Anyone who has monitored the goings-on at the Borrego Water District (BWD) knows that the District has been trying for years to deploy strong arm, regulatory tactics against local farmers.
It has tried to levy a pump tax; it has tried to turn itself into a Community Facilities District with confiscatory assessment powers; it has expressed interest in becoming a Special Act District with similar powers; it has looked into enacting a water sustainability ordinance designed to limit farmers’ access to water; it has meddled in farmers’ permit applications to the county; and it has moved to consolidate its authority by merging with a local Community Services District (CSD).
At the last BWD meeting I attended, one director sounded almost gleeful about the possibility that the District might gain “latent” regulatory powers through the legal status of the CSD.
At the very least, the BWD has a clear eight or nine year track record of trying to gain strong arm enforcement powers over agriculture. The goal seems to be to coerce farmers to “voluntarily” give up their water rights, most recently through a dubious system of “water credits.” Voluntarily…right.
Fortunately, so far all of these schemes have failed, in part because the BWD has been unable to persuade fair-minded people that it should have the kinds of strong arm powers it seeks.
The kind of regulation the BWD has been pursuing will never work because it is designed to limit and control the local economy. William McDonough, one of the founders of the sustainability movement, has rightly pointed out that true sustainability must be based on growth and profitability.
Regulation represents a failure to find solutions. We need new ideas, market-based ideas. What are yours?
Showing posts with label Farming and Government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farming and Government. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The "Regulation Clique" is at it Again
The “government regulation clique” in Borrego is at it again. Apparently not satisfied with the Borrego Water District’s (BWD) efforts to impose on its customers an exorbitant rate increase ostensibly in the name of water conservation, a couple of these folks are proposing even bigger and better government control for Borrego.
One scheme recently suggested to the BWD is that the district could acquire status as something called a “Special Act District,” which would give it power to regulate all water use in the valley, even by people who are not BWD customers. That’s a little like the cable company telling you you’re watching too much television…even when you don’t have cable. Acquiring that kind of power would require an act of the California Legislature. The BWD’s attorney has suggested that the district’s lobbyist could help with that. Great.
And then there is this. One local resident, who anonymously publishes an angry and alarmist website devoted to scaring people about an alleged “water crisis,” seems to be mounting his own campaign to invite state regulatory agencies into Borrego to take control of the valley’s water, or as he puts it, to make Borrego “subject to the state’s regulatory and enforcement powers.” While disguising his identity online, this web-poster compares Borrego managing its own groundwater to “leaving a hog to guard a cabbage patch.” That is colorful language, of course, but not very community-spirited to my way of thinking, and certainly off the mark in every other way.
So this seems to be what the “government regulation clique” has in store for us next—more restrictions and ridicule for anyone who dares to object. If you like the sound of that, you’ll be happy when these schemes are under way. Personally, I don’t believe that either giving the BWD enforcement power over water use by non-customers or giving the state direct control of Borrego’s water has merit or is either necessary or desirable.
If you agree with me, I urge you to watch carefully for early signs these schemes are being put into motion.
One scheme recently suggested to the BWD is that the district could acquire status as something called a “Special Act District,” which would give it power to regulate all water use in the valley, even by people who are not BWD customers. That’s a little like the cable company telling you you’re watching too much television…even when you don’t have cable. Acquiring that kind of power would require an act of the California Legislature. The BWD’s attorney has suggested that the district’s lobbyist could help with that. Great.
And then there is this. One local resident, who anonymously publishes an angry and alarmist website devoted to scaring people about an alleged “water crisis,” seems to be mounting his own campaign to invite state regulatory agencies into Borrego to take control of the valley’s water, or as he puts it, to make Borrego “subject to the state’s regulatory and enforcement powers.” While disguising his identity online, this web-poster compares Borrego managing its own groundwater to “leaving a hog to guard a cabbage patch.” That is colorful language, of course, but not very community-spirited to my way of thinking, and certainly off the mark in every other way.
So this seems to be what the “government regulation clique” has in store for us next—more restrictions and ridicule for anyone who dares to object. If you like the sound of that, you’ll be happy when these schemes are under way. Personally, I don’t believe that either giving the BWD enforcement power over water use by non-customers or giving the state direct control of Borrego’s water has merit or is either necessary or desirable.
If you agree with me, I urge you to watch carefully for early signs these schemes are being put into motion.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Self-styled "Planners" Decide Farms are in the Way
As many of you know, the so-called Desert Area Initiative (DIA) was approved by the Borrego Springs Community Sponsor Group (BSCSG) on June 5 and now must be accepted by the County Board of Supervisors to be implemented.
