California Construction Trucking Association (CCTA)

It has been a busy month for CDTOA. I know we have all put a lot of time and expense into our Broker Bill as it works through the Capital in Sacramento. It has so far passed through all the committee hearings with no opposition, thanks to the great work Brooks and his staff are doing and the fact that it’s something that is needed within our industry.

The Scholarship Working Committee has also worked hard to nominate eight college freshman to receive funding help—it’s our own CDTOA economic stimulus effort.

We have hired a long-needed Southern California Membership Representative to help chapters regroup members and meet the needs of members in the Southern California area. Greg Wallace will be acting as a membership sales consultant for us. We are, in fact, opening the outside consultant position to all affiliates who want to sell their products and our membership and drug program at the same time.

Betty Plowman has done a great job covering both the north and south part of the state, but it was very difficult, and we are glad to now have a representative for Southern California.

I’d like to send out a special thanks to Dr. James Enstrom, a leading UCLA-based scientist who is now apparently being forced out for his honest research relating to the health effects of PM2.5 from diesel emissions. His and others’ research that have shown no health effects or increases of any type of cancer relating to PM2.5 from diesel emissions here in California, have been our guiding light in questioning the science behind ALL CARB diesel engine regulations. These CARB regulations, in my opinion, are nothing more than the governmental fleecing of Californians who happen to have purchased legal diesel-powered trucks and equipment. I have valued his commitment to unbiased science and the integrity he has shown at his own professional peril. We are all now part of a growing, informed group willing to question the radical environmental Jihad group in and behind CARB (i.e., the UC School system) with their nonsense science, which is entirely politically based. Mary Nichols and the Board, you should be ashamed of yourselves for the damage that you have perpetrated on all of us.

I now believe that most Californians have lost faith in their government. I recently read a bumper sticker that said “I Love My Country I Fear My Government.” How fitting for a 4th of July weekend.

This radical environmentalism movement, which now has a strangle hold on our government, is directly linked to record unemployment numbers here, record failed businesses, and even banks’ unwillingness to loan. It’s crazy that banks are claiming to be loaning money for enterprises to rebuild, but the loan requirements have been so strict that few can even qualify. This is ruining the state’s entrepreneur engine. I wonder, did your bank call you to tell you your credit line was reinstated? Mine did not.
Instead of fixing the massive largess within government today, our wonderful legislators are raiding transportation funds, performing card tricks with current fuel taxes, kind of like “where’s the penny”—but with your tax money. The house always wins while we the people lose our asses.

And then they have the nerve to make and pay for (with taxpayers’ money) these ridiculous commercials with liberal actors and Arnold himself promoting how “California is OPEN for business.” I see it as, “California is still OPEN to give you the zoomo business, right in the keister.” Reckless, predatory anti-business regulation is now being practiced by all departments of government in California. They have made it so you would need your head examined to invest in the future of this state (i.e., muni-bonds).
Businesses need a healthy political environment to become financially situated to grow and create jobs. Below is my short list of Job Creation Killers, in order:

1. CARB and their thousands of regulations to justify their jobs. I hope everyone has read what I think of Mary Nichols and her band of thieves and academic deviants on staff. They used to say, “One bad apple spoils the bunch—well, honey, you have a whole truckload of bad fruit in that green building in downtown Sacramento, and it starts at the top. What in the world is this governor thinking?
2. Over-regulation of all types: water, air, land use, permitting etc. California wants to control all of us from cradle to grave. Umpteen different and overlapping entities of government, combined with layers and layers of useless workers all in place to ruin any chance for Californians to create jobs outside of government.
3. Predatory fines, which are nothing more than wealth redistribution. They are really Job Killers, just there to help run businesses aground over fines and fees (hidden taxes) for any number of unreasonable rules or lack of government responsibility to the taxpayer. A good example is the BIT fee and inspection. I didn’t mind the BIT fee increase, but when they could not send courtesy notices (because of budget problems), to send my fees in every 17 months without a formal notice or reminder, that is a problem in my opinion. If you do not pay on time, CHP collects a $400 dollar penalty. With that kind of fine, why should CHP do the right thing? WA BAM!
4. New taxes and higher taxes on everything from wine to real estate investments. The 3.8% Medicare surtax would hit average, middle-class investors in real estate. A middle-class taxpayer who happens to sell real estate for a gain in a particular year would be liable for this new tax, regardless of how low his/her income might be in more typical years.

What will work to create jobs and stabilize this economy?

1. Government downsizing. When the economy is down 50%, government needs to cut 50%. We (Californians) should never be burdened with entitlement jobs for city, county, and state workers. Government department heads who pile on expenses to fill budgets should be removed and publicly humiliated. A great example is Caltrans, which has four years worth of new vehicles stashed on lots across the state: new, never-used vehicles bought just to justify bloated, wasteful department budgets. Then there are city fire departments with helicopters. What’s up with that? Pensions, benefits, and overtime schemes that are out of this world. Where’s the accountability? Heads need to roll.
2. No more new laws, unless five old outdated laws are removed from the books.
3. Cut and streamline government bureaucracy. Local agency jurisdiction or state jurisdiction as to business regulation, not both. Stop the pile-on mentality of California Job Killer regulation and the unneeded layers of staff.
4. Accountability. Make agencies giving away public funds criminally responsible for the effective use of these funds. Make legislators accountable for funding intended purposes. Stop the pork projects!
5. Earn back the trust of the citizens!

When I recently found out that the new Obama-Care, or Health Care Bill, has an effect on the sale of my house and my business property when I retire, I was appalled. Who do they need to steal from next to feed this broken system? I suggest that all of you go to this Link and read the story: A 3.8 Percent “Sales Tax” on Your Home? FactCheck.org

It wasn’t bad enough that PM2.5 emission rules have stolen the equity from our equipment; we also have the fact that it is all based on a scientific fraud and misinformation. Who isn’t pissed about the news that welfare credit cards are being used for cash at Indian casinos across our State? And you can bet it’s not being used for food. When will we have had enough? Maybe we deserve what we have, California’s Social Utopia. Hoorah!!

Remember Kill CARB! It would be $800-million-plus a year savings to the poor taxpayer, at a time when this state is in the hole by over $20-billion and growing.

Hope to see you all at the Summer Board Meeting in Ontario at the end of the month.