I’ve never held back my criticisms of Gavin Newsom but I do appreciate the fact that he is opposing the efforts of the SEIU-United Healthcare Workers to place a one-time five percent “billionaire tax act” ballot measure on the November ballot to screw about 200 of California’s wealthiest residents and force them to leave California, thereby causing the state to face larger budget deficits.

There are folks in the underclass whose line of thinking is: “Yeah, stick it to the filthy rich. They’ve got  plenty and should help others.”

Aside from the fact that billionaires do give generously to charity, what progressives can’t seem to get in their thick skulls is that when you tax something more, you curtail whatever you’re taxing. That’s why we don’t tax groceries – people need to eat. So when you impose draconian taxes on the rich, they go to where they’re taxed less – taking all that tax revenue with them.

It’s not rocket science, folks. California have already seen an exodus of residents because it has the highest income tax rate of any state. If you tax the hell out of rich people, you’ll force them to move to a friendly state with a lower tax rate. That will cause the state to lose major taxpayers and Newsom knows that such a tax would topple a pillar of the state’s tax base.

The union’s chief of staff, Suzanne Jimenez, said: “Healthcare workers are going to the ballot to prevent California hospitals and emergency rooms from closing. Congress created a $100 billion crisis for California through HR1 last July — and California voters will solve that problem when they pass the billionaire tax act this November.”

Newsom isn’t altruistic in his opposition. If he supports such a ballot measure, he risks losing his big Silicon Valley campaign donors – exactly what he needs as he ramps up a White House run. The move would alienate supporters like Ron Conway of San Francisco who has a lot of money to throw Newsom’s way.

Newsom predicts such a ballot measure will be defeated and doesn’t want his brand attached to a failing measure.

If it were to pass, the tax would be due in 2027, and taxpayers could spread payments over five years, with interest, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. The measure would apply to anyone who was a California resident as of Jan. 1, 2026 which is why several rich business figures and billionaires have relocated or restructured holdings outside the state in 2025. Google co-founder Larry Page, Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, and Craft Ventures co-founder David Sacks have made moves to shift out of California. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison sold his San Francisco mansion for about $45 million. 

Billionaires’ money is put to work in the economy, not just sitting fat in bank accounts. Billionaires fund jobs, investments and business. Taxing them more than they are already taxed stifles all kind of economic activity – something California cannot afford. How many billions of dollars of red ink is the state budget finding already?

As we wait to see what damage Zohran Mamdami does to the Big Apple, I pray that Californians begin to wise up and reject brainless socialist efforts here at the ballot box.

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In the course of my life, I’ve visited a number of museums and have seen the handwriting and artwork of students from the one-room school houses or 100 to 150 years ago. Any notion of mine that students back in the day were less sophisticated was quickly dispelled by what I studied.

I saw a level of sophistication that students were learning Latin and Greek and memorized poetry. They were immersed in the discipline of neat penmanship and they had a great artistic sense in their drawings. Their classmate autograph albums were filled with clever prose that they composed. Their diligence is mind-boggling compared to today’s TikTok generation which has the attention span of a squirrel.

Apparently there’s a trend across this country to see how far kids can push personal safety to the limit and pop wheelies towards vehicles and scare the drivers witless. So as I continue to see media reports of imbecilic children – mostly males – riding bikes in the street in packs I can’t help it wonder what happened in our country and honestly, we can’t blame the schools. We must blame what’s going on at home.

Standards of parenting have been tossed right out the window. Is common sense being displayed at home? Do parents have a clue what kids are doing?

It’s common knowledge that the young male brain is not fully developed until the mid-20s – that can be debated – and that junior high boys have long demonstrated a feeling of invincibility and wanton disregard for sensible actions. That’s where law enforcement needs to step in and crack down.

If you are like me, after seeing the metal midgets occupy lanes of the freeway in Manteca last week you were shaking your head in disbelief. Whether these kids have zero concept of consequences for bad behavior or a death wish has yet to be determined. It’s equally frustrating for the drivers because they know if they strike a bicyclist clowning around in the road – regardless of how a bicyclist disregards his own safety – they’ll be held legally and financially responsible.

Then there is the other kind of juvenile delinquent – no doubt raised by a single mom because so many dads are abandoning their wives and kids – who is okay with stealing. We saw that last month when a pack of young bicyclists stopped at a market on Central Avenue and stole a bunch of beverages.

This is not to say that all parents are failing because recently on social media there was a video of a young Ceres boy who was going door-to-door seeking odd jobs in order to earn money to buy a video game when he saw a trashcan blown over and went over and picked it up. Nobody prompted him to do that good deed. The young man had a sense of community and obviously was taught that it is good to help others.

But it is apparent that there are a large number of people who are reproducing and shouldn’t be. Sure, they’re down with the act of creating babies but they are derelict in their duty to raise children properly. Maybe it’s a good thing that the U.S. birth rate has been dropping.

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It’s nice having Cerina Otero and James Casey on the council – and sometimes Rosalinda Vierra – to counter the judgments of the mayor and vice mayor.

Last week Vice Mayor Daniel Martinez pushed for interviews of the next planning commission candidates to be done behind closed doors, conducted by a subcommittee of the council. In other words, he and the mayor want to be the sole interviewers so they can recommend who to appoint.

