Nothing to see here …

Collectively, countywide, for the fiscal year 2018 (July through June), taxpayers will spend nearly $2 billion on programs and services delivered by local governments. The largest expenditure will occur at the county of Santa Barbara, which just adopted a $1.1 billion budget. In an unprecedented move, the Board of Supervisors boiled down a $1.1 billion budget, which took three full days in years past, to a few hours. Had it not been for the indefatigable Andy Caldwell, they might have done it inside of 30 minutes.

This year’s county budget message was supposedly, “one county, one future.” It ended up being, “nothing to see here, move along …”

Had one assumed this year’s budget process would lend itself to a comprehensive level of scrutiny, analysis, and review, in light of the Thomas Fire, the Montecito debris flow, and the ongoing fiscal impacts from the three-year offshore oil shut-in, one would have been wrong. 

The Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association’s social media message to the county Board of Supervisors, was essentially this:

Do not misunderstand your proper role and function in the context of county government, which should be to help create an “opportunity” society, or an “ownership” society if you will. It is really only through ownership that economic upward mobility is possible–ownership of a car, a home, a business, a savings or retirement account, and of course a quality education.

Andy Caldwell reminded the supervisors that all is not well in paradise when unemployment is at historic lows, and yet tens of thousands of residents, mostly in North County, earn poverty wages. And I would add that this isn’t due to some inherent deficiency in our free enterprise system, but, rather, the result of a systematic intrusion of a heavy-handed government and its propensity to impose incentive-crushing taxes, fees, and other unreasonable costs, burdens, and delays on economic activity and business expansion.

It was on a recent evening walk in my neighborhood that it hit me like a ton of bricks. As I admired the beautiful, spacious, and well-manicured homes in Foxenwood Estates, I couldn’t help wondering what is it the people who live in these homes do for a living?

As I thought more about that, I couldn’t avoid this conclusion. The majority of these residents almost certainly do not work for wages. They are most likely owners. They either own a small or medium sized business, investments, or maybe they own other properties that allow them to afford that particular property. The point being, unless you’re a famous athlete, entertainer, or perhaps a bank president, or a Fortune 500 CEO, you won’t get rich on wages. It is by ownership that economic upward mobility and financial independence is made possible. By the way, even in the case of bank presidents and corporate CEOs, more often than not they own private or public shares in the company. So, in other words, they are part of the ownership society.

My point is simply this: In Santa Barbara County we have some comparative advantages that we can maximize to empower our residents, especially residents of modest means and seemingly limited opportunities in North County. The main comparative advantages are the substantial oil and gas reserves. Oil and gas jobs are high paying and they can place people on an upward economic trajectory. A trajectory that puts “ownership” in immediate reach. Maybe they can own a new or second car, buy a first home, set up a personal and portable retirement account, and even puruse additional education opportunities.

That is my message to the Board of Supervisors today, and has been for the past 20 years. Andy Caldwell has had essentially the same message. Will they finally heed Caldwell’s perennial words of caution? Will they become economic opportunity and ownership society converts as a result of my constant evangelizing (as one person put it)? I’m not going to hold my breath. And not because I am a pessimist. On the contrary, I am an optimist. And you know the difference, right? Pessimists say things can’t get any worse. An optimist says things can always get worse.

And unfortunately, just as water takes the path of least resistance, most Santa Barbara politicians take the path of least resistance also, which is to embrace the inherent pessimism of dogmatic environmentalism. And so things are likely to get worse due to an almost religious devotion to a faith-based political paradigm.

Joe Armendariz is the executive director of the Santa Barbara County Technology and Industry Association, the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association, and the founder and principal consultant at Armendariz Partners. Send your thoughts to letters@santamariasun.com.

This article appears in Jun 21-28, 2018.