Adult use of marijuana is now the lowest priority crime in law enforcement.
The city council is to to oppose UCSC’s growth plans through all legal means.
But don’t raise the minimum wage to $9.25/hour, even though we all know that’s what it takes to afford even a minimal standard of living here in the county. A lot of small businesses opposed this, but here’s a wakeup call: if people can’t afford to live in your town, they can’t afford to shop there, either. More money to your employees means more money into your pocket in the long run.
I didn’t get to vote on any of these issues, as I do not live inside the city limits.
[I wrote an abbreviated version of this as a comment elsewhere, but think it's valid to put it here, too.]
California voted down the $4 billion program to promote alternative energy technology development, which would be funded out of additional taxes on fuel produced in California. Why?
Because we’re excited when our gasoline costs less than $2.79/gallon, and this would increase the cost of gasoline in our state, which is already the highest in the nation. Much of our gasoline is refined in-state, and this would add a tax to in-state fuel, but not out-of-state (Texas and Alaska wilderness) fuel, nor would it tax or reduce usage of foreign oil.
It could have the added benefit of driving the fuel production industry out of state, but that might not be desirable, as we do have oil deposits in Southern California and driving an entire industry (with jobs and money) out of town, and then having to re-import the same product, isn’t necessarily a sound thing to do. It makes great sense for the Texas oil billionaires, though, who could withdraw their California-based fuel producers, then sell Texas oil to us at a huge premium and profit.
Every farm implement used to plant and harvest the enormous amount of agricultural products in California would also pay more for fuel, as would the trucks transporting those goods to other states. Which means the price of tomatoes in Missouri would go up. The cost of bread in New York would rise. Beef would be sold at a prime cost. In general, the price of most produce and meat products nationwide would be affected.
I believe California will still lead in alternative energy development, just not with this particular initiative.
