Damned if you do, damned if you don’t

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

A small business owner says the City of Santa Clarita is wasting the public’s money by improving Creekside Drive and asks where the help for small business owners such as her is. At the same time, she’s upset that the City used cost-effective mail-in ballots rather than hosting a special election to decide the matter:

As a small-business owner in the area, I am very upset about the assessment for the Town Center/Tourney and Median District fees on my tax bill in the amounts of $1,170.26 and $280.30.

This was voted in by mail with very little turnout, and you, the City Council, approved.

This is wrong. All tax assessments should be on ballots at the ballot box, not mailed like an advertisement or junk mail.

You know that most people don’t even see these ballots, and you can tell by the returns you receive.

It isn’t right; it isn’t American.

So wait- it’s fiscally irresponsible for the city to give a handout/hand-up to Creekside auto dealers if it’s decided by cheap mail-in ballots, but it would be okay if we the taxpayers hosted an expensive special election to decide the same thing? Cognitive dissonance much?

Next time, read your mail. It’s the American thing to do.

On Nov. 10, in The Signal, an article titled “Makeover set for Creekside in Valencia” was published, and the city has decided to spend precious dollars, at a time when the economy for most — especially small businesses — is in the dumps, $800,000 to $900,000 to improve Creekside Road for the auto dealers so people can experience a more pleasant car-shopping experience.

What?

How about the other businesses trying to keep their doors open?

Let’s pretend for a moment that Santa Clarita doesn’t have numerous programs, incentives, entire offices, organizations, and marketing campaigns for small businesses. One gets the feeling our letter writer would be okay with the Creekside beautification project as long as it included her. In other words, her outrage over the project for Creekside and the City’s supposed fiscal wastefulness ends when a check from the ratepayers arrives at her mailbox (Assuming she doesn’t toss it out like junk mail).

This is what happens when local governments try to do things for the local business community. Either the local government gets accused of being unfair to other businesses, or it gets trashed by the businesses benefiting from all the improvements anyway (as was the case in Old Town Newhall, where we were subjected to much whining by business owners for the millions we spent to improve their area).

Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

Comments (47)

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 9:13 am

Everyone is against handouts till the Government goes after their handouts then they become violent http://www.latimes.com/sns-ap-us-judges-threats,0,7015795.story Get your Government hands off my social security!!!

Linda SNovember 17, 2010 at 9:14 am

I was under the impression that the Auto Dealers were paying for these improvements through their assesssment fees.

Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 9:26 am

Social Secutity Stinks!

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 9:32 am

Then cancel yours… And start rallying against that hand out. Republicans wouldn’t dare attack their base… Lol Or are you going to be like John McCain and Michelle Bachman and just talk but accept every Government handout possible….

Fred ButlerNovember 17, 2010 at 5:55 pm

You need to talk to my mother about how worthless her social security is. She uses it as a marginal supplement to her 401K. Helps pay for extra visits to the local steak house.

Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 9:27 am

Social Security Stinks!

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 9:32 am

H3 hummers stink.

Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 10:03 am

Mine gets 20MPG and I like it! Plus, the added benefit is that it pisses off girlie men such as you, Little Natie! Ha!

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 10:23 am

HA yeah I can see Patton riding around in that barbie hummer you call a vehicle. What’s the matter Billy? Didn’t get enough in the lawsuit to afford an H2?

Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 10:24 am

Are you feeling okay, Lil Natie. Take another valium, you’ll be fine in the morning.

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 10:29 am

I am A-OK Billy… I am just trying to figure out how a h3 is considered manly? Wait I think I figured out the identity of the guy who said canvas bags are sissy! Or could there be more then one shallow elderly insecure man in Santa Clarita?

NickelDimeNovember 17, 2010 at 9:55 am

Hey Bill, OK, you fix the budget .

MoneyNovember 17, 2010 at 10:08 am

Ha, Bill won’t do that! He would actually have to use his brain instead of just reguritating what he hears on Fox News.

MoneyNovember 17, 2010 at 10:09 am

sorry about the typo – meant “regurgitating”

Daddy Joe GNovember 17, 2010 at 9:35 am

Damned if you do and damned if you don’t? I don’t think so. It’s just damned if you do. Less government starts with the city.

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 9:37 am

America says they want less Government till the topic of what to cut comes up…

Jim FarleyNovember 17, 2010 at 9:56 am

Mail in balloting is the fairest way to run a property tax assessment approval. The ballots only go to the property owners who will pay the assessment. His gripe is not valid on voting at polls for this one. To be a valid (legal) assessment it must be for a project that provides a “special benefit” to the property. Is this a tax that all businesses are paying regardless of where they are in relation to the project? If not a case could be made that it is illegal on the basis of special benefit as well as proportionality. Trust me – I know much about illegal property assessments (Open Space)…..

Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 10:02 am

I knew that when I posted my personal opinion that you no common sense whack jobs would freak out. Too funny! Jeff, do you actually call these nut cases your friends? Social Security is a pyramid scheme and by the time you are ready to collect yours there will be no money there for you. I can tell you that if my SS $$’s had gone into my own investment portfolio I would be much better off. Bush had it right… start offering options to young people. Little Natie, here’s one area to start cutting: Stop entitlements for illegals!

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 10:24 am

How stop entitlement for republican hypocrites? Second no one freaked out… you just rattle off the same crap the rest of the Republican do with no intention on going through with anything. The next two years are going to be FUN! Can’t wait till the Republican congress votes to raise the debt ceiling.

Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 11:50 am

Yep, it’s gonna be great FUN when Bush’s tax cuts are extended for everyone, Obamacare repealed and out of control gov’t spending stopped. Oh yeah, it’s gonna be a GOOD TIME! NEWS ALERT (in case you missed it)! One more GOP Congressman (Joe Walsh, R – Illinois: once a solid blue state) headed to D.C. NEWS FLASH (in case you missed it)! Mark Kirk (R, Illinois) took Obama’s Senate Seat.

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 12:15 pm

Extended for everyone in the top 2%. You already got the largest tax cut in history. Along with 40% of the stimulus being tax cuts… Funny how facts always seem to allude you. Better luck next time we have some nice lovely parting gifts for you. NEWS Flash : Boehner elected Majority speaker unanimous despite the “talk” from teabaggers about challenging him. Business as usual. Hey Bill when are you starting your own blog? You can repeat what you heard on fox news that day or just type Idiot HA! or Moron HA!

Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 12:38 pm

I don’t need no stinking blog when I can rip you ignorant liberals on a daily basis right here. You guys are losers and all you’re whining and crying cannot stop the GOP/Tea Party avalanche that’s placing America in the “right” direction. The more you whine and cry, the more I laugh. Carry on…

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 12:46 pm

Billy the simpleton. I don’t think you know the mean of ignorant, guy who believes health care reform would actually even get close to being repealed. The reason Billy doesn’t have a blog? a. He knows he has nothing original or clever to say therefore no one would read it. b. He is afraid, Santa Clarita already had one blog that posted every email false urban myth which was taken down by hungarian hackers. #WCH c. Less time to wax his $19,000 yellow barbie hummer. d. all of the above

Fred ButlerNovember 17, 2010 at 5:59 pm

Nate writes: Extended for everyone in the top 2%. Only the top 2%. You’re kidding, right? I am no where near the top 2%. Never will ever see it. But my family benefited greatly from the Bush tax cuts. It will hurts us bad, the lower average family the dems. always claim to represent, if they aren’t extended. Nate must be like what? 20 something? Still in college?

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 12:18 pm

BTW. There is zero chance Health Care Reform will be repealed. Zero. Educate yourself on how Washington works, beside it would be political suicide. The repeal talk is just something that the party says makes Republican lapdogs like yourself, pee a little with excitement around election time. Kinda like abortion and gays right always seem to become a huge deal on election years.

navigatorNovember 17, 2010 at 12:31 pm

@Nate – If you own a home like most of us do you’d be wise to sell now before Obamacare gets it’s hands on a big piece of the sales price. Healthcare reform is not in itself a bad thing. The bad thing is how they plan to pay for it.

Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 12:35 pm

Good luck explaining reality to Lil Nate. Go John Boehner!!

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 12:54 pm

I am waiting to see how Repubilcans plan on creating jobs without spending money. It will be business as usual in Washington. Except Republicans now know they don’t need to give respect to the teabaggers who cost them control of the senate. HAHA

Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 1:20 pm

For you ignorant liberals, this just in: Senate Democrats remain divided on how to move forward on extension of the 2001 and 2003 Bush-era tax cuts, and some are pointing the finger of blame at the White House, frustrated at what they see is a lack of guidance or ambiguous guidance coming from the president and his top aides.From a post-election news conference to a “60 Minutes” interview to comments from senior White House adviser David Axelrod, Democrats are scratching their heads trying to figure out what the leader of their party really wants them to do. But here’s the really great news: liberals chose Nanny Nancy as their House Minority Leader. Ya-Hoo!

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 12:59 pm

You must be in a massive house to able to a pull profit of more then 500k for married couples and 250k for singles on one house.

