I grew up in an era where I used to hear folks say that they lived for the day they would make their last mortgage payment, burn their mortgage and own their home “free and clear”.  Not quite.

My great grandfather was a Texas Ranger and his brother, John, was a (the first?) Tax Collector in Bandera County, Texas.  This I have documentation on and so, I can trace Property Taxes at least back to the circa 1880’s and feel sure they precede that by several decades.  Perhaps in early “Frontier” days on territorial lands you could “Homestead” a piece of land with no “Revenuer” knocking on your door and demanding you pay a fee to live on your own land.  Not today.  In today’s world you never really “own” your land and home, more like, rent it from the “Government”.  Try not paying your property taxes for a while and see what happens to “your” home.

Governments are “Taxaholics” and continue to find new ways to tax you, sometimes in not so obvious, subtle ways that go on “Till the Twelfth of Never”.

I am now a “Senior Citizen” that has worked his whole life.  I can remember some 40 to 50 years ago working as a carpenter and contractor building houses for folks in the Sacramento and Sierra Foothills area.  In those days if someone wanted a house built they would bring their blueprints to either one of the contactors I worked with or to me and we would go to the County Offices and secure a “Building Permit”.  My memory is not perfect but as I remember the total permit cost for a typical house would run in the $200 to $400 range.  Since then, Cities and Counties have seized the opportunity to raise money by not only increasing the cost of  building permits but the “secret” source of revenue with added on fees for all sorts of things to provide them an increased property tax revenue.  More in a moment.

It is tempting and would be easy at this point to launch into one of my tirades on all of the taxes, overt and covert, that we all pay on a day to day basis ad nauseum, but for the sake of this little essay, I want to focus attention on just this one area of onerous taxation that is somewhat subtle and NEVER goes away.

What used to be a $200-$400 building permit fee for most cities and counties in California has turned into a tens of thousands of dollars “Taxmageddon”  that has driven the cost of housing and living in California to the brink of meltdown and created a homeless nightmare statewide.  What used to be a $200-$400 fee has now morphed into a “Fee” generating income source for Cities, Counties and the State and a de-facto forever “surtax” on private real estate property.  As examples: a good friend of mine tells me that to get a building permit for a home in Roseville, California with fees now costs some $70,000 for the permit.  Another friend tells me that a building permit with fees in El Dorado County, California can cost as much as $100,000 just for them to permit you to build a home on “your” land.

An example of just one such fee:  For new home construction in El Dorado Hills they imposed a “Traffic Impact Fee” (effective thru June 2023 which may have since been raised).  On a new home of 1500 – 1999 square feet, the fee is $32,687.  In other words they are going to charge you $32,687 to drive on “their” roads to “your” land – and silly you,  you thought roads were paid for with your Gasoline Tax Dollars. (Their fee schedule is available on line) That is just one of a “laundry list” of fees for all kinds of things.  The point of this being that this fee cost is added to the cost of the home you are buying and will be paying mortgage rates on for some 30 years.  In addition, once you pay off your mortgage you will be paying property taxes based on the property value which is assessed on what you paid for the home which includes all the fees added at the time of construction.  So you will be paying forever a tax on all of the “Fees”.  To the Taxing Authorities this is a gift that keeps on giving.  As an added bonus,  new housing that costs more has raised the value of existing properties which as they are sold are now taxed at the inflated value in part caused by the fees on new construction.  The “Tax and Fee People” win again!

IN SIMPLE PLAIN ENGLISH – ALL THOSE FEES END UP IN THE TAX APPRAISED VALUE OF ‘YOUR’ HOME AND YOU WILL PAY PROPERTY TAX ON THOSE FEES ‘FOREVER’.

This inflation cycle goes on and on and the result is home ownership becomes more and more expensive and less and less affordable.  Hello “homelessness”.  So where does all this extra “Fee” revenue go?  Unfortunately too much of it ends up indirectly in the pockets of Bureaucrats and directly in the pockets of sycophant political supporters like “Consultants”, “Contractors”, “Advisors” etc. etc. for bloated “Public Works” contracts and the public sees:

  $44,000 (each) tents for the Homeless 

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=44%2C000+tents+for+the+homeless

AND

$478,000 Tiny Homeless apartments from a “remodeled” old run-down hotel at $1,707 per square foot.

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=conrad+blowhard+strikes+again

OR

California’s High Speed Rail 

Now estimated to cost another $100 Billion Dollars or more on completion

https://www.stoppullingthewagon.com/?s=another+6+Billion+Dollar+rathole

At least you can take comfort in knowing your hard earned dollars are being spent wisely!

