Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Who needs Elections when you have the unelected Bay Area Council?

 Who needs Elections when you have the unelected Bay Area Council?
Who needs elections when you have the “Bay Area Council” an organization that consists of appointees of local and county government. This group, ALL unelected to the position, now want to raise taxes—and take the responsibility for housing and zoning from the local city council and community. The crony capitalists and unions want to close down YOUR city council, except to issue resolutions congratulating the local blood bank for meeting its quota.
“The report continues: “Given the nature of the economy, its labor pool, housing sheds, job centers, and commute flows, viable solutions must reflect a regional perspective.”
The Bay Area Council is a business-sponsored group that studies public policy.
The Bay Area Council Roadmap calls for strengthening a California-wide program called The Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). RHNA “needs teeth,” the report says. The RHNA program demands that each Bay Area city build housing for low-income individuals.
The solution is simple—stop you city from participating or financing this totalitarian organization. Think about unelected people deciding the density of housing in your community—folks you never heard of, who hold meetings and make decisions without telling you. Angry yet?
taxes

Bay Area Council Roadmap calls for even more taxes, regional government

by Richard Colmana Costa Bee, 11/11/15
More taxes, bigger government, and loss of local control are just down the road according to proposals contained in the Bay Area Council Roadmap, a chilling document released by the think-tank that examines the local economy.
The Bay Area Council Roadmap document, “A Roadmap for Economic Resilience” states, ” . . . the Bay Area lacks any cohesive and comprehensive regional economic strategy for sustaining economic growth, weathering business cycles and supporting shared prosperity across the region.”
The Bay Area Council Roadmap was presented during a recent Bay Area Regional Economic Summit, held November 6 in Sacramento, California.
The report continues: “Given the nature of the economy, its labor pool, housing sheds, job centers, and commute flows, viable solutions must reflect a regional perspective.”
The Bay Area Council is a business-sponsored group that studies public policy.
The Bay Area Council Roadmap calls for strengthening a California-wide program called The Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). RHNA “needs teeth,” the report says. The RHNA program demands that each Bay Area city build housing for low-income individuals.
Part of the California’s housing plan demands the creation of Secondary Units also called “in-law” units. Secondary Units allow a property owner to construct — on his property — a guest home for low-income people.
The report says, “Lack of investment in the region’s aging and overcrowded transportation systems is undermining the Bay Area’s future prosperity.”
The Bay Area Council Roadmap calls for higher taxes. The report says, “Funding tools such as expanded tolling on bridges, highway corridors, and express lanes can be leveraged and allocated to key projects.”
Is the answer to the Bay Area’s problems more government?
To answer this question, all one has to do is examine what the last several years have been like.
In 2000, stocks in Silicon Valley companies began a steep decline. In 2000, the NASDAQ stock market, on which many Silicon Valley companies are traded, reached 5048.62. By 2002, NASDAQ declined to 1114.11. On November 9, 2015, NASDAQ closed at 5,095.30, a number higher than that reached in the year 2000. However, when one corrects for inflation, NASDAQ has not returned to where it was in 2000.
During the financial crisis of 2008-2009, stocks on all American stock exchanges dropped. Housing values in the Bay Area plummeted. For example in Pittsburg, California, houses prices that were at $600,000 in 2007 dropped to $300,000 in 2009.
The Bay Area, like the rest of California, is pricing itself out of business. Today’s California has the nation’s highest sales tax, the nation’s highest gasoline tax, and the highest top bracket for any state’s personal income tax: 13.3%. The California State Legislature is the highest paid state legislature in the nation. California’s corporate income tax (8.84%) in the seventh highest among the 50 states.
California already has had experience with regional government. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), an organization that does transportation planning for the nine-county Bay Area, and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), which is involved in housing matters, adopted Plan Bay Area in July 2013. The plan calls for high-rise, high-density housing in Bay Area cities. The members of the MTC and ABAG boards are not directly elected by voters. Why should Bay Area residents trust unelected — and, hence, unaccountable — people who might be in charge of regional government.
Plan Bay Area does not give local communities any choices about high-rise, high-density housing.
No one knows if there will be another crash in Silicon Valley or NASDAQ. No one knows if there will be another financial crisis like the one that occurred in 2008-2009.
Instead of big housing and transportation projects, Bay Area residents might want to do nothing at all. If people, jobs, and businesses start to leave the Bay Area for other states or other nations, there might not be any need for more infrastructure.
"We little people are sure happy to have the Bay Area Council to make the big decisions for us"

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