On this episode we are very lucky to be joined by San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond to discuss SANDAG and his inside look at how the organization operates. Jim details how prior plans to raise revenue for roads and transportation have failed and how the weighted vote makes it impossible for smaller communities to have a voice.
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What's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode
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of California underground. We are very excited tonight.
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We have supervisor, Jim Desmond, who is a member of the board of
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sandbag because there's so much to uncover with sandbag that we
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did in episode 2 weeks ago, and Camille.
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And I like we started sweating. There was just so much
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information. We could have gone on for hours,
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so we were very lucky to have. Jim.
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Come on tonight, he has been one of the absolutely Invoices, when
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it comes to sounding the alarm on what sandbag is doing and
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what they're up to especially with this like tax per mile
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thing. What's happening there?
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What kind of shenanigans are they trying to pull?
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So Jim welcome to the program tonight.
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Thank you so much for coming on and being willing to talk more
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about San deck. You're welcome.
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Phil happy to be here and Camille.
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How are you doing tonight? Good, thanks, our youthful.
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I'm doing great. So let's jump right into it.
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It. Okay, we try to explain what
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sandbag is to the best of our ability.
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You work on Santa Axel. Why don't you explain to us?
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What's and egg is? Well, first of all, I got to
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correct you. I think you asked me earlier, if
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I was on the board, I'm on the San Diego County Board of
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Supervisors. I'm not on the sanding board for
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about 10 years until a couple elections ago.
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I got booted off primarily because I was very outspoken on
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Sand Egg, and I was holding them to their promises and and making
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sure they weren't hoping to over taxing us and And unfortunately,
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I wasn't able to keep my seat representing the Board of
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Supervisors for the county of San Diego, but I've been on it
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for 10 years. I know, you know, all of the
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what's going on, but San Diego itself is sanded stands for the
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San Diego Association of governments.
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And basically it started in like the mid 80s and it was a good
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idea. It was like all of the Cities,
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there's 18, different cities, in San Diego County and there's 18
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different cities. They all said hey why don't we
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all work together so that we can pool?
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Resources and instead of competing with each other for
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federal dollars or State dollars for roads and infrastructure
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here in San Diego County. If we all get together, we come
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up with a plan and then we use that plan then to go after
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matching dollars or state or federal dollars.
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So sandbagged. That's how it was created.
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That's what it's been. And when I first came into the
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to being they needed to raise money and so they implemented a
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half a cent sales tax and they promised a whole bunch of Road
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and transportation projects. In the 80s, then in the early
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2000s. They extended that half cent
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sales, tax of once again, it's going to, it's in play right
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now. It went in place in 2008 and is
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going to be, we're all in San Diego County, or paying this
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half cent sales, tax until 2048. And what price?
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What sanding promise then was again a whole bunch of road
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projects and earn the early 2000, whole bunch of road
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projects that a whole bunch of public transportation projects.
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If we extended this Sales tax, another 40 years.
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Well, we're kind of about halfway through that 40 year tax
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and now San Diego has decided. No, we are not going to deliver
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what we promised on, you know, even though it went to the
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voters, the voters, in a head to vote by two-thirds to keep this
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tack, this Transportation tax coming in, basically half cent
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sales, tax. Every time you buy anything and
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you pay sales tax, a half, psychos to train, sandbag, to
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pay for these Transportation project.
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Well when they just decided, hey, we're not going to deliver
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what we promised and for 15 projects that they promised are
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just not going to be delivered. 14 of those projects were road
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projects. So what they did is they came
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through on many of the public transportation projects.
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The new trolley that you see coming up from Old Town of the
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University Town Center, which is completed.
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Basically the entire Trolley system from HOV lanes of the 15
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new HOV. Lanes are being built on the
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I-5. Right now, all of this were cut
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were some of the promise projects.
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So currently stand Egg The Entity they said.
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Now they have a new plan that they're coming up with that is
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basically almost 100% public transportation projects.
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They're not going to do the road projects that they promised
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they'd have their hand out again with a new set of promises that
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group the last set of promises. And I'm telling people do not
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vote for this because they're, you know, it's bait and switch.
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Which they're not putting the money back into roads.
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And now, with this new program, there's new plan coming forward.
