If you get sick, you get sick guys. That’s the way the cookie crumbles, according to 4th District Supervisor Peter Adam, who is raring to get that Santa Barbara County economy up an moving again.
You hear that, Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso? Adam is ready for Do-Reynoso to get her crap together on a plan, man, for getting over this whole coronavirus stay-at-home BS. You won’t even tell the press who’s sick unless they ask you—for instance, the county got its first case at the Main Jail, but Do-Reynoso didn’t just volunteer that information during the April 17 press briefing. The Sun had to ask!
Also, does anyone really know how many cases are at the United States Penitentiary in Lompoc? The county and Federal Bureau of Prisons numbers don’t always line up. The Sun’s reporters are scratching their heads trying to stay on top of where these cases are and how many people are in this hospital attached to respirators or in that prison coughing in an isolation cell—meanwhile the county’s cases are heading toward 500 at a quick clip and we are apparently putting all of our economic eggs into the REACH basket.
What is REACH, you ask? Good question. The organization formerly known as the Hourglass Project pushes regional collaboration between the public and private sectors to create innovative plans to spur “vibrant” future economic growth, or some such nonsense. The Hourglass Project was around for more than a year and gave a bunch of presentations encouraging people to “think big,” took some money from Central Coast cities and counties, went to Sacramento to do some stuff, is on the “Vandenberg Air Force Base will save us” bandwagon, and we’ve literally got nothing but a bunch of words to show for it.
Now, REACH is going to guide us out of a pandemic-induced recession?
Uhh. Guys. I think you better rethink that particular “plan.” Unless all you’re looking for is the trend-setting corporate-inspired lingo of the day.
We need a solid foundation of economic knowledge to build on that actually leads to good policy decisions and actual action before the end of the crisis. We certainly don’t have time for jargon and navel-gazing.
After all, we don’t want to be like Solvang, which just promised 12 percent of all future transient occupancy tax to an events and marketing company. It has the potential to be a revenue stream of up to $540,000 or more a year for IDK Events.
That’s a lot of money. I think I’m in the wrong business.
If transient occupancy tax makes up at least 50 percent of the city’s general fund revenue stream (which it does in a non-pandemic recession), that means the city is promising 6 percent of its revenue to a marketing company. Don’t worry though, everyone, Mayor Ryan Touissant says if the city brings in $0 in transient taxes, then IDK gets nothing.
Well that makes it better. The city did just have to lay off eight employees because of COVID-19. They couldn’t exactly give IDK the whole kit and caboodle.
The canary is ready for a new kit and caboodle. Send help to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 23-30, 2020.