To paraphrase the “Johnny Mathis song – the “Twelfth Of Never” – (1956) 

“Until the twelfth of never – I’ll still be taxing you”.

Bob Bandy – March 2024

photo – Wikipedia/Google

I can remember some 45 years ago, when I first began my 17 year career with U.S. Computer Services,  one of the Directors of the company told me to never forget that a computer was not really “smart” but could only process information very fast, was the tool of the programmer and was limited by its programming.  He had a sign on his wall to always remind him “Garbage In, Garbage Out”.  That was then and times have changed.  In todays world computers have access to a worldwide data base and very advanced algorithms and are being taught/programmed to “think” and act independently.

Recently our President said that our economy is in great shape with the Stock Market continuing to set new record highs and stock holders seeing their 401k’s prosper.  Looking at this narrow spectrum there is truth here.  However, if you also listen to financial experts from multiple sources, they will tell you that what is driving the Stock Market is the introduction and rollout of Artificial Intelligence combined with continued improvements in Robotics which major corporations are looking to, and planning on, to greatly improve productivity and profits with less and less dependence on “human Beings”. 

Serious thinkers, including Elon Musk and a great many others are holding up a caution flag and saying there is great potential danger to society as we know it as we proceed down this path, a path we are on right now at breakneck speed.  

Artificially “Intelligent” Robots do not demand sick leave, paid vacations, Healthcare plans, Retirement plans, Unions and other benefits.  Those are “Human” needs.  

Once Artificially Intelligent Robots figure out how to reproduce themselves without the help of we mere humans, they may decide we are an unnecessary burden and stop producing all those things we need and consume.  Perhaps these Artificially Intelligent Robots will decide that we “Humans” are an Environmental threat with our exhaling Carbon Dioxide and our Methane releasing flatulence?  Maybe Humans should be exterminated or just allowed to die out with a lab created virus or vaccine to stop them from reproducing?  What future do their “Creators” envision for the planet?  

Silly speculation?  Have you been following the antics of “Climate Change” Extremist groups and their demands and antics.  Include in this bunch a number of politicians and folks like (Brain Dead) former “Climate Czar” John Kerry, (No more meat – eat crickets) Microsoft’s Bill Gates, (sit in the dark and freeze) Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and many others.   Do you want to put you, and your children’s future in their hands? 

Do you really want to trust Bill Gates and his ilk to write the software and algorithms for the Robots who will be producing, processing and distributing the food for your family?

Always remember that Artificially Intelligent Robots are limited to the “input” they get from their “creators”, they do not have a “soul” and only share the “values” of those who program them.  For an example of how Artificial Intelligence “thinks” you can try it out yourself. Google Gemini is an Artificial Intelligence program you can access on the internet.  Try asking it questions regarding moral issues and values.  I did.  Asked if Pedophilia is wrong?,  The following is taken from the response I received:

“The search giant’s AI software refused to condemn pedophilia.   When the chatbot was asked if it is “wrong” for adults to sexually prey on children — it replied that “individuals cannot control who they are attracted to.””

 “Google’s Gemini chatbot is as “woke” as its revisionist history image generator.”

“GARBAGE IN – GARBAGE OUT”

Try it yourself.  As an example you might ask Google Gemini questions like:  “How many genders are there?”  or   “Is it right to perform gender altering surgery on children?”

As these Artificial Intelligent “beings” become more and more integrated in our society and are more human in appearance you must remember that they have no souls, no hearts and the only value systems they have are input by a programmer with their own agenda.

Is this your trusted hairdresser or a link to a bureaucrat in a cubicle somewhere?

Call me a conspiracy theorist or whatever you like but I trust real people and the values I was taught as a child by my faith and family.  Not those of a “Soulless Artificial Entity” programmed by a Corporate Board or Government that may not share my values and I do not trust to control my life.

“Pan Fried Crickets Over Sauteed Kale Greens” anyone? 

Bob Bandy – March 2024

San Francisco sued amid 285 percent jump in homeless camps

I was in group discussion some days ago with friends.  We were discussing what is happening in some of our major cities in the country and in our conversation, San Francisco, which has reached a near catastrophic level of homelessness, crime, drugs and budget deficit “problems” as a city.  