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They want to increase the sales taxes by three one half cent
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sales tax has, the will be at about 10 percent sales tax
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someday it adding them mileage tax.
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Also, adding a changing about 800 miles of our Freeway Lanes
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into managed Lanes or toll Lanes, so that's kind of a nut
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shell and get further into it. If you got questions or
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anything, but But stand eggs, basically, the transportation
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Agency, for San Diego County, we pay they collect taxes, they
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make promises, they break promises and now their cake
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there. They've got a new set of
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promises and their hand out. Yeah, and sorry, I just wanted
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to jump in and say when we were talking before I forgot to
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congratulate you, on your re-election, you were one of the
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races that I know we were pulling for and pushing for
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because local politics, does matter, that's what we always
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talk about. Camille said, like, you were
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ready to hop into a question. I know you're passionate about
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this topic, even though you're up in Orange County, I know
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you're excited about this topic. I was just going to comment that
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everything supervisor Desmond said sounded like the entire
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State of California. Texas promises, nothing happens
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more taxes. Well, and what they're doing is
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they're taking our roadway fees and yeah, we gotta pay for our
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roads. We definitely and there you know
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blaming climate change and we have to save the world and we
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you know so they're using that as an excuse and I want clean
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air, I want clean water, we all do but it's being used, you know
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as as basically a trying to tax us out of our cars and into
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public transportation and buses and trains.
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And so their own documents as we're trying to change the
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behavior of people so that we can get a larger percentage of
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people using public transportation in San Diego
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County. And I don't see that happen.
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It just doesn't, you know, for Californians with square in our
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cars. We love our cars.
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You know, we can get and go wherever we want.
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We want freedom of movement and, you know, government in charge
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of moving is not always the greatest thing.
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So that's kind of where things lie right now.
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But, you know, there's many kind of moving Parts throughout this
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whole sand egg thing. One of the worst things that
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they did at San Diego. What happened to sandbag was
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they change? The voting system when it was
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first started up? It was, it was a good.
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It was a good, you know, balance the smaller cities actually got
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had a voice Voice and could, you know, manipulator change or, you
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know, get their voices heard and and vote on items, moving
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forward. And they were gets a little
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complicated went too far too far into the weeds but there's two
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types of both. There's a tally vote, like one
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each city has one vote. And there's also a weighted vote
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based on how many people live in your city, you have a larger
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weighted vote. And so the way it used to be
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when I first started up and it was working and it caused
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entities and cities to work together.
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Other was he had to pay anything.
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You've had to be passed by both Italian vote and a weighted
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vote. So, what happened unfortunately
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in I think is 2016. It got intimate in 2018 Lorena
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Gonzales, but can use an assembly member at the time from
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San Diego County. She put forward a bill that was
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voted on Statewide, not the standing committee Statewide
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that would change the voting structure sandbag, so that it
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could be either at a lie or a weighted vote.
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And the weighted vote heavily heavily heavily favors the city
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of San Diego and the city of Chula Vista, or or those two
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cities have 50% of the weighted vote.
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So those two cities in one. Other City could gang up on all
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the rest of us and say not, we're not going to do that.
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And even comes to the fact that you had a vote.
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There's out of the 18 cities. I think there's like, 19 actual
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votes because City San Diego in the county actually have two
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people on the, on this board. But anyway, out of those 19
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votes, something could fail by 3:45.
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And yet, before we decide up, we're going to pull the weighted
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vote. If the for it, two of them are
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the city of San Diego. In Chula Vista.
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They can, they can override the other 15 and so, what's really
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driving? This is all the Transportation
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San Diego itself is where Transit should go, the city of
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San Diego, the mass transit, the public transit.
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I'm not against it, you know, it should go with it then more.
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Densely populated areas. Are I represent North County in.
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North County. We need roads.
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We need that. Ate the 78 is just a parking lot
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in the in the afternoons and so it only makes sense.
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And this wasn't the promise the last time and the early 2000s
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which were will still paying for it, will 2048 the HOV lanes at
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come up to 1500, way up to the 78.
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Yeah, I5. The HOV lanes are coming up to
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the 78. The plan was to connect those
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HOV lanes across the 78 and put additional HOV.