The DIA proposal shows how a few good ideas can be used to disguise a radical agenda. In this case it is a comprehensive no-growth agenda combined oddly with an aggressive, intentional assault on family farming in Borrego. But the DIA contains too much snake oil medicine for the sugar to cover up.
While the DIA proposal talks a lot about “community values,” it forgets that farmers have been a part of the community since Borrego’s founding. Instead, the anti-farming agenda of the DIA is clear throughout and is epitomized by Recommendation 4.1.1.2, which calls for “economic, political, and/or legal means” to be implemented against farming.
I’m afraid the DIA would also be a disaster for the entire community, not just farmers. Its extreme and intrusive level of regulation would impact everyone. Layered among several constructive suggestions and a clever scheme to force out farmers is a morass of new permitting requirements, ordinances, mandates, review processes, bureaucracies, districts, and trusts that would effectively lock down property rights in Borrego.
The DIA proposal claims to include “only those recommendations that are supported by the entire community.” That’s not true. The DIA proposal fosters an illusion of consensus. There can be no true dialogue when a handful of “planners” have already made up their minds what’s good for us.
Please contact County Supervisor Bill Horn and ask him to reject this ill-conceived “Desert Area” idea:
Bill Horn, Supervisor, 5th. District
San Diego County
1600 Pacific Highway, Room 335
San Diego CA 92101
The DIA proposal shows how a few good ideas can be used to disguise a radical agenda. In this case it is a comprehensive no-growth agenda combined oddly with an aggressive, intentional assault on family farming in Borrego. But the DIA contains too much snake oil medicine for the sugar to cover up.
While the DIA proposal talks a lot about “community values,” it forgets that farmers have been a part of the community since Borrego’s founding. Instead, the anti-farming agenda of the DIA is clear throughout and is epitomized by Recommendation 4.1.1.2, which calls for “economic, political, and/or legal means” to be implemented against farming.
I’m afraid the DIA would also be a disaster for the entire community, not just farmers. Its extreme and intrusive level of regulation would impact everyone. Layered among several constructive suggestions and a clever scheme to force out farmers is a morass of new permitting requirements, ordinances, mandates, review processes, bureaucracies, districts, and trusts that would effectively lock down property rights in Borrego.
The DIA proposal claims to include “only those recommendations that are supported by the entire community.” That’s not true. The DIA proposal fosters an illusion of consensus. There can be no true dialogue when a handful of “planners” have already made up their minds what’s good for us.
Please contact County Supervisor Bill Horn and ask him to reject this ill-conceived “Desert Area” idea:
Bill Horn, Supervisor, 5th. District
San Diego County
1600 Pacific Highway, Room 335
San Diego CA 92101
Desert Area Initiative--Heavy Handed Regulation
Unnecessary government regulation is one of the most serious challenges facing the farming community in the United States.
Federal agencies alone enforce over 144,000 pages of rules affecting agriculture. In addition to that, state and county agencies add their own pervasive layers of bureaucracy and mandatory regulatory compliance. Of course some of these regulations benefit farmers and society as a whole, but much of this regulatory maze does not and serves only the interests of the $3.5 billion a year environmental lobby and other activists who seem dead set on enforcing their often unscientifically supportable and radical political agendas on society.
Then comes the Borrego Springs Community Sponsor Group’s “Desert Area” initiative. This plan will impose strict new permitting requirements, create new bureaucracies of subcommittees, districts, and trusts, and lock down property rights in Borrego in the name of dubious values like keeping the sky dark, changing productive farms to “habitat,” and requiring houses to be built in “mid century” modern style.
The “Desert Area” initiative is a prime example of how uncurbed regulation can impact everyone, farmers and non-farmers alike.
Please contact County Supervisor Bill Horn and ask him to reject this ill-conceived “Desert Area” idea. Several people have asked that I include his contact information. Here it is:
Bill Horn
San Diego County Supervisor
1600 Pacific Highway, Room 335
San Diego CA 92101
1.800.852.7335
Bill.Horn@sdcounty.ca.gov
Federal agencies alone enforce over 144,000 pages of rules affecting agriculture. In addition to that, state and county agencies add their own pervasive layers of bureaucracy and mandatory regulatory compliance. Of course some of these regulations benefit farmers and society as a whole, but much of this regulatory maze does not and serves only the interests of the $3.5 billion a year environmental lobby and other activists who seem dead set on enforcing their often unscientifically supportable and radical political agendas on society.
Then comes the Borrego Springs Community Sponsor Group’s “Desert Area” initiative. This plan will impose strict new permitting requirements, create new bureaucracies of subcommittees, districts, and trusts, and lock down property rights in Borrego in the name of dubious values like keeping the sky dark, changing productive farms to “habitat,” and requiring houses to be built in “mid century” modern style.
