Last week’s vote on the zoning overlay for a Resource Recovery Park near John Smith Road Landfill had the expected opposition from local residents, but if the county were not broke, officials would not even consider this project. It’s all about trying to generate some county revenue, and desperate organizations do desperate things. Don’t kid yourself – the county decided to go into the garbage business long before last week’s vote when officials elected to increase the landfill tonnage in hopes of getting their hands on the millions of dollars in the landfill closing fund in exchange for added business to the operator.
I thought the most disingenuous portion of the night was the claim that we should not worry about the cost because much of it was not impact fees or taxes, just money from the solid waste fund. Before that I honestly didn’t know the treasury permitted the San Benito County solid waste fund to print money.
However, the public is partially to blame and not just those living near John Smith Road and worrying about this proposal, which may never come to fruition. I mean all the public in the county, and I include myself prior to getting interested in local government; nope, no breaks for me, and no telling where the local government will go next in their desperate search for that economic cure-all for their prior bout with the spending disease.
The march towards this cliff started long ago when we had a $20 million surplus and we bought labor peace with the promise of lifetime medical care. I was not there protesting. Were you? We made a little money over a short period and our elected representatives decided they could play with the big boys and base salaries and benefits, especially those hidden, tax-free forever benefits, on what our neighbors in Monterey (the rich part) and Santa Clara (all rich) were doing. We were keeping up with the Joneses using one-time funds, and hardly anyone objected. Had they done so they would have been trampled in any case; we were rich, we will always be rich!
All I can say to the folks on John Smith and to those waiting for the next shoe to drop is that the county made a huge collective mistake; you can’t get something for nothing. I’m paying close attention to the county and city budgets now, especially personnel costs, and so should you.
But it may be too late for all of us.  Â