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It's other 78 make sense it's you know it's a better system
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but how they you know they're saying no we're not going to do
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that. We're going to put all this
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money and the mileage tax into public transportation.
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We're not going to expand the footprint of any freeway at all
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in this new 2021 plan and we're going to take all this money and
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put it towards public transit. The mileage tax.
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The mileage tax is being proposed to charge you for every
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mile you drive, a hundred percent of that is going.
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NG to public transportation and they call Active Transportation,
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which is bicycles and walking, and things like that.
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So they're taking that the, you know, the dollars that they say,
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oh, we promise, we're going to, we're going to put Road
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improvements in. Well, we promise we're going to
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fix interchanges. They're not doing so.
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That's kind of where we're at. I know.
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It's a lot of talking really fast here, but Santa is a mess.
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It needs to be fixed. It's not fair to Smaller cities
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and anything that they put forward for a vote, should be
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voted down a couple points. I grew up in New Jersey so I
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know very well. We have the Parkway in the New
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Jersey Turnpike and a long time ago, my dad likes to tell me
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that the promise of the New Jersey Parkway and the New
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Jersey, Turnpike the Garden State Parkway was, they were
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only going to charge tolls until the highway was done.
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Well they get away with saying well the highway is not
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technically Dawn. We have to go back and we have
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to fix things. So it sounds like it's the same
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all over the country especially here in San Diego, where they
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say, well, we're not really done and we need to fix this and we
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need to fix that but it's actually worse because they're
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not doing anything to these roads.
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They promised all these taxes to go to the roads and they're
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going to public transit and bike Lanes, which I have my own
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personal thing about bike Lanes. I work in Bankers Hill.
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Downtown. So all the The Avenues have bike
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Lanes. So it just seems like it's
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another cash, grab for failed promises.
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And that always seems to be the trend in California.
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Is will promise one thing what, you know?
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Oh, just put up with this gas tax because it's going to fix
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the roads. And then it doesn't fix the
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roads and they go. Well.
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Now people are driving electric cars.
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I think CEO Hassan's Had this that will now there's people
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driving electric cars. So we have to get them as well.
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They're not paying the tax on the gas attacks.
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So, it just seems like, where does all this money.
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Go, it's billions and billions and billions of dollars.
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How much is the proposed plan right now that they're trying to
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raise the guy that are this tax per mile for.
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A hundred and sixty five billion which is, you know, I've heard
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different. So it's more than the space
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station. You know, it cost it serious.
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It's more than any other Transportation project in the
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country. I'm told.
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But you know, it's a bait and switch that you mentioned, the
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gasps gasps the DMV fees. And yes, we gotta pay for
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maintenance. I mean, I'm getting we got to
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pay for maintenance and he's got the Sonic, rot has got a point
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of Electric cars are paying into the into the gas tax well, so I
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can kind of get get that thought and but basically though you'll
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be double taxing, the people are still using guessing until if we
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ever, you know, I'll go electric.
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So there's, you know, the bait and switch there and then
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taking, you know, just taking them money, they promised it for
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this and then taking it and putting it someplace else.
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And if you remember long, long time ago, they were they
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California said, hey we need a lottery, we need a lottery
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system. We're going to put all that
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money into education. Well, they did put money in that
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money into education but they took the same amount out of
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Education week and used it in spend another areas.
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So you know, that was a total dates which and they're trying
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to control behavior and you know, one of the things but you
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know, but I don't care. I bike Lanes.
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I I love glands are okay and so is public.
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Transportation, but we still need wrote.
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We need a balanced plan. I've been fighting and pushing
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for the give us a balanced plan. You know, finish the road
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projects, you promised at least the last time, you know?
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And, and, and we can enhance and build up, you know, public
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transportation currently, in San Diego County, about three
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percent of the people in San Diego County, use public
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transportation, and their goals, and eggs goal is to get it to
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10%. That leave 90% of us still on
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the roads and you're not getting any improvements or any any
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relief in the roads with all the billions of dollars.
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We've been paying in, I always kind of relate the story of out
00:15:01
of your old enough to remember smog days.
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They used to be smog days in the early 80s and it was like you
00:15:07
know they tell people you know if you're old and your asthma
00:15:11
are you got some sort of breathing conditions don't go
00:15:13
outside today because the you know in next level is pretty
00:15:17
high. Hi for smog.