MoneyNovember 17, 2010 at 1:51 pm

Repeal and Replace? Not so fast. Conservatives who voted for congressional candidates because they pledged to repeal and replace the health-care-reform law are in for a rude awakening. Once those newly elected members of Congress have a little talk with the insurance industry’s lobbyists and executives, they will back off from that pledge. They will go through the motions, of course. They’ll hold hearings and take to the floor of both Houses to rail against the new law, and they’ll probably even introduce a bill to repeal it with much fanfare—but it will all be for show. That’s because health insurers, one of Republican candidates’ biggest and most reliable benefactors—the industry contributed three times as much money to Republicans as to Democrats since January—can’t survive without it. Despite all the attacks on “Obamacare,” the new law props up the employer-based system that insurers and large corporations benefit from so greatly. It also guarantees that private insurers will get billions of dollars in new revenue. And the insurers won’t have to share a penny of that windfall with a government-run public option the president once said was necessary “to keep insurers honest.” I know what the insurers are thinking because, not long ago, I was on their side. I am sorry to admit it, but over nearly two decades I had a hand in planning the industry’s PR and public-policy strategies to either kill or shape any health-care reform proposal that might hinder profits. I was part of the strategic-communications team that planned and carried out the successful attack on the Clinton plan in the 1990s as well as the one that killed the patients’ bill of rights a few years later. I left my job handling communications for Cigna in 2008 because I didn’t have the stomach to be part of yet another spin campaign to cheat Americans out of the reform they needed. For months before I left my job, I worked closely with my counterparts at the other big insurers to develop the list of must-haves our well-connected army of lobbyists would take to Capitol Hill when lawmakers began drafting reform legislation. Despite their public statements to the contrary, insurance companies really liked much of what was in both House and Senate versions of the bill—big chunks of which they actually wrote behind the scenes—especially the requirement that all Americans buy insurance if they’re not eligible for an existing public program like Medic-aid or Medicare. During the reform debate, the industry’s deception-based PR strategy had two active fronts. One was a highly visible charm offensive designed to create an image of the industry as an advocate for reform and a good-faith partner with the president and lawmakers in achieving it. The second was a secret fearmongering campaign using shadowy “AstroTurf” groups and business and political allies as shills to disseminate misinformation and lies—like the one about the creation of “death panels”—with the sole intent of killing any reform that might hurt the bottom line. Although I was ashamed of many of the things I did during my career, I didn’t plan to speak out about the industry’s devious practices until I saw Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, tell President Obama at the end of his March 2009 White House Forum on Health Reform, “You have our commitment to play, to contribute, and to help pass health-care reform this year.” Then I knew the industry’s disingenuous charm offensive had begun. Soon after that I read that Aetna chairman and CEO Ron Williams, the driving force behind the industry’s effort to get the individual mandate enacted, had met with the president half a dozen times. I knew Williams was trying to persuade the president to drop his insistence on the public option and to embrace the individual mandate. Sure enough, Williams got his wish. It is ironic, of course, that the requirement to purchase insurance has become the centerpiece of Republicans’ condemnation of the new law and their court challenge of its constitutionality. Insurers have no reason to worry, however, because they fare very well when the Republicans are in charge. Their profits soared—as did the number of Americans who are uninsured and underinsured—during the Bush years and Republican control of Congress. The real reason insurers want the GOP leading Congress again is not to repeal “Obamacare,” but to try to gut some of the provisions of the law that protect consumers from the abuses of the industry, such as refusing to cover kids with preexisting conditions, canceling policyholders’ coverage when they get sick, and setting annual and lifetime limits on how much they’ll pay for medical care. Insurers also hate the provision that requires them to spend at least 80 percent of premium revenues on medical care, as well as the one that calls for eliminating the billions of dollars that the government has been overpaying them for years to participate in private Medicare plans. (Be on the lookout for a death panel–like fearmongering campaign to scare people into thinking, erroneously, that Granny and Pawpaw will lose their government health care if Congress doesn’t restore those “cuts” to Medicare.) Insurers are not waiting for all their new members of Congress to be sworn in to get what they want. They and their big-business allies are already pressuring the Obama administration to waive or delay the implementation of provisions they don’t like, all the while working behind the scenes not only to protect the individual mandate but to have the government enforce it with much greater gusto. The one thing the industry didn’t like about the mandate provision was that the penalties for not buying their overpriced products won’t inflict nearly enough financial pain. Retiring Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who once had been a part of the repeal-and-replace brigade, provoked the wrath of conservative pundits shortly before the midterm elections when he said, in a moment of unguarded candor, that repealing the law was not realistic. Instead, he said, the GOP should focus on “retooling” it. You can be certain that insurance-industry lobbyists will be helping their newly expanded congressional caucus determine what needs retooling. As my former Cigna colleague Bill Hoagland, the company’s top lobbyist, told the Associated Press a few days ago: “If you ended up repealing [the individual mandate], the whole thing blows up. It doesn’t work. The cost would explode.” In other words, feel free to repeal those pesky consumer protections, but keep your hands off our mandate. – Wendell Potter

