With the state facing a $38 billion budget deficit, it is long
overdue for the legislature to take a good hard look at where
taxpayer dollars are going.
With the state facing a $38 billion budget deficit, it is long overdue for the legislature to take a good hard look at where taxpayer dollars are going.
Much of the money flows to worthy, valuable programs like educating our children, maintaining our roads and keeping California safe from crime. But there are programs out there that are duplicative, that we can cut in order to balance the budget without tax increases or education cuts. The Coastal Commission is one of these unnecessary programs. The state can save more than $15.8 million by giving coastal regulation authority back to local government.
The idea of a Coastal Commission may sound good in theory. We all want to preserve California’s beautiful coastline. We do not want to see pollution or over-development. But we have to ask ourselves, is the Coastal Commission really the best way to achieve this?
The Coastal Commission has sole authority over its jurisdiction. No other state agency has authority, not even the Office of Planning and Research. The problem with the Commission, is that it has such widespread authority.
The members can stop any project within their coastal zone, and have often stretched inland, beyond their zone. The commissioners that make these decisions are not accountable to anyone.
What is even worse, earlier this year the 3rd District Court of Appeals unanimously declared the Coastal Commission unconstitutional. Why should taxpayers throw their money away on a commission that was declared illegal?
The Commission also has a history of corruption and abuse of power.
Former Commissioner Mark Nathanson – a political appointee of then-Speaker Willie Brown – went to jail in 1983 for extorting payments from people seeking permits to build on the Southern California Coast. Is this the right way to protect the coast? Where permits only go to those who are willing to grease someone’s palms?
There was also a plan by Oblates of Santa Clara, a Catholic retreat center, which was not allowed to pave 17 parking spaces. The parking lot already existed, but was not paved. The request was denied, because the lot was 100 yards away from a group of trees that might have been home to monarch butterflies, even though no monarchs had ever been found there. This is not the kind of decision-making we need.
The incident in Santa Clara is just one of many examples where the Coastal Commission has acted outside of its mission. And what makes the problem even more outrageous, is that the Commission takes its power and influence at the expense of local government.
Growth and development regulations should be governed through local zoning laws. The Coastal Commission now has jurisdiction in 15 counties and 45 cities.
Why are we taking power away from locally elected officials and giving it to political appointees of the governor, the Assembly speaker, and the Senate Rules Committee? Are people so afraid that county supervisors and city council members can not stand up to developers? I’m not.
These are decisions that should be made by local people, the same people that actually live there, work there and use the land. Counties already have permitting processes, why repeat the process?
The Coastal Commission is not the common-sense approach to the environment that California needs or deserves. Abolishing the Commission is a way that California can eliminate out-of-control bureaucracy, and save more than $15.8 million.
The choice is simple, we can cut the Coastal Commission or we can lay off hundreds of teachers and police officers.
State Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Salinas, represents 12th District, which includes San Benito County.
