Democrats are salivating at the prospects of enacting a mileage tax.
Such a tax would get around the issue of all these electric vehicle owners not buying gas and thus not paying a gas tax to fund the repair of the roads they are helping to rip up. No, this wouldn’t be a replacement of the exorbitant gas tax we gas-burning car owners pay at the pumps. No, it’s an added tax they (Democrats) want to pass.
The tax is proposed at six cents per mile. The average driver puts 15,000 miles on their car, probably higher in the Central Valley where many commute far distances (like to the Bay Area). That is $900 per car owner!
How would Big Brother State check mileage on our cars? Mandated annual visits to the smog shop (at our expense) or all newer cars will be equipped with electronic mileage trackers so Big Brother can see! Track and tax should be their motto!
Democrats appear headstrong in making it so painful to drive your car you’ll ride your bike to work (if that’s even in the realm of possibility) or ride their government subsidized mass transit systems.
What is the new strategy for enacting a mileage tax? Democrat Assemblywoman Lori Wilson sponsored a bill to have Caltrans begin studying how the new tax would work and bring it back to the state Legislature after the 2026 election. How convenient.
Be careful how you elect your state Legislative members.
So according to my research Democrat Jaron Brandon said there’s some merit in a mileage tax REPLACEMENT … but only if it supplants current costs. Not in addition. Do you trust that? I can only assume Republican Alexandra Duarte would not support a mileage tax.
* * * * *
I’m sure Patterson folks are really ticked at Newsom.
Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 2282, authored by Assemblyman Juan Alanis (R-Modesto), that sought to establish an emergency care facility in Patterson. The bill aimed to fill a critical healthcare gap for the Del Puerto Health Care District, which planned a 24/7 ER facility at its medical campus facility. Patterson has been without a local hospital since 1998, with the nearest emergency rooms in Turlock and Modesto.
Alanis called Newsom’s veto “tragic” and said no emergency facility in Patterson means a 25- to 30-minute trip before care can even begin.
Alanis said: “He had a choice between a carefully regulated local option and a status quo that has failed the Westside for nearly three decades. He chose the status quo.”
Newsom explained that “freestanding emergency departments have never legally operated in California” and that “state law has long required that any emergency department be physically located within the hospital to ensure immediate access to necessary care.”
Who cares if it means a choice between saving a life or not.
* * * * *
State Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, who was in Ceres last week at Howard Training Center, often speaks of how the Democrat supermajority in the Assembly and Senate. Last week he mentioned how in the past two years the Legislature has dismantled some open government laws.
Not only did they pass a law making it illegal for whistleblowers like Nick Shirley to expose corruption of groups using taxpayer funds, the Legislature has changed rules that compromise transparency.
Fortunately in Ceres residents are allowed to speak up to five minutes on topics. But on Oct. 6 the Long Beach City Council voted 6-3 to approve a controversial new public comment policy that consolidates most resident feedback to a single block near the start of meetings. In other words residents won’t be able to comment as each item comes up for discussion. It’s also timed. So if there are 10 or fewer speakers, they can speak for up to three minutes; 11 to 20 speakers can only talk 90 seconds each; and if there are more than 21 speakers, each person must shut up after 30 seconds! And you can’t follow up with a staff report since you can only talk in the beginning! The move has outraged the community!
San Diego did the same thing.
The media has been largely silent about local governments silencing the public. Why? Follow the money. Newspapers are now getting millions in state taxpayer dollars under SB 2222. I have a huge problem with the state doing this because you don’t think the state will reel in media outlets which blow the whistle on their dirty deeds? The funds could be used as leverage to keep conservative papers in line.
* * * * *
Another school shooting, this time in Bend, Oregon where another deranged teen decided to walk into Silver Rail Elementary School and open fire. Thank God Kaylub Giamanco, an armed Good Samaritan with a permitted concealed weapon, happened to be rolling by to take him out before he killed more innocent children. He deserves the Congressional Medal of Honor. If ever there was a case for more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens it is this case.
I grew up in Oakdale in the 1970s and there were zero school shootings happening in the United States. Guns were everywhere but nobody mounted assaults on students like they do today. You have to ask the question: What changed?
An increase in fatherless households? Maybe. In 1960, 9.1 percent of American kids had one parent in the house. By 2012, it was 20.7 percent. Today it is about 25 percent. In the black community, it’s 47.5 percent.
Violence in video games? Maybe. While leftists poo-poo the idea that video games can lead to violence, what was Matthew Nicholson doing right before he shot his Ceres mother in the head in 2021? Brad Bushman, Ph.D., stated in Psychology Today that studies show that “violent video games increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure), and aggressive behavior. Violent games also decrease helping behavior and feelings of empathy for others.”
A lonelier generation because of smartphones? The year 2012 marked the first time cell phone ownership hit 50 percent in America. “The arrival of the smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health,” wrote Jean Twenge in the Atlantic Daily story, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” She concludes: “Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011. It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.” She notes that kids are going out of the house, being with friends less, dating less, and aren’t working as much. Twenge concludes that teenagers who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy and more depressed.
Absence of the teaching of morals? Absolutely. Religious upbringing has been on the decline for decades.
We certainly had our tragedies, such as students killed in car and motorcycle accident deaths. Way too many, in fact. I remember one classmate named Terry Smith of Waterford was accidentally shot and killed on Dec. 4, 1977 when a loaded shotgun discharged as he was going through a fence near the Oakdale Sportsmen’s Club.
The tragedy which affected me most was the abduction and murder of a fellow student named Vivian Elaine Laughlin who sat chairs behind me in Robin Edgerton’s class. On Dec. 8, 1974 Vivian was with friend Lonnie Merritt and took a rider from a stranger who said he would take them from McHenry Bowl in Modesto to Oakdale. Instead, Michael Alford drove them to a rural location and tried to kill both. Lonnie broke free in the direction of a farmhouse while Vivian broke free and ran off in the headlight beams. Alford shot her in the back with the shotgun. I never thought about blaming the gun for it was a deranged man who decided to use it in an act of murder.
The sicko then drove her dead body to a weighing station on McHenry Avenue where he allegedly sexually violated it.
None of us in Oakdale became activists and rattled the columns of the State Capitol to ban shotguns. No, the outrage was against the nut case who carried out this heinous crime, just as we did toward William Archie Fain who put a Knights Ferry teen in an early grave in 1967. But what did the state do? Well, Gov. George Deukmejian tried to overrule the Parole Board but despite 62,500 people signing petitions asking that Fain be kept behind bars, an appellate court cleared the way for Fain’s release from jail in 1983 after serving just 16 years for murder and rape and he went right back to making trouble. Fain should have been executed for his crimes.
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