Your Web GuruNovember 17, 2010 at 5:34 pm

Nate is right. There’s a big BS chain email going around saying that if you sell your house for $100K, that $3800 will go to the government, which is absolutely blatantly false. The current capital gains law (established during the Clinton Administration) echoes what Nate said above. You owe no capital gains taxes on home sale profits of up to $250K ($500K for married couples) and that is still in effect. The only difference is that 3.8% of the capital gains taxes assessed on any money ABOVE that amount will go toward “Obamacare.” So if your profit was $260K as a single person from the sale of your home, only 3.8% the total capital gains tax on 10K will be assessed.

Capt. GeneNovember 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm

“You owe no capital gains taxes on home sale profits of up to $250K ($500K for married couples)” I believe that you have to have lived in the house for at least two years for that to be true.

Daddy Joe GNovember 17, 2010 at 10:06 am

Throwing money at a situation does not necessarily improve it. New Town Newhall is a good example of this.

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 10:25 am

Newhall is improving by leaps and bounds… and as the property becomes more valuable what do you think will happen to the slums around it?

SterlingNovember 17, 2010 at 10:57 am

There is zero complication on the issue. The city just shouldn’t spend it. It’s not the time. They should hold off for now and make a go of it when times are better. I drive Creekside all the time and I could care less about some beautiful bush, I’m looking at cars, not street scape.

GregNovember 17, 2010 at 2:28 pm

I was told that the auto dealers are paying for this improvement through the fees they pay.

cashNovember 17, 2010 at 2:43 pm

Perhaps with the improvements the dealers will stop parking cars on the lawn. Maybe the city (the taxpayers) should pay for the BMW dealer to finish the siding on their building. If it were your home and you left the siding incomplete for as long as the BMW dealer, the city would have cited you and taken you to court. Let’s get the car dealers of off this pedestal! No matter how nice they are treated with our tax dollars, they still screw us.

spineflower2November 17, 2010 at 10:28 pm

Send the Bonelli tract enforcement nazis to the bimmer dealer!

navigatorNovember 17, 2010 at 11:33 am

The lady with the bitch about Creekside listed her town as Newhall. Is her business there where all the money is going into improvements or is it on Creekside where the LMD improvements were voted in. Either way her letter holds no water.

Samuel AdamsNovember 17, 2010 at 12:07 pm

Limited government to many who voted in the last election simply means stopping the “increased” spending. No one argues that the government spend tax dollars, the question is when will they stop the new programs?

cashNovember 17, 2010 at 2:33 pm

Once again the Acura King has his way with the city. I never buy cars on Creekside and don’t because of the Acura King.

DocNovember 17, 2010 at 2:45 pm

Aside from the obvious boneheaded letter writer – your analysis isn’t much better. It’s American to read your mail. Woohoo! Color me Mr. Patriotic. It’s also American to let capitalism flourish and if auto dealers can’t stay in business without a handout – the American thing to do is to let them fail. Oh wait, our Federal representatives already destroyed that concept by keeping failing car companies in business. Greater good? I don’t think so. Let the auto dealers fail without a handout, let the small businesses fail without a handout. Someone will come along and build a better mousetrap and do it without our tax dollars. Or am I being Un-American?

BrianNovember 17, 2010 at 4:59 pm

Hey Jeff! Two boards which have gone off the deep end due to loud mouth extremist righties and zero moderation. All I see is a few people throwing gas on a fire and waiting for the explosion. These few are fanning the flames of violence and you are allowing them a voice. This isn’t discussion. This is baiting until someone loses it. Time to reconsider what you have here since it is obviously out of control!

Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 5:53 pm

Hey Jeff! Two boards which have gone off the deep end due to loud mouth extremist left wing wackos and zero moderation. All I see is a few people throwing gas on a fire and waiting for the explosion. These few are fanning the flames of violence and you are allowing them a voice. This isn’t discussion. This is baiting until someone loses it. Time to reconsider what you have here since it is obviously out of control! Just kidding Jeff… this is how it’s su[pposed be. Keep up your good work!

Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 6:01 pm

Hello Jeff, what Brian is asking for is censorship because he’s uncomfortable with other opinions. Same holds true with Lil Natie who resorts to name calling when folks offer up honest opinions such as the one I first posted here. Anyway, have a great evening. My wife & I just returned home from seeing an excellent movie directed by Clint Eastwood – “Hereafter”. See it, you won’t be sorry.

