Don’t Add Taxes, Just Stop Spending

If the Ventura County senior administrative analyst had truly done what her title implies, she would have discovered that only one group will absorb the costs of the unfair business tax on packinghouses and other agricultural businesses. That group is the grower.

Trucking companies will charge more for hauling, and we will pay their tax, along with taxes assessed against the container manufacturers, equipment sales and repair companies, testing labs, spray services and so on.

Who does the grower pass these taxes to? Nobody! Prices are fixed by worldwide markets, not by local politicians and bureaucrats.

The county should solve its fiscal problems like all of us “little people” do--put off buying what we cannot afford, and make do with what we have. Spending $50 million or more to build an ultramodern jail facility is one example. Get the inmates that only need mental services out of jail. Confine minor offenders in their own homes using proven “electronic confinement” technology. Make a modest expansion of facilities already in use. Figure out how to shorten stays in jail for those awaiting trial.

KEN CHAPMAN

Santa Paula