Dear Editor:
Farming and ranching have been the focus of life here in San Benito County ever since the area was settled.
My family raises cattle and hay in this county and has been doing so for three generations.
However, four members of the Board of Supervisors decided to take matters into their own hands and enacted an extreme land control initiative without giving the voters an opportunity to voice their opinions.
Now, we farmers are organizing a petition drive so this very important issue can be decided by the people of the county, rather than by four Supervisors in an administration building.
Protect your right to vote. San Benito County voters who wish to sign our petition to put the land control measure on the ballot may come to the Farm Bureau office at 530 San Benito St. between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Petitions will be available at other locations as well.
Please call us at 637-4929 for more information or to help us in our efforts to save our farms and ranches.
No matter what you think about the growth issue or the initiative, help us put it on the ballot so the voters can decide.
We need to gather 2,000 signatures of registered voters by April 25 to make sure we have enough to meet the 30-day deadline. (We have a much shorter period of time for our referendum than the 180 days that are allowed for an initiative.)
Just as we need to protect the people’s right to vote, we also must protect our land. That’s why we farmers and ranchers feel such an important piece of our agricultural heritage needs to be on the ballot, so San Benito citizens can vote it down.
The Supervisors have enacted an extreme, anti-farm measure that will hurt rather than protect our farms and our farm families.
Here’s how it hurts: We farmers use the equity in our land to get the loans we need to run our farms and provide for our families.
But by limiting the future use of our land, this new measure reduces the present value of our land. We will be unable to borrow the money we need to maintain our farms and ranches.
Proponents of the land control measure claim that it reimburses farmers for the loss in property values.
That might have been their intention, but the language of the new measure is severely limited. For most of us, the value of our land will fall with no compensation.
Land control rules are a little bit like salt at your dinner table. In the right amount, it enhances the flavor of food. But too much destroys the flavor and makes food inedible.
The land control measure that was approved hastily by our Board of Supervisors is like too much salt. It hurts the very people that it claims it wants to protect.
The county recently enacted a 1-percent cap on growth to prevent excessive development until public infrastructure can catch up.
Let’s make this law work before considering more extreme
Tom Tobias
President, San Benito County Farm Bureau