Your Web GuruNovember 17, 2010 at 6:49 pm

I am amazed at how people are treating this thing as if it is something new and untested. There are a lot of comments being made without any bearing to actual facts or cause and effect. The city (any city, actually) has every right to make decisions of this sort. As for downtown Newhall, think back to 10 or 15 years ago, then flash forward to now. There is a HUGE change in the overall look as well as the people who frequent the area. It offers street fairs and other events that only benefit the city and draw attention to the area. Would we have had a Town Center without the city’s involvement, or 3 industrial parks, or anything else that so many of you obviously take for granted or complain about while simultaneously using and enjoying them? I’m curious, how better can this money be used? Are you looking at the big picture, or are you listening to whatever spin your local cable news or talk radio pundit is feeding you? Do you even understand how and why money like this is appropriated? And if not now, then when? For those complaining, should the city just drop everything and hold onto our tax dollars? Maybe you’d like to write your city councilpersons and tell them how to spend the money…unless you just want to continue to complain on this forum about how they are all corrupt.

NateNovember 17, 2010 at 9:13 am
Everyone is against handouts till the Government goes after their handouts then they become violent http://www.latimes.com/sns-ap-us-judges-threats,0,7015795.story Get your Government hands off my social security!!!
Linda SNovember 17, 2010 at 9:14 am
I was under the impression that the Auto Dealers were paying for these improvements through their assesssment fees.
Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 9:26 am
Social Secutity Stinks!
NateNovember 17, 2010 at 9:32 am
Then cancel yours… And start rallying against that hand out. Republicans wouldn’t dare attack their base… Lol Or are you going to be like John McCain and Michelle Bachman and just talk but accept every Government handout possible….
Fred ButlerNovember 17, 2010 at 5:55 pm
You need to talk to my mother about how worthless her social security is. She uses it as a marginal supplement to her 401K. Helps pay for extra visits to the local steak house.
Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 9:27 am
Social Security Stinks!
NateNovember 17, 2010 at 9:32 am
H3 hummers stink.
Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 10:03 am
Mine gets 20MPG and I like it! Plus, the added benefit is that it pisses off girlie men such as you, Little Natie! Ha!
NateNovember 17, 2010 at 10:23 am
HA yeah I can see Patton riding around in that barbie hummer you call a vehicle. What’s the matter Billy? Didn’t get enough in the lawsuit to afford an H2?
Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 10:24 am
Are you feeling okay, Lil Natie. Take another valium, you’ll be fine in the morning.
NateNovember 17, 2010 at 10:29 am
I am A-OK Billy… I am just trying to figure out how a h3 is considered manly? Wait I think I figured out the identity of the guy who said canvas bags are sissy! Or could there be more then one shallow elderly insecure man in Santa Clarita?
NickelDimeNovember 17, 2010 at 9:55 am
Hey Bill, OK, you fix the budget .
MoneyNovember 17, 2010 at 10:08 am
Ha, Bill won’t do that! He would actually have to use his brain instead of just reguritating what he hears on Fox News.
MoneyNovember 17, 2010 at 10:09 am
sorry about the typo – meant “regurgitating”
Daddy Joe GNovember 17, 2010 at 9:35 am
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t? I don’t think so. It’s just damned if you do. Less government starts with the city.
NateNovember 17, 2010 at 9:37 am
America says they want less Government till the topic of what to cut comes up…
Jim FarleyNovember 17, 2010 at 9:56 am
Mail in balloting is the fairest way to run a property tax assessment approval. The ballots only go to the property owners who will pay the assessment. His gripe is not valid on voting at polls for this one. To be a valid (legal) assessment it must be for a project that provides a “special benefit” to the property. Is this a tax that all businesses are paying regardless of where they are in relation to the project? If not a case could be made that it is illegal on the basis of special benefit as well as proportionality. Trust me – I know much about illegal property assessments (Open Space)…..
Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 10:02 am
I knew that when I posted my personal opinion that you no common sense whack jobs would freak out. Too funny! Jeff, do you actually call these nut cases your friends? Social Security is a pyramid scheme and by the time you are ready to collect yours there will be no money there for you. I can tell you that if my SS $$’s had gone into my own investment portfolio I would be much better off. Bush had it right… start offering options to young people. Little Natie, here’s one area to start cutting: Stop entitlements for illegals!
NateNovember 17, 2010 at 10:24 am
How stop entitlement for republican hypocrites? Second no one freaked out… you just rattle off the same crap the rest of the Republican do with no intention on going through with anything. The next two years are going to be FUN! Can’t wait till the Republican congress votes to raise the debt ceiling.
Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 11:50 am
Yep, it’s gonna be great FUN when Bush’s tax cuts are extended for everyone, Obamacare repealed and out of control gov’t spending stopped. Oh yeah, it’s gonna be a GOOD TIME! NEWS ALERT (in case you missed it)! One more GOP Congressman (Joe Walsh, R – Illinois: once a solid blue state) headed to D.C. NEWS FLASH (in case you missed it)! Mark Kirk (R, Illinois) took Obama’s Senate Seat.
