Taxation without representation

EDITOR: As a homeowner who chose to live away from the busy chaos of a city I am outraged at this new tax under the guise of AB X1 29 passed in July 2011 by the governor and Assembly for the State of California.

I already pay higher taxes/fees for the choice of where I live. Here’s a brief example: higher property taxes, energy taxes, transfer taxes/fees/bundling costs for PG&E, fuel, building taxes, EID taxes fees, El Dorado County taxes, state and federal taxes, Tank Storage Tax, taxation/surcharges for fuel fees for Waste Management, taxes/fees on goods/food/restaurants/businesses and services, general tax levy, household hazard waste tax, Pollock Pines-Camino Fire Tax, Ambulance w/Slope Tax … as well as my homeowner’s insurance requiring I live within three to five miles of a fire station, plus I have a fire hydrant within blocks of my home and defensible space prior to obtaining homeowners insurance, which in essence is another tax.

It is utterly laughable that anyone believes or trusts the California govemor or Assembly members or SRA will be able to manage this tax for fire prevention benefit, or forest land itself. Living in California I’ve seen how unreasonable and unrealistic the many laws and taxation have become; these are the same individuals who cannot balance a budget for the state of California, have allowed California to obtain the worst credit rating for a state; killing businesses on a daily basis and driving businesses out of Califomia, most recently Campbell Soup and Comcast. These are the same people who have pushed through a bullet train to nowhere against the wishes of the working middle class taxpayers who truly pay their excessive salaries/compensation packages.

Ever stop and ask, Who starts these supposed fires? Let’s start with what I see on my daily commute: Burning objects being thrown from vehicles, chains dragging on cement/asphalt causing sparks, ragged smoking vehicles pulling over onto weed covered easement; these vehicles are not maintained, are hot and are now in dry grass. There is also the faulty worn out gas machinery such as mowers, blowing, highway sweepers/cutters, or chippers. Check your history, most of the fires in the areas where the SRA has voted themselves responsible for, have been started by fire personnel themselves (“controlled burns/or to have a job”), illegal immigrants, Islamofacists, homeless, careless and thoughtless (lost) campers/tourists, PG&E, tree trimmers and a few by Mother Nature.

There are 2 million people out of work if not more. The California governor and Assembly members are overtaxing, overspending and not listening to the working middle class people; they have no clue what it means to have a “real job,” use common sense, be held accountable, live within a budget or what we the people want or need. There is no accountability. We the people voted you in. We the people can vote you out; it seems there is not one politician who has ever done what the people have asked or voted on as the politicians still change the laws even after it has been voted/passed by the people, to the benefit of the politicians.

I request AB X1 29 be repealed and all monies returned to the people who paid it as well as the SRA dismantled, as it is not truly in the interest of the people or the forest. It is another bilk of the public, pocket the money scam brought to us by the SRA, California governor and Assembly members. Follow the money, there is no grounds or evidence the SRA is capable or reliable to protect anything but their own money-grubbing, greedy interest at the expense of the hard-working middle class people who chose to live in or near forest lands.

SHANNON DUKE

Pollock Pines