Ask yourself and be honest: “Am I better off today than I was four years ago?”One can only ponder in reflection and observation that the State of California is at war with its once vibrant middle class. The latest assault by the One-Party State is the proposed legislation to levy an up to 25 percent tax on the sale of your real property if you should dare to sell your home, land, commercial or industrial property before seven years have elapsed since purchase.Assembly Bill 1771 is moving through the various committees in the Assembly. The intimidating California Speculation Act is designed to neutralize the big, bad speculators, but no doubt, lots of non-speculator regular folks will pay dearly to the Golden Nanny State if the Governor signs AB 1771 into law.#placement_573654_0_i{width:100%;max-width:550px;margin:0 auto;}var rnd = window.rnd || Math.floor(Math.random()*10e6);var pid573654 = window.pid573654 || rnd;var plc573654 = window.plc573654 || 0;var abkw = window.abkw || '';var absrc = 'https://ads.empowerlocal.co/adserve/;ID=181918;size=0x0;setID=573654;type=js;sw='+screen.width+';sh='+screen.height+';spr='+window.devicePixelRatio+';kw='+abkw+';pid='+pid573654+';place='+(plc573654++)+';rnd='+rnd+';click=CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER';var _absrc = absrc.split("type=js"); absrc = _absrc[0] + 'type=js;referrer=' + encodeURIComponent(document.location.href) + _absrc[1];document.write('');Are you better off than were four years ago?California continues to move to the Left at the alarming speed of a runaway freight train.Has the rush to legalize new state and county marijuana laws improved your economic prosperity? If you doubt this promised prosperity has occurred (and I do doubt it), perhaps you can understand voter concerns about the 13 percent increase in General Sales Tax on Measure R (County) and Measure S (City of Crescent City).Pacific Power has formally applied to the Public Utilities Commission to raise our energy bills 25.7 percent, effective next year, to mitigate the costs of the wildfires that devastated Northern California these past few years.Locally, some of those seeking your precious votes have made outlandish claims. Incumbent Third District Supervisor Chris Howard crows, “the Board of Supervisors needs me and all the vital contacts and relationships I’ve made in Sacramento and Washington.”Hmmm! Kind of makes one think where Del Norte County is situated on the State totem pole. Is your life better because of these “relationships?”How about Howard’s foreboding threats that failure to comply with State-supported low income housing projects will result in exorbitant fines and penalties on Del Norte County?Scare tactics like this don’t work. Do you want a rubber stamp elected official who cowers to Sacramento and Washington? Has Howard’s self-serving claims of irreplaceability improved your life? Is that why only Howard is exempted from term limits imposed on all other present and future Del Norte County supervisors?Are you better off today than you were four years ago?Fourth District candidate Brian Stone’s opinion on Del Norte County healthcare, kneejerks the comment,“Fire Sutter” (Sutter Coast Hospital) and “we’ve heard stories” (about SCH), with no corroborating evidence, is shocking. Stone then besmirches Bertch Tract residents with his insulting public statement, “Who would want to live in the Bertch Tract?” These ill-thought out, irresponsible statements are strong evidence of his highly suspect people skills. Scary!Another Fourth District candidate, Patty Adams, claims to be the “agent of change,” yet touts the reason to vote Adams is because of her gender, Native American heritage, and her irrelevant endorsement from the Del Norte GOP. Her values are invisible other than to be a rubber stamp for the moribund, pathetic Board of Supervisors, hopelessly loyal to the misguided direction of the California left.Blind loyalty not withstanding, are you better of than you were four years ago?Governor Newsom-appointed Fifth District Supervisor Susan Masten, whose activist gender and Yurok bias causes me to appraise her lack of objectivity and personal agenda under the vastly unpopular (in Del Norte County) Gavin Newsom. “Bringing people to the table” does not fix Red Mountain, maintain dams along the Klamath or correct poorly maintained roads in the Berstch Tract.Fifth District candidate and Klamath Chamber of Commerce president David Jones complains that Klamath is a pass-through community, yet fails to mention even once the Trees of Mystery enormous success in attracting visitors in record-breaking numbers, despite the challenges of Last Chance Grade. Jones is also endorsed by the DNGOP.Are you better off than you were four years ago?Voters: this is your time to act. As you fill in your mail-in ballots or plan to vote at your local precinct 12 days from now, ask yourself, “Am I better off now than I was four years ago? Or is it time for a change?You decide. Roger Gitlin is a retired two-term Del Norte County Supervisor. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1515727'); });