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And they used to be kind of a one layer of crud that was in
00:15:22
the air over San Diego County and la.
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And it's gone. What happened to it?
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I mean, there's still probably a little bit of it left, but what
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intent was technology, technology saved us and it was
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not putting people on trolleys, that, that change things.
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It was technology. They took the, you know, a lot
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of the lead now and everything's little Ed.
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It took a lot of the lead out of the out of the fuel and they
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change the Engines to make them cleaner and there's actually
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twice as many cars on the road. Now is there were during smog
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days and Any you know, it was technology.
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So I've been trying to push technology out.
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If you saw a tweet where put it out an S to Elon Musk is the if
00:16:05
you'd help us with some technological advances and I got
00:16:09
a one-word response from Elon Musk adjuster.
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So he put us in touch with one of his companies were starting
00:16:15
talks there. But I think what we need to be
00:16:18
doing is as far as the future of transportation is.
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Let's take what people are already doing.
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The driving their cars and you can have 90% of people driving
00:16:28
this car. Let's make that cleaner safer
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and more efficient and and makes let's make our roadways.
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You know what, autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles
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coming online. If we can make our roadways
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safer you know with autonomous vehicles which I think we can
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someday with technology. Maybe we have technology Lanes.
00:16:49
I used to be my career is not going to politician.
00:16:52
I was a I was an airline pilot for flying for a Delta Airlines
00:16:56
for almost 34 years and going over the Atlantic to Europe.
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We had there were certain Lanes there are ways that they built
00:17:05
each day based on the Wind so that would be most efficient at
00:17:09
have Tailwinds going over, avoid the headwinds that coming back.
00:17:12
But if your aircraft had X y&z technology, you had, you had
00:17:17
this different Technologies and you could go in these special
00:17:20
are ways where the airplanes are a little bit closer together
00:17:23
than they. Normally our and a little bit,
00:17:27
you know, not that the vertical separation was smaller and so
00:17:30
was the, you know, the lateral separation because we're all had
00:17:32
the same technology. The aircraft was talking to each
00:17:35
other electronically, and we could tell and readjust if we
00:17:39
had to, you know, speed or direction to keep everything
00:17:43
safe. I think that's kind of the
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future for our roadway systems is we can, you know, we can make
00:17:49
them safer, maybe have technology lanes.
00:17:52
And and, you know, if we focus on the future, Her instead of
00:17:56
trains and buses of the past. I mentioned earlier, the the
00:18:01
trolley that comes up from Old Town to up the University Town
00:18:05
Center area there, you can see it going across the I-5 and that
00:18:10
was approved in 1989. It opened in 2021, it took 32
00:18:16
years to build that one length or what of Trolley system in San
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Diego County, 32 years So in I know that's what Insanity wants
00:18:26
to put all over San Diego County, and technology is going
00:18:29
to, you know, don't revolve it revolve, you know, ten times
00:18:34
over and in The Next Step we're still waiting for some trolley
00:18:38
to be built. It's just a seems to be a waste
00:18:41
of time, so I'll stop talking for a bit.
00:18:46
Yeah, I mean there's so many things to bring up but I'm the
00:18:50
one thing I'm always amazed by with These policies that are
00:18:55
normally supported by those of the democratic party.
00:18:59
I would say that's most of the people who are supporting this
00:19:02
plan. It never seems that they
00:19:05
understand or can explain away that how this hurts those of who
00:19:12
are less fortunate here in San Diego County.
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And that's always my first thought is things like the gas
00:19:17
tax, end up hurting those who are less fortunate.
00:19:20
This would hurt people who are less fortunate, while there's
00:19:23
some people who say Oh, you know, you could afford it, if
00:19:26
you drive two cars and you have a house.
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Of course, you can afford an extra 600 900 dollars a year.
00:19:31
But for some people getting that bill at the end of the year, 600
00:19:35
900 dollars is a enormous bill. And we all know the cost of
00:19:41
living in. California is already so
00:19:43
expensive, and especially in San Diego County where everybody
00:19:46
wants to come and live. No offense to Orange County
00:19:48
Camille, but it's already so expensive to To live down here,
00:19:55
adding on just another cost of living is going to hurt.