NateNovember 17, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Extended for everyone in the top 2%. You already got the largest tax cut in history. Along with 40% of the stimulus being tax cuts… Funny how facts always seem to allude you. Better luck next time we have some nice lovely parting gifts for you. NEWS Flash : Boehner elected Majority speaker unanimous despite the “talk” from teabaggers about challenging him. Business as usual. Hey Bill when are you starting your own blog? You can repeat what you heard on fox news that day or just type Idiot HA! or Moron HA!
Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 12:38 pm
I don’t need no stinking blog when I can rip you ignorant liberals on a daily basis right here. You guys are losers and all you’re whining and crying cannot stop the GOP/Tea Party avalanche that’s placing America in the “right” direction. The more you whine and cry, the more I laugh. Carry on…
NateNovember 17, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Billy the simpleton. I don’t think you know the mean of ignorant, guy who believes health care reform would actually even get close to being repealed. The reason Billy doesn’t have a blog? a. He knows he has nothing original or clever to say therefore no one would read it. b. He is afraid, Santa Clarita already had one blog that posted every email false urban myth which was taken down by hungarian hackers. #WCH c. Less time to wax his $19,000 yellow barbie hummer. d. all of the above
Fred ButlerNovember 17, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Nate writes: Extended for everyone in the top 2%. Only the top 2%. You’re kidding, right? I am no where near the top 2%. Never will ever see it. But my family benefited greatly from the Bush tax cuts. It will hurts us bad, the lower average family the dems. always claim to represent, if they aren’t extended. Nate must be like what? 20 something? Still in college?
NateNovember 17, 2010 at 12:18 pm
BTW. There is zero chance Health Care Reform will be repealed. Zero. Educate yourself on how Washington works, beside it would be political suicide. The repeal talk is just something that the party says makes Republican lapdogs like yourself, pee a little with excitement around election time. Kinda like abortion and gays right always seem to become a huge deal on election years.
navigatorNovember 17, 2010 at 12:31 pm
@Nate – If you own a home like most of us do you’d be wise to sell now before Obamacare gets it’s hands on a big piece of the sales price. Healthcare reform is not in itself a bad thing. The bad thing is how they plan to pay for it.
Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Good luck explaining reality to Lil Nate. Go John Boehner!!
NateNovember 17, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I am waiting to see how Repubilcans plan on creating jobs without spending money. It will be business as usual in Washington. Except Republicans now know they don’t need to give respect to the teabaggers who cost them control of the senate. HAHA
Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 1:20 pm
For you ignorant liberals, this just in: Senate Democrats remain divided on how to move forward on extension of the 2001 and 2003 Bush-era tax cuts, and some are pointing the finger of blame at the White House, frustrated at what they see is a lack of guidance or ambiguous guidance coming from the president and his top aides.From a post-election news conference to a “60 Minutes” interview to comments from senior White House adviser David Axelrod, Democrats are scratching their heads trying to figure out what the leader of their party really wants them to do. But here’s the really great news: liberals chose Nanny Nancy as their House Minority Leader. Ya-Hoo!
NateNovember 17, 2010 at 12:59 pm
You must be in a massive house to able to a pull profit of more then 500k for married couples and 250k for singles on one house.
MoneyNovember 17, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Repeal and Replace? Not so fast. Conservatives who voted for congressional candidates because they pledged to repeal and replace the health-care-reform law are in for a rude awakening. Once those newly elected members of Congress have a little talk with the insurance industry’s lobbyists and executives, they will back off from that pledge. They will go through the motions, of course. They’ll hold hearings and take to the floor of both Houses to rail against the new law, and they’ll probably even introduce a bill to repeal it with much fanfare—but it will all be for show. That’s because health insurers, one of Republican candidates’ biggest and most reliable benefactors—the industry contributed three times as much money to Republicans as to Democrats since January—can’t survive without it. Despite all the attacks on “Obamacare,” the new law props up the employer-based system that insurers and large corporations benefit from so greatly. It also guarantees that private insurers will get billions of dollars in new revenue. And the insurers won’t have to share a penny of that windfall with a government-run public option the president once said was necessary “to keep insurers honest.” I know what the insurers are thinking because, not long ago, I was on their side. I am sorry to admit it, but over nearly two decades I had a hand in planning the industry’s PR and public-policy strategies to either kill or shape any health-care reform proposal that might hinder profits. I was part of the strategic-communications team that planned and carried out the successful attack on the Clinton plan in the 1990s as well as the one that killed the patients’ bill of rights a few years later. I left my job handling communications for Cigna in 2008 