Do you think that local politicians should be able to set the minimum wage for workers whose efforts support the nation? And what would happen if they did?
Well, some of the more liberal members of the Board of Supervisors are “studying” a proposal to set $26 an hour as the local labor wage rate for farmworkers. It’s almost as if they think they are replacing or at least aiding the farmworkers’ union.
Recently a new phrase was introduced into the political arena: social justice, which is the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. This definition is akin to the definition of “socialism” and is the latest cause for many politicians and especially the elite liberal class.
No one denies that farmworkers work hard. Just take a tour around the scores of farms and ranches in the North County and you’ll see men and women doing the backbreaking tasks of picking crops, moving heavy irrigation pipes, packaging produce for shipment, hoeing weeds, and moving cattle on horses. Others tend vineyards, harvest grapes, and run dusty combines to harvest beans.
They do this every day whether it’s sunny and warm or overcast, damp, and in the 50s. Because harvest happens on Sundays and holidays too. You see, nature has its own calendar.
It seems that most politicians can’t grasp the fact that if you increase input costs, such as labor, you will ultimately and almost on a direct upward curve increase consumer costs. That means whether you’re rich or in the low- to medium-income category, you’re going to pay more for that head of cauliflower, pot roast, or bottle of wine.
Andy Caldwell, an advocate for agriculture and industry, says agriculture is an “over $2 billion per year” industry in our county. Unfortunately, the farmers’ voice isn’t as loud as the idle rich who finance political campaigns and activist groups that have the ear of the politicians they support.
Studying the wage proposal is just one of several actions the Board of Supervisors has taken that has a direct and adverse impact on local industries that provide goods, services, and jobs for their constituents. Recently the board majority consisting of Supervisors Laura Capps, Joan Hartmann, and lame duck Das Williams approved the 2030 Climate Action Plan.
These three never asked “how much is this going to cost and where will the money come from” before they cast their votes. The Santa Barbara County Taxpayer Advocacy Center estimates it would cost $23 million a year for the next six years to implement—where will this money come from? Well, no revenue source has been identified yet.
Now two of the three, Joan Hartmann and Das Williams, are serving on an ad hoc committee to explore wages and other farmworker issues. But there is hope, Williams leaves the Board of Supervisors in January after being defeated in March and Supervisor Bob Nelson will take his place on the committee, which will provide more balance.
And Caldwell says, “I can assure you it is going to cost billions. In fact, the largest trucking company and the largest winery in the county have already closed due to similar mandates being imposed by other agencies,” (“An Urgent Plea and Call to Action,” Santa Barbara Current, Sept. 8).
“Farmers in every sector of our economy have told me in no uncertain terms that a $26-hour minimum wage for farmworkers would cause their immediate bankruptcy and the certain layoff of their entire workforce. The truth is strawberry producers have already been losing money for the past two years and so too have wine grape and flower growers,” Caldwell says.
Another fact that seemed to escape the ad hoc committee’s attention was highlighted by the Santa Barbara County Taxpayer Advocacy Center. They asked, “Are you even aware that two statewide ag associations, Western Growers and United Ag, through their employer members provide health care to over 80,000 farmworkers in the state of California? And you all know how many workers work in so many other non-ag economic sectors that receive no health care benefits from their employers at all. So why target just the agricultural industry.”
Over the last couple of decades there has been a concerted effort by the more liberal members of the Board of Supervisors to eviscerate revenue-producing industries. The oil and gas industries were essentially run out of our county because well-heeled activist groups and Board of Supervisors members bought and paid for by the idle rich in Montecito decided they had to “save the Earth.”
Now their target seems to be the agricultural industry. Maybe they haven’t figured out where their food comes from or they just don’t care how much they’ll pay for it.
But all of us who are on fixed incomes or who have lower to middle-class incomes sure do. It is the 95 percent of the people in this county who don’t live on large estates who ultimately pay for the fantasies and socialistic tendencies of the Board of Supervisors majority.
Every time politicians try to fix something, it’s the “little guy” that always loses.
Ron Fink writes to the Sun from Lompoc. Send a letter for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 19-29, 2024.