Commentary by Samuel Strait – March 14, 2023 There once was a time in the not too distant past when storms of even greater magnitude as has happened to begin the 2023 calendar year were shrugged off as relatively "normal" weather events in Del Norte County. So often ten inches of rain in a four day period were not uncommon during the course of most winters. My driveway, such as it is, was often a small stream and water came in such considerable quantities as to form a lake over most of my yard up to six inches in depth. Old timers, who have lived in the County for some time, use to refer to such an event as a "real Del Norter", not unusual for this part of California. Rather than moan and cry about it as our current leadership is want to do, locals then simply picked up the pieces and moved on. Now instead of doing so, "a declaration of emergency" is the first thing that comes to mind for our leaders, in order to have the federal and state governments come not to lend a hand, but to send us some "tax dollars" to solve all our "storm damage" issues. Likely as not, most of the "storm damage" to be addressed by the County comes in the form of decades of "deferred maintenance" rather than actual "storm damage". This gives County leadership cover from the millions spent on useless programs that do little to benefit the County's residents and not spent to deal with maintenance issues that litter nearly every aspect that is the County's responsibility to maintain. What has become almost impossible to ignore, is when the present Chair of the Board of Supervisors, Darren Short, makes statements such as the following. "The declaration of an Emergency opens the door for funding from FEMA to pay for damage caused by certain events. All of us pay federal taxes. This is one avenue for us to get some of that tax money back in repairs for damage caused by these events." Most people should be able to understand that this does not put any money back in the pockets of local tax payers. It simply transfers money from one government entity to another to be spent on whatever the recipient government chooses to spend it on. Such gross ignorance displayed by Chair Short is mind numbing and a big part of the reason for rolling back the overreach of government to declare an "emergency" when none actually exists. This is a lesson that should have been thoroughly imprinted on the minds of tax payers over the last three years. While it is understood that this pathetic grasping at tax dollars through "declarations of emergency" and associated "grant funding", it is a pathway to financial ruin for this entire Country and an unhealthy direction that most citizens are reluctant to do anything about. This Country is rapidly closing on forty trillion dollars in debt, California is heading towards a budget of three hundred billion, and our local County will propose a budget of nearly two hundred million, if not more for the coming year. This kind of profligate spending is unsustainable, particularly when it does not accomplish what is necessary for this Country to address its basic needs. Our local economy is and continues to be a fragile one that cannot rely on this kind of leadership to prevent an ever growing cost to our local citizens. Grant funding and FEMA money sound inviting, but it comes at a cost. It most certainly does not put money in local pockets. It simply is a band aid that covers the mismanagement of local government for decades. Since Del Norte County is a part of California where taxation leads the nation as a blood sport, it would be of considerable use for citizens to be able to sue our leadership for mismanagement of those tax dollars and redress the continuing "train wreck" that is our local government. Unfortunately, local government has set itself above that remedy and only the ballot box can give us that relief if used appropriately. At some point government in this County is in dire need of a check in the behavior that has occurred for several decades where local taxpayers are suffering the consequences of a spendthrift government.