because I didn’t have the stomach to be part of yet another spin campaign to cheat Americans out of the reform they needed. For months before I left my job, I worked closely with my counterparts at the other big insurers to develop the list of must-haves our well-connected army of lobbyists would take to Capitol Hill when lawmakers began drafting reform legislation. Despite their public statements to the contrary, insurance companies really liked much of what was in both House and Senate versions of the bill—big chunks of which they actually wrote behind the scenes—especially the requirement that all Americans buy insurance if they’re not eligible for an existing public program like Medic-aid or Medicare. During the reform debate, the industry’s deception-based PR strategy had two active fronts. One was a highly visible charm offensive designed to create an image of the industry as an advocate for reform and a good-faith partner with the president and lawmakers in achieving it. The second was a secret fearmongering campaign using shadowy “AstroTurf” groups and business and political allies as shills to disseminate misinformation and lies—like the one about the creation of “death panels”—with the sole intent of killing any reform that might hurt the bottom line. Although I was ashamed of many of the things I did during my career, I didn’t plan to speak out about the industry’s devious practices until I saw Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, tell President Obama at the end of his March 2009 White House Forum on Health Reform, “You have our commitment to play, to contribute, and to help pass health-care reform this year.” Then I knew the industry’s disingenuous charm offensive had begun. Soon after that I read that Aetna chairman and CEO Ron Williams, the driving force behind the industry’s effort to get the individual mandate enacted, had met with the president half a dozen times. I knew Williams was trying to persuade the president to drop his insistence on the public option and to embrace the individual mandate. Sure enough, Williams got his wish. It is ironic, of course, that the requirement to purchase insurance has become the centerpiece of Republicans’ condemnation of the new law and their court challenge of its constitutionality. Insurers have no reason to worry, however, because they fare very well when the Republicans are in charge. Their profits soared—as did the number of Americans who are uninsured and underinsured—during the Bush years and Republican control of Congress. The real reason insurers want the GOP leading Congress again is not to repeal “Obamacare,” but to try to gut some of the provisions of the law that protect consumers from the abuses of the industry, such as refusing to cover kids with preexisting conditions, canceling policyholders’ coverage when they get sick, and setting annual and lifetime limits on how much they’ll pay for medical care. Insurers also hate the provision that requires them to spend at least 80 percent of premium revenues on medical care, as well as the one that calls for eliminating the billions of dollars that the government has been overpaying them for years to participate in private Medicare plans. (Be on the lookout for a death panel–like fearmongering campaign to scare people into thinking, erroneously, that Granny and Pawpaw will lose their government health care if Congress doesn’t restore those “cuts” to Medicare.) Insurers are not waiting for all their new members of Congress to be sworn in to get what they want. They and their big-business allies are already pressuring the Obama administration to waive or delay the implementation of provisions they don’t like, all the while working behind the scenes not only to protect the individual mandate but to have the government enforce it with much greater gusto. The one thing the industry didn’t like about the mandate provision was that the penalties for not buying their overpriced products won’t inflict nearly enough financial pain. Retiring Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who once had been a part of the repeal-and-replace brigade, provoked the wrath of conservative pundits shortly before the midterm elections when he said, in a moment of unguarded candor, that repealing the law was not realistic. Instead, he said, the GOP should focus on “retooling” it. You can be certain that insurance-industry lobbyists will be helping their newly expanded congressional caucus determine what needs retooling. As my former Cigna colleague Bill Hoagland, the company’s top lobbyist, told the Associated Press a few days ago: “If you ended up repealing [the individual mandate], the whole thing blows up. It doesn’t work. The cost would explode.” In other words, feel free to repeal those pesky consumer protections, but keep your hands off our mandate. – Wendell Potter
Your Web GuruNovember 17, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Nate is right. There’s a big BS chain email going around saying that if you sell your house for $100K, that $3800 will go to the government, which is absolutely blatantly false. The current capital gains law (established during the Clinton Administration) echoes what Nate said above. You owe no capital gains taxes on home sale profits of up to $250K ($500K for married couples) and that is still in effect. The only difference is that 3.8% of the capital gains taxes assessed on any money ABOVE that amount will go toward “Obamacare.” So if your profit was $260K as a single person from the sale of your home, only 3.8% the total capital gains tax on 10K will be assessed.
Capt. GeneNovember 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm
“You owe no capital gains taxes on home sale profits of up to $250K ($500K for married couples)” I believe that you have to have lived in the house for at least two years for that to be true.