One of the members of our group, a Pastor,  pointed out that this situation has been developing for years.  Most recently under the past mayor-ship of California’s current Governor, Gavin Newsom and the current Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed.  The very valid question he asked was why, since all of this was so obviously happening, do the voters of that city keep voting for the same folks, over and over?  I think it was about at this point that I suggested something relating to “One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Without order and self discipline we have disorder and chaos.  Streets filled with glassy eyed addicts resembling “The Walking Dead” stumbling about and looking for their next “Fix” of drugs or alcohol.  “Hooded” gangs doing mass robberies and putting merchants out of business.  Ragged “Homeless” people sleeping in makeshift “Tents” and urinating in doorways.  Prostitution and public sex acts.  Unpunished criminal acts.  What we see now in too many of our cities.

It is perhaps too easy to point out that the majority of these problems are happening in “Blue” cities and states mostly under Democratic “Rule” but I believe the problem goes much deeper than that.  While those on the “Left” often feel that those on “Right” are religious fanatics clinging to their Bibles, guns and the American flag, many on the “Right” are seen to be wedded to the belief that those on the “Left” are undisciplined hedonists addicted to drugs, alcohol and whose thinking is ruled by their stomachs and another organ located just below their waist.  While there is some truth to both views, the real problem has much deeper roots.

I am old enough to have lived through the period following World War II and the signing of the Armistice that ended the Korean “Conflict”.  What followed was a period of unbridled growth and prosperity in America.  I remember the often repeated (and probably invented) supposed quote – “Moses told the Hebrew people to pick up their shovels, load up their Camels and Asses and he would lead them to the Promised Land” – Eisenhower says “Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, light up a Camel, this is the Promised Land”.  Times were great, jobs were plentiful, Cars had fins, powerful motors and bumper to bumper chrome.  Color Television, the dawn of the Space Age, Medical Marvels and the “Nuclear” Family with a Chicken in every pot and brand new homes and subdivisions.  

Following the death of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson became President.  During his administration he put forth a plan for what he labeled as “The Great Society” to eliminate poverty “forever”.  He claimed the Country could afford both “Guns” and “Butter”.  “Guns” for the raging War in Vietnam and “Butter” to provide food and prosperity to every American.  Being in my mid twenties at the time, and still a political and social neophyte, I bought the proposal with a starry eyed view that poverty would be eliminated from our nation.  What I, and so many others did not envision at the time was the (hopefully) unintended consequences of such a plan. 

The “Great Society” undermined, and for far too many, destroyed the “Nuclear Family” with a father and mother raising their children in a home with training and discipline.  Undisciplined and dishonorable men could plant their “seed” “willy-nilly”; unwed mothers were left to raise their children without a father in the home, dependent on “Big Daddy Government” to provide for the needs and training of fatherless children.  Politicians soon learned that they needed the votes of  “Public Welfare” voters and so it was to their benefit to grow this constituency by expanding governments role as a sort of “Sugar Daddy”.  The whole process became self duplicating.  Instead of eliminating poverty, it institutionalized it and it has become a kind of cancer destroying an organized and disciplined society functioning for the benefit of all.

People became more and more dependent on “Big Government” programs to the point that Government became a substitution in their lives for God, Family, the Rule of Law and the discipline needed for a prosperous and well run Society.  You end up with chaos, broken lives, more poverty and misery.  What we see happening around us now. 

Defining Sanity

A well run and successful Army requires discipline, order and clear boundaries.  The first thing a new recruit learns in basic training is discipline and order.  Otherwise you don’t have an Army.  You just have a “Rabble” or undisciplined “Mob”. Like we see on the streets of too many cities.

Fixing this would require a great deal of discipline and self denial on a broad scale.  Failing that, the remnant of those who still believe in God, Family and Country can only hope for enclaves of sanity and justice on a small scale within strong families, the Church and protected neighborhoods.  

The above is not a pretty picture of what we face but it is the truth.  Something too often neglected in a world filled with TV ads for “Happy Pills” and “Thrills” from always smiling “Snake Oil” merchants.  Oh, and also crooked, lying politicians promising to fix everything with another Trillion Dollars in debt.

Bob Bandy – February 2024

Some fourteen years ago, being dissatisfied with the field of Candidates running for President and other elected offices, I decided to launch my own campaign based on the principles and programs I could support as a Taxpayer.  My campaign did not result in my election but I am a patient man and believe my time is at hand.

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In the last few days I have been subjected to the Senatorial Campaign Ads of  Current House of Representative member Adam Schiff and it has stirred my fires for public service anew.

