs for locals, but NO. They would rather spend their time and our money to discuss ventures that have failed in other parts of the country.
What we are left with is more inflation. No one in our County government is looking at how to combat inflation. They are only creating more inflation.
$211 million plus. That’s the budget for the coming year. The highest ever. Nothing to be proud of.