Otero, Casey and Vierra all said nope, let’s keep everything out in the open.

Why is Martinez a fan of secret interviews? This is what he said: “You get to hear some of their answers because it’s not as stressful for them to speak.”

Shouldn’t leaders need to be able to speak in a public setting? If an individual is too stressed to answer questions during an interview they likely don’t have the mettle and shouldn’t be asking for a position where they must ask questions and at times explain their posirions in a public meeting.

Otero not only wants to keep interviews in an open session, she suggested that the council give applicants the option to speak via Zoom. It was her way of countering Martinez who offered the flimsiest of excuses for appointing Francisco Mireles last year instead of Kelly Cerny because he showed up in-person and she was in Monterey on a vacation and answered questions via Zoom.

Rosalinda Vierra also called for the “need to be transparent to the public … and it still needs to be open access to everybody.”

Casey suggested that it wasn’t fair that Cerny was allowed to attend by Zoom without it being used against her. But then again, Casey suspects the mayor and vice mayor harbor some kind of resentment against Cerny. Why else does she continue to be turned down over and over? If they ever vote to appoint Cerny I’ll issue my apologies to the mayor and vice mayor.

Speaking of planning commission applicants, never in the past have their identities been withheld from this newspaper. Applications were due Dec. 18, 2025 and we have yet to know who applied. We requested the names from City Clerk Fallon Martin who told us the names would be released for the Jan. 12 agenda. They were not. When we requested the names again last week after not seeing them, we were told they would be released for the Jan. 26 council meeting, at which time they will be interviewed.

City Manager Doug Dunford said he would get back to us on why the names have been withheld and he did not do so as of press deadline.

I’ve been editor for 37 years and have not seen this level of secrecy until now. Makes you wonder who is controlling things at City Hall. So much for transparency.

* * * * *

At the last council meeting, Councilman James Casey said he wants the council to revisit a section of the Ceres Municipal Code which he says isn’t being followed relating to the Ceres Planning Commission. The first item he mentioned is that a student commissioner is called but yet there hasn’t been one in decades. Secondly, Casey pointed out that if a commissioner misses two consecutive meetings they are automatically expelled unless approved by commissioners. He noted that a member (Dorie Perez) missed meetings that were excused by city staff so he wants that section reworded.

Casey also brought up the need to crackdown on food vendors who appear to not be collecting sales tax. He noted that during the Christmas Festival he bought hot food from the vendors permitted in the park by the city and that the receipt printed out that no sales tax was charged.

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Why does government often catch the brunt of public ire when it fails to address issues when many problems are caused by the public?

On a national scale, the American people elected Biden who opened the southern border and caused a flood of millions of unvetted immigrants to walk in. Trump gets elected, cleans up Biden’s mess by upholding the laws Congress passed and now people are screaming and crying about lawbreakers facing justice.

Citizens interfering with police matters – ICE agents are federal police – and then they get hurt for getting shot and cry about it. Blame yourself for losing your eye, Kaden Rummler.

On a local level look at the problems facing the Stanislaus Animal Services Agency (SASA). You have an agency, which is short on staff and limited funds, charged with taking in unwanted cats and dogs because the public, as a whole, is irresponsible with their pets. Dogs and cats require care and that means cost and if you aren’t willing to take them to the vet or spay or neuter them then don’t become a pet owner. Don’t contribute to the proliferation of animals that will be shipped off to the Cornucopia Way animal shelter which likely will not find a new home but forced to administer a lethal dose of sodium pentobarbital which will stop their heart to kill them. The number of animals that are being killed (euthanasia sounds so much less harsh doesn’t it?) is heartbreaking!

A group met last week to brainstorm how to improve SASA, which has been criticized the lack of affordable spay and neuter programs, feral cat trap-neuter-return services, and vaccination clinics and demanding dramatically improved animal intake and customer service.

City Manager Doug Dunford cited a lack of enough personnel or volunteers as a key problem and suggested maybe recruiting interns among UC Davis students aspiring to become a veterinarian.

The real answer is citizens being responsible. But as we have seen people becoming more irresponsible (parenting, driving, voting) with each advancing generation, don’t look for that to happen – unless consequences are enacted.

* * * * * 

Many Americans are looking at the voters of New York City and thinking, you elected a socialist who promised a lot of free stuff and destroy the free market so what happens to you guys is your own fault. You made your bed now lie in it.

There are too many young people who think socialism is the answer. They think free stuff is actually free. My economics professor at Stan State told us “there is no such thing as a free lunch – somebody pays for it.” That stuck with me.

So when I heard Chris Ricci, the Modesto City Councilman speak in Ceres at the public meeting regarding the SASA animal shelter, I took notice of something he said. He remarked about how Modesto had to turn to private enterprise to end the blood loss of the Modesto Centre Plaza and city golf courses. Ricci said: “Modesto’s had to solve problems using creativity where other government agencies just wouldn’t do it.”

They turned to privatization! Ricci said the center was losing a million dollars a year for 20 years. What do they do? They came up with a private entity that “would manage it for us, and we are no longer losing that million dollars a year. The same thing happened with our golf courses. Golf courses were losing a million dollars a year.” After farming out the work, he said, the golf courses are now making money.

Maybe farming out SASA is the answer to poor services and rising expenses.

The point is that government is horribly inefficient at running services.

This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation.  How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com