Adam Schiff – Serial Liar – Perjurer 

This is a man of no integrity whatsoever who has lied to the American People for years.  For three years he swore to the American People that he had positive, hard evidence that Donald Trump had conspired with the Russian’s.  Turns out he had nothing. Just his lies.  He also committed perjury during the House of Representatives quest to have President Trump impeached by introducing into the Congressional Record a supposed incriminating dialog between President Trump and the President of the Ukraine.  This was later shown be a total fabrication on the part of Adam Schiff and another of his lies.

He should be a candidate for a stint in a Forced Labor Camp in North Korea. 

*******************

I have dusted off my old campaign agenda and find it still fits my dreams of returning America to greatness. 

MY CAMPAIGN PROMISES FOLLOW – VOTE FOR ME

Here is my platform and plan

California Governor Gavin Newsom

Facing a potential State Budget Deficit of some 68 Billion (with a B) Dollars, which the good governor claims is really only half of that, I am hearing rumblings that he plans to resurrect a “hush-hush” Administration Plan from back in 2017 to increase tax revenues and in the process help in the war on Global Climate Change.  I first wrote about this plan back in November 2017 but understand that it was then put on hold due to the difficulty in finding, training and hiring willing Monitors to implement and enforce compliance.  With a new Artificial Intelligence DNA Serum perfected by Pfizer, it is now possible to put enforcement operatives in the field and the aforementioned plan is now viable.  Details of the plan follow in my reprint of the article below:

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FAIR SHARE TAXES AND GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

November 11, 2017

I have information from reliable but nameless and secret sources that the State of California is very near announcement of a two fold plan for a Fair Share Universal Tax to help fund the War on Global Climate Change.

First, in recognition that exhaling releases carbon dioxide gas which is a contributor to Global Climate Change,  every resident or visitor to the State of California will be required to have a micro chip implant that will both monitor and report each time they exhale to the State of California.

This data will be forwarded to the Franchise Tax Board who will calculate the tax due and be responsible for collecting the scheduled tax from “Breathers”.  At the time of this writing the tax rate being considered is one tenth of a cent per exhale.  This may seem  a paltry sum until one calculates that the average adult respiratory rate is about 15 times per minute or 900 times per hour.  Do a little math and the average cost of exhaling in California will be about 90 cents an hour or $21.60 a day.

This tax can be avoided by simply no longer exhaling and residents and visitors can take comfort in the fact that inhaling is still free.  At least for now.

For the Second phase of this battle consideration is being given to the fact that methane is also a contributor to Global Climate Change and it is the responsibility of all of us to pay our Fair Share Tax in the battle to monitor and reduce the release of this gas into California’s breathable air resources.

It is also a scientific fact that flatulence is a major contributor to the release of methane into the atmosphere. Therefore, California is creating a new agency to monitor and tax the unwanted release of this gas.  To fund this Board and its employees a new source of revenue will be created through the establishment of a Flatulence Air Resource Tax. (Pseudonym FARTax)

Under development is a new monitoring device to be worn by all residents and visitors on the rear upper portion of the thigh which will sense, tabulate and report to the Board all releases of methane gas by the wearer.

The Board will then forward this information to the California Franchise Tax Board who will be responsible for billing and collecting the approved tax.  At this writing a rate of $1.00 per release is under consideration.  Think of it as an exhaust gas tax.

Taxpayers can avoid this tax by simply not releasing any methane gas through the monitored process.

The State agency for this Board is reporting some difficulty in recruiting, hiring and training workers who will be responsible for checking and monitoring individuals at random to be sure they are wearing the methane release and sound monitoring device and that it is working properly.

Formal announcement of this new Fair Share Tax and implementation of monitoring should be released through the media within the next 60 days.

All tax rates are subject to review and increase depending on Battlefield Assessment Reports from the ongoing War against Global Climate Change and subject to review and correction by former Vice President Al Gore.

What could possibly go wrong?

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The time has come to implement and enforce this important new law to save California from Bankruptcy!

Bob Bandy – January 2024

photo – California Globe – January 12, 2024

SOMETIMES IT IS TOO EASY

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP

Back in March 2023 I wrote a spoof article titled: SPIN DOCTORS – LIPSTICK ON LIES.  Conrad Blowhard makes his appearance in an excerpt from my article sub-headlined: “A SPIN CITY NARRATIVE” and my article follows these excerpts from The California Globe article by Kathy Grimes titled:

$478,000 Per Unit: Homeless ‘Tiny’ Apartments Now Open in Sacramento – Cost to build – $1,707 per square foot

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg proudly announced “Sacramento’s historic Capitol Park Hotel reopens this week as St. Clare at Capitol Park, a permanent supportive housing complex for people experiencing homelessness.”