The “Desert Area” initiative is a prime example of how uncurbed regulation can impact everyone, farmers and non-farmers alike.
Please contact County Supervisor Bill Horn and ask him to reject this ill-conceived “Desert Area” idea. Several people have asked that I include his contact information. Here it is:
Bill Horn
San Diego County Supervisor
1600 Pacific Highway, Room 335
San Diego CA 92101
1.800.852.7335
Bill.Horn@sdcounty.ca.gov
The Desert Area Initiative
For farmers, the land is everything. That’s one reason farmers are characteristically so concerned about property rights. When bureaucrats take control of your prerogatives over the property you own, they put at jeopardy your livelihood and way of life. Actually, it’s an issue that should worry all citizens, not just farmers.
I am very concerned about the proposal made by the Borrego Springs Community Sponsor Group for a “Desert Area Initiative.” On the face of it, some of their ideas sound constructive and community oriented. The larger agenda, however, seems outrageously negative. The draconian scope of the intrusive regulation proposed by the Sponsor Group would compromise the property rights of everyone in Borrego, mandating everything from what kind of driveway you could install, to the lights you use, to how close you could live to the state park. The way I read it, the proposal would make it almost impossible for anyone to conduct business in Borrego. It would be a disaster.
If you don’t believe me, ask the Sponsor Group for a copy of the proposed regulations—it’s a 13 page long, single spaced agenda.
The Sponsor Group began working on this initiative in May of 2006. They didn’t ask for public comment until January 2007, as a final step before submitting the proposal to the county. I hate to say it, but it seems they just want us to sign on to a plan they have already decided is best for everyone. This is a no growth initiative in sheep’s clothing. It will hurt everyone in Borrego.
I urge you to directly contact San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn and express your opposition to this proposal.
I am very concerned about the proposal made by the Borrego Springs Community Sponsor Group for a “Desert Area Initiative.” On the face of it, some of their ideas sound constructive and community oriented. The larger agenda, however, seems outrageously negative. The draconian scope of the intrusive regulation proposed by the Sponsor Group would compromise the property rights of everyone in Borrego, mandating everything from what kind of driveway you could install, to the lights you use, to how close you could live to the state park. The way I read it, the proposal would make it almost impossible for anyone to conduct business in Borrego. It would be a disaster.
If you don’t believe me, ask the Sponsor Group for a copy of the proposed regulations—it’s a 13 page long, single spaced agenda.
The Sponsor Group began working on this initiative in May of 2006. They didn’t ask for public comment until January 2007, as a final step before submitting the proposal to the county. I hate to say it, but it seems they just want us to sign on to a plan they have already decided is best for everyone. This is a no growth initiative in sheep’s clothing. It will hurt everyone in Borrego.
I urge you to directly contact San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn and express your opposition to this proposal.
Farming's Contribution to Society
In a 1999 poll commissioned by the American Farm Bureau Federation, 85 percent of respondents said that farmers make a “great deal of contribution to society.” That was only 1 percent behind teachers and firefighters.
When it comes to providing healthy food, the survey gave farmers excellent to very good marks. When it comes to conserving resources and caring for the environment, Americans rated farmers ahead of environmentalists, scientists, and government regulators.
By comparison, only 13 percent of respondents said that politicians make a “great deal of contribution to society.”
That’s what Americans say. Not surprisingly, politicians say something else altogether.
Today only 3.4 percent of federal spending goes to agriculture. That represents a steady decrease since 1960, when a still very modest 5.3 percent of the budget went to supporting agriculture. To put it into perspective in another way, the federal government spends twice as much on servicing the national debt as it does to ensure the long term health of America’s farms.
Everybody has their priorities. I guess the bureaucrats are just not on the same page with the rest of America.
Oh well, I guess teachers aren’t getting rich quick either.
When it comes to providing healthy food, the survey gave farmers excellent to very good marks. When it comes to conserving resources and caring for the environment, Americans rated farmers ahead of environmentalists, scientists, and government regulators.
By comparison, only 13 percent of respondents said that politicians make a “great deal of contribution to society.”
That’s what Americans say. Not surprisingly, politicians say something else altogether.
Today only 3.4 percent of federal spending goes to agriculture. That represents a steady decrease since 1960, when a still very modest 5.3 percent of the budget went to supporting agriculture. To put it into perspective in another way, the federal government spends twice as much on servicing the national debt as it does to ensure the long term health of America’s farms.
Everybody has their priorities. I guess the bureaucrats are just not on the same page with the rest of America.
Oh well, I guess teachers aren’t getting rich quick either.
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