Daddy Joe GNovember 17, 2010 at 10:06 am
Throwing money at a situation does not necessarily improve it. New Town Newhall is a good example of this.
NateNovember 17, 2010 at 10:25 am
Newhall is improving by leaps and bounds… and as the property becomes more valuable what do you think will happen to the slums around it?
SterlingNovember 17, 2010 at 10:57 am
There is zero complication on the issue. The city just shouldn’t spend it. It’s not the time. They should hold off for now and make a go of it when times are better. I drive Creekside all the time and I could care less about some beautiful bush, I’m looking at cars, not street scape.
GregNovember 17, 2010 at 2:28 pm
I was told that the auto dealers are paying for this improvement through the fees they pay.
cashNovember 17, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Perhaps with the improvements the dealers will stop parking cars on the lawn. Maybe the city (the taxpayers) should pay for the BMW dealer to finish the siding on their building. If it were your home and you left the siding incomplete for as long as the BMW dealer, the city would have cited you and taken you to court. Let’s get the car dealers of off this pedestal! No matter how nice they are treated with our tax dollars, they still screw us.
spineflower2November 17, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Send the Bonelli tract enforcement nazis to the bimmer dealer!
navigatorNovember 17, 2010 at 11:33 am
The lady with the bitch about Creekside listed her town as Newhall. Is her business there where all the money is going into improvements or is it on Creekside where the LMD improvements were voted in. Either way her letter holds no water.
Samuel AdamsNovember 17, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Limited government to many who voted in the last election simply means stopping the “increased” spending. No one argues that the government spend tax dollars, the question is when will they stop the new programs?
cashNovember 17, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Once again the Acura King has his way with the city. I never buy cars on Creekside and don’t because of the Acura King.
DocNovember 17, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Aside from the obvious boneheaded letter writer – your analysis isn’t much better. It’s American to read your mail. Woohoo! Color me Mr. Patriotic. It’s also American to let capitalism flourish and if auto dealers can’t stay in business without a handout – the American thing to do is to let them fail. Oh wait, our Federal representatives already destroyed that concept by keeping failing car companies in business. Greater good? I don’t think so. Let the auto dealers fail without a handout, let the small businesses fail without a handout. Someone will come along and build a better mousetrap and do it without our tax dollars. Or am I being Un-American?
BrianNovember 17, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Hey Jeff! Two boards which have gone off the deep end due to loud mouth extremist righties and zero moderation. All I see is a few people throwing gas on a fire and waiting for the explosion. These few are fanning the flames of violence and you are allowing them a voice. This isn’t discussion. This is baiting until someone loses it. Time to reconsider what you have here since it is obviously out of control!
Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Hey Jeff! Two boards which have gone off the deep end due to loud mouth extremist left wing wackos and zero moderation. All I see is a few people throwing gas on a fire and waiting for the explosion. These few are fanning the flames of violence and you are allowing them a voice. This isn’t discussion. This is baiting until someone loses it. Time to reconsider what you have here since it is obviously out of control! Just kidding Jeff… this is how it’s su[pposed be. Keep up your good work!
Bill ReynoldsNovember 17, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Hello Jeff, what Brian is asking for is censorship because he’s uncomfortable with other opinions. Same holds true with Lil Natie who resorts to name calling when folks offer up honest opinions such as the one I first posted here. Anyway, have a great evening. My wife & I just returned home from seeing an excellent movie directed by Clint Eastwood – “Hereafter”. See it, you won’t be sorry.
Your Web GuruNovember 17, 2010 at 6:49 pm
I am amazed at how people are treating this thing as if it is something new and untested. There are a lot of comments being made without any bearing to actual facts or cause and effect. The city (any city, actually) has every right to make decisions of this sort. As for downtown Newhall, think back to 10 or 15 years ago, then flash forward to now. There is a HUGE change in the overall look as well as the people who frequent the area. It offers street fairs and other events that only benefit the city and draw attention to the area. Would we have had a Town Center without the city’s involvement, or 3 industrial parks, or anything else that so many of you obviously take for granted or complain about while simultaneously using and enjoying them? I’m curious, how better can this money be used? Are you looking at the big picture, or are you listening to whatever spin your local cable news or talk radio pundit is feeding you? Do you even understand how and why money like this is appropriated? And if not now, then when? For those complaining, should the city just drop everything and hold onto our tax dollars? Maybe you’d like to write your city councilpersons and tell them how to spend the money…unless you just want to continue to complain on this forum about how they are all corrupt.