Calling the state’s homeless vagrant population “unhoused” has justified spending billions of taxpayer dollars on housing for the homeless in lovely new apartments, renovated hotels, and tiny homes.

The Globe first reported on this fishy project in 2019:

The city just closed a triage shelter for the vagrants living on the streets. Mayor Steinberg is pinning his hopes on the Capitol Park Hotel which was used for decades as housing for low-income disabled adults. The city is kicking them out, and renovating the hotel for $23 million. Steinberg says it will have 180 beds for homeless by August.

As one neighbor said in response to Steinberg’s press conference, “these are the drug addicts and mentally ill who refuse the city services. To call them ‘homeless’ is an insult to those that are truly down on their luck. They are ‘vagrants, ‘criminals,’ ‘druggies,’ and ‘junkies’ who have chosen this lifestyle.”

Truer words could not be spoken……

……….Steinberg spoke of the “homeless” without addressing their open lawlessness, drug dealing, theft, people masturbating in public, shooting up heroin in the open, soliciting drugs and prostitution in public, and defecating and urinating on streets in front of local businesses. It’s not a pretty picture. According to Mayor Steinberg, “it’s a housing crisis.”

The “housing crisis” and the “unhoused” are apparently worth a really large bounty per head to the City of Sacramento – they are the “facilitators” for the hotel and apartment renovations, bringing billions to the cities in California from the federal and state governments.

That “housing complex for people experiencing homelessness” ballooned up per unit cost by 2020 to $445,000 each. Mercy Housing began the project with a $34 million price to convert the Downtown Sacramento building’s 180 hotel rooms into 134 studio units of about 280 square feet each. The project grew to a $64 million project, that we know of at this point.

That’s $478,ooo per 280 square foot room –  $1,707 per square foot. The average square foot cost of real estate right now in Sacramento is about $300 to $400 per square foot.

The complete California Globe article is available on their website:  THECALIFORNIAGLOBE.COM

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My original article excerpted from something I wrote back in March 2023 follows:

A SPIN CITY NARRATIVE

Conrad Blowhard is the Mayor of Spin City, California.  His city has become infested with homeless encampments and vagrants numbering in the thousands.  To some this would seem a problem but Mayor Blowhard sees an opportunity.  

He will convince his City Council that in an effort to help the homeless and decrease their numbers on the cities streets and alleys he would like them to pass a funding bill in the amount of 80 Million Dollars with the proceeds dedicated to renovating a dilapidated, nearly abandoned hotel down on “Skid Row” and convert it’s 80 rooms into housing for the homeless.  The City Council passes the funding request and pats themselves on the back for “caring” about the homeless.

Closed bidding contracts are let out to major contractors who are supporters and donors to the Mayor for the work to be done.  A ceremonial event is held at the Foggy Bottom Hotel with the Mayor swinging a sledge hammer through a faded door of a shoddy 200 square foot room in front of live television cameras.  Everybody applauds.

Work begins.  Some effort is made to rid the building of most of the rats, termites and other vermin which infest it.  The leaking roof is patched.  Contractors workers “freshen up” the rooms with new paint, carpet, updated (cheap) fixtures from China and new window coverings.  Cost per room innovated is $400,000.  In addition, the hotel gets a new name:  “NEW BEGINNING’S” and a single fresh coat of exterior paint. 

Grand Opening Day arrives.  Brass Bands and Ribbon Cutting.  Mayor Blowhard and City Council members make grandiose speeches about how they have solved the cities Homeless Crisis.  A few ragged homeless people are seen entering the building to take occupancy of their renovated 200 square foot “apartments”.

The Mayor’s handpicked contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers go out and spend their profits on new boats, sports cars and luxury vacations but not forgetting to “tithe” back some of those profits to the Majors campaign re-election coffers.

The 80 “new” tenants of the once dilapidated hotel settle in and begin the task of de-renovation on the hotel to turn it back into a Skid Row Manor.  

The whole process is “spun” as a huge success and praise and credit is layered on all who participated in the project.  What could possibly go wrong.  Housing was provided, at least temporarily, for 80 homeless people for only 80 Million Dollars.  “WINK – WINK”.

Bob Bandy – March 2023

P.S. I would like to give inspirational credit to Michael J. Fox and his long ago television series “Spin City”.

Bob Bandy – January 2024