Opinion and Commentary By Donna Westfall – December 10, 2024

People protest all the time. Personally, I haven’t been to a protest rally in several months. The last one was on Hwy 101 in front of CVS Pharmacy waving an Israeli flag in support of that country being able to defend itself from the Hamas nightmare of October 7, 2023.

But I have handed in my protest letter in the past to Treasurer/Tax Collector of Del Norte County, Barbara Lopez. Specifically, my biggest gripe was that our public schools are not doing a good job in educating our children. At that time, Mrs. Lopez told me she didn’t know what to do with my protest letter.

This year I’m simply going to attach my letter with the following.

“I protest the way my taxes are being spent and here are some of the reasons.”

Then I’ll include Congressman Kevin Kiley’s list:

1.-homelessness (1 out of 50)

2. -poverty (1 out of 50)

3. –Retail crime (1 out of 50)

4. –Anti-business regulations (1 out of 50)

5.-frivolous lawsuits (1 out of 50)

6. -unemployment (1 out of 50)

7. –wage stagnation (1 out of 50)

8.-restrictions on workers (1 out of 50)

9. –gas prices (1 out of 50)

10. -housing costs (2 out of 50)

11. -water bills (2 out of 50)

12. -energy/electricity costs (3 out of 50)

13. -inequality (3 out of 50)

14. – income tax (1 out of 50)

15. -gas tax (1 out of 50)

16. -budget deficit (1 out of 50)

17. -road disrepair (3 out of 50)

18. -illiteracy (1 out of 50)

19. -educational inequity (2 out of 50)

20. -COVID school shutdowns (1 out out of 50)

21. -COVID business shutdowns (1 out of 50)

22. -COVID mandates (1 out of 50)

23. -illegal border crossings (1 out of 50)

24. -funding for illegal immigrants (1 out of 50)

25. -People leaving state (1 out of 50)

I believe Newsom is the worst Governor in my lifetime and ranks right up there with with Biden as the worst President ever. For Newsom to have any aspirations of running for President says to me that he’s clearly delusional. I think I’ll ask Mrs. Lopez to include a copy of my tax protest letter to Gov. Newsom.

Now, before we end, on the home front, we still have Measures S (City) and Measures R (County) 1% sales taxes to protest. Has anyone noticed how well our monies are being spent on repairing our horrible streets? Right! Because they haven’t. We did get a new parking lot across from the Sheriff’s Station. Don’t know about you, but I didn’t vote to create a parking lot when I thought that money was going to be spent on actually repairing streets. Now I realize that the 1% sales tax is not part of property taxes. Just know that people are already talking about getting the repeal on the 2026 ballot and along with that, repealing the Fire Protection District Tax. Do you even know how many homes are affected? Do you have any idea how many call outs are not to home owners who pay this tax through their property taxes. I’ve asked. Nobody has taken the time to answer.

Probably my number 1 gripe is about property taxes being spent for public education. Back in the 1950’s our nation was number ONE in public education. Not anymore. It’s just so dismal. If our politicians would get their heads screwed on straight, maybe this can be corrected.

Ending on a positive note, as of the time of this publication we have just 40 days, 23 hours, 53 minutes and 45 seconds until Trump is inaugurated.