00:19:59
So many people financially and saying to your county and they
00:20:02
never seem to acknowledge that. Although they say somehow,
00:20:05
therefore, the lower or lower middle economic status, it
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always shocks me that they can never explain that away.
00:20:12
What are your thoughts on that? Well you're exactly right.
00:20:16
The people that this, you know, mileage tax, and all these
00:20:18
additional toll Lanes, you know coming to with this new plan is
00:20:23
going to hurt those. That are you know they are the
00:20:27
lowest wage earners there, you know and the people, as you
00:20:30
mentioned the housing, a lot of people, you know, can't live.
00:20:34
Don't live near where they work. You know, I represent North
00:20:39
County and Carlsbad want to talk to even Legoland or the Tell
00:20:44
years and in Carlsbad, they say most of their work force comes
00:20:49
from Chula Vista. And so that and where the job
00:20:54
center, you know, Sorrento Valley is a big job center but
00:20:56
you know to try to find a house or buy a house in Carmel Valley
00:20:59
or very close to Sorrento Valley is its astronomical.
00:21:03
So you have to end up commuting. One of the other things that we
00:21:09
you know are this is going to have a big negative effect on
00:21:12
our the you know the small this Service providers, the
00:21:15
landscapers who have to drive, you know, there they can't, you
00:21:19
know, get on a bus and it take equipment, you know, they're on
00:21:23
a bus, they have to drive so landscapers plumbers, you know,
00:21:27
any type of service technicians that you know they come out it's
00:21:31
going to hurt them first. It's going to hurt them.
00:21:34
The most and one of the embarrassing things about who
00:21:38
they are in San Diego County. I used to be the mayor of San
00:21:41
Marcos. I was the mayor there for 12
00:21:42
years and, and We are, we kind of tried to with the sheriff's
00:21:46
department and we had our own police department.
00:21:49
And when I would ask, you know, most of our firefighters, where
00:21:51
do they live, save the same thing with our Sheriff's.
00:21:55
Most of them live in in Riverside County in Temecula or
00:21:58
Murrieta and they commute up and down the 15.
00:22:02
And so the fact that our housing costs are so much in about 40,
00:22:06
finding who you're talking, 40 to 50% of the cost of a house is
00:22:09
government regulations and we keep adding more and more and
00:22:12
more, but we keep pushing seeing people in our Workforce further
00:22:16
away and then, you know, the greenhouse gases are causing the
00:22:21
world to collect, you know, climate change to happen.
00:22:24
And and so we we need to build more housing.
00:22:28
We need to know not overtax. Are, you know, the service
00:22:31
injuries industry, folks, and the people at the lower end of
00:22:33
the spectrum because they're going to get hurt the first
00:22:35
most, they're the ones are going to be forced into public
00:22:38
transit. And for those that, you know,
00:22:40
can hang on their cost of doing business, is just going to keep
00:22:43
going up. So it's just that, you know,
00:22:46
there's a lot of moving Parts with this.
00:22:48
But, you know, just adding more and more taxes to try to change
00:22:51
behavior. I'm hoping those San diegoans
00:22:54
are just going to say, no, we're not going to put up with this.
00:22:57
The problem with one of these, these one of the issues is, with
00:23:03
these mileage tax, it's not really a tax which is what's,
00:23:07
and they will tell you, it's a road user charge.
00:23:11
And so this road user charge does not not have to go to a
00:23:15
vote of the people stand egg. It can implement it and just
00:23:19
say, go, here you go, here you go.
00:23:21
Where you are going to charge this be now for you to be at you
00:23:25
for driving, every mile that you drive.
00:23:28
The things that half-cent sales taxes, that I mentioned that
00:23:31
they also want to impose upon us.
00:23:33
Three, new half-cent sales, taxes that will have to go to a
00:23:37
vote of the people. And hopefully, you know, people
00:23:39
will vote that down but changing lanes from regular Freeway
00:23:44
Lanes, As the toll Lanes, no vote, no vote of the people is
00:23:46
required and then the road, user charge B is a mileage tax in
00:23:52
most people's mind, it doesn't have to go to a vote and that's
00:23:56
one of the things. We're, we're kind of toying with
00:23:58
is trying to figure out how we can get this.
