I read with interest the July 14 article titled
”
Santa Cruz seeks tax for Pajaro levees.
”
I should mention, folks, that Santa Cruz Supervisor Ellen Pirie
and her colleagues are dead serious about taxing us for their
levees along the Pajaro River near Watsonville. And if adopted,
this new tax on us is here to stay, and it will be on every secured
real estate tax bill within the district in San Benito and Santa
Clara counties, and this will be for ever and ever.
Dear Editor:
I read with interest the July 14 article titled “Santa Cruz seeks tax for Pajaro levees.” I should mention, folks, that Santa Cruz Supervisor Ellen Pirie and her colleagues are dead serious about taxing us for their levees along the Pajaro River near Watsonville. And if adopted, this new tax on us is here to stay, and it will be on every secured real estate tax bill within the district in San Benito and Santa Clara counties, and this will be for ever and ever.
I was close to the issue in the 1990s when it was first presented to the state Legislature by then state Sen. Henry Mello, D-Watsonville. It so happened that my party had a one-person majority in the Assembly that year and I and my party members were able to kill the bill in Committee.
The next day, the powerful senator angrily whispered in my ear as I sat in my Assembly seat, “You will pay for killing my bill.”
With a take over by the Democrats the following year, the bill predictably surfaced with the guidance of ultra-liberal Assemblyman Fred Keeley, D-Santa Cruz. With Sen. Mello put out to pasture by term limits, Sen. Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, was the key figure and it was Bruce’s stated position, at least here in San Benito and Santa Clara counties, that he would vote against the bill.
For an uneasy feeling, yet, notwithstanding my confidence in his word, my chief of staff and I visited McPherson’s office about a half-hour before the bill was to be heard, just to make sure.
We both were dumfounded and angry when he told us he had changed his mind and was going to vote for the bill, a bill that would open the tax gates to almost all of us in San Benito County, and a lot of people in Santa Clara County, all for the sake of raising money to pay for levee work on the banks of the lower Pajaro River south and east of Watsonville.
The upshot was that the bill passed and there was a committee formed with representation from the four counties and its makeup was curiously such that there was an equal number for the proposal as there was against it.
Vociferous among the no votes was then San Benito Supervisor Richard Place. Another legislator who bravely stood up and spoke out was former Gilroy Mayor and now Santa Clara Supervisor Don Gage.
But the political picture has changed. Now, we have a Democrat from Salinas, Simon Salinas, in the Assembly (he represents some people who will benefit from the proposal), Santa Cruz resident McPherson (who ran for lieutenant governor but lost to Cruz Bustamante), and freshman state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Salinas. (You remember the Free Lance reported that the supervisors of San Benito County endorsed Denham’s opponent in the senate race, and Denham is not one to forget that personal affront.)
The issue surfaces again and with greater vigor than ever. It seems that the tail twister this time, Supervisor Ellen Pirie of Santa Cruz County, understands that the new political people have cartilage backbones, and maybe she is right.
In my opinion, the issue should be put to a vote of the people who will be taxed, those within the Pajaro watershed: Hollister, San Juan Bautista, Gilroy, San Martin, Morgan Hill and our South County.
I believe, like my now deceased water advisor, Howard Harris, that rain is an act of God and its consequences should not be blamed on a group of people in a particular area.
It is interesting to note that those from Santa Cruz now complaining were nowhere to be found when we paid for the flood-deterring Hernandez Dam or when the top soil of our land was washed down the river and settled in the Pajaro Valley, making it one of the most fertile valleys in the world.
Likewise, the complainers say little if anything about the corps of engineers who have made a lot of improvements on the levees these past years, and all at taxpayers’ expense.
It is time the people of this county have strong leadership, and if that is not forthcoming then they should take things into their own hands and insist that if they are going to be saddled with new taxes, we should have, as provided in our federal constitution, the right to vote on the proposal.
Peter Frusetta,
Tres Pinos,
former three-term Assemblyman from San Benito County