00:24:01
So that has to be voted on by the people.
00:24:06
Just a quick note, anybody who's in the chat right now watching
00:24:09
us live. If they have a question for
00:24:11
supervisor Desmond, feel free. We got a couple more minutes
00:24:13
with them and Camille. Go ahead.
00:24:16
You had a question. Yes.
00:24:19
Can you clarify it sounds to me like the people of San Diego?
00:24:23
Are getting taxed to build the roads, turning them into toll
00:24:27
roads, and then they will have to pay to drive on them, and
00:24:32
then they will have to pay a mileage fee.
00:24:34
The tax because they drive on them that they pay the toll road
00:24:40
fee to drive on that they already paid the tax to build.
00:24:44
Yes. Absolutely.
00:24:46
And what they're going to be doing is converting existing.
00:24:49
They're not going to build any new Lanes, existing freeway
00:24:52
lanes to tollens, Okay. They kind of did that here in
00:24:57
Orange County, the 91 freeway, when they built the toll roads.
00:25:00
It was a private company that built them and funded them but
00:25:02
then the state of California purchased it of course with our
00:25:05
tax dollars and now we have to pay to drive on them.
00:25:10
We have a room and I don't know where the money's going.
00:25:14
That is stick. Yeah and yeah, you're right.
00:25:20
We do. But we do we need a balanced
00:25:22
plan and unfortunately California is going away to the,
00:25:25
you know, mass transit is going to be the Savior and I disagree,
00:25:30
I think technology is a way that we have to figure our way out of
00:25:33
it and we've got, you know, great minds like, you know, Elon
00:25:36
Musk. And we've got also, you know,
00:25:38
other entities and companies, we just spoke with a company that
00:25:42
has a Thomas vehicle that picks people up at Sky Harbor airport
00:25:47
in Phoenix and drives them to downtown.
00:25:50
And so that's, you know, kind of in the works right now.
00:25:53
There's other entities out there that are working on a technology
00:25:56
which I think is, like I said the way to the Future and having
00:26:01
a balanced plan. I still, you know, I'd like to
00:26:05
write it, you know, if I if I ever get on the bicycle again
00:26:08
I'd like it to be safe and have a place to go.
00:26:11
But I think having a This planet and not taxing as out of our
00:26:16
cars, which is really the main source of experience.
00:26:23
Is this a would you you would you say this is like a pilot
00:26:27
program for the rest of the State of California and San
00:26:29
Diego is just going to be the testing ground when it comes to
00:26:32
the mileage tax. I think San Diego is one moving
00:26:38
it Forward. Currently, I have a hunch that
00:26:43
this is going to can go throughout the state and
00:26:47
actually, the state itself is considering a while, actually,
00:26:51
they've already. I think.
00:26:52
I'm not sure when it's going to be in.
00:26:53
Demented, but they are also considering a mileage tax within
00:26:57
the state itself. So they are going to have a
00:27:00
biologist acts and then ifs and Ag and poses a mile.
00:27:03
It's next, I think the states is going to be like I forget what
00:27:07
it is like to two cents or whatever four cents a mile and
00:27:11
then sand egg would be 2 or 4 cents a mile, but you'd be you
00:27:14
be taxed by both entities? So yeah unfortunately we all get
00:27:21
you gotta pay for stuff but Don't make us.
00:27:24
Don't tell us, you were, you know, we're paying for this and
00:27:26
then you're taking that money for something else that's, you
00:27:29
know. Hopefully people are fed up with
00:27:31
that kind of action and and I think people both on the left
00:27:34
and the right, see this and say, hey wait a minute, you know, the
00:27:38
make promises and then change them and then just try to change
00:27:42
behavior. Let's let's have a fair and
00:27:44
balanced plan. One last thing, one last comment
00:27:51
and Camille, I don't know if you have any other comments or
00:27:53
questions let you hop in. Hi.
00:27:57
I have to say that's just that's kind of scary.
00:27:59
I mean if you work your tax on your paycheck and then if you
00:28:03
buy a car your text apply the car and then you have to pay
00:28:06
your registration fees which keep skyrocketing and then
00:28:08
you're paying for the gas fees and now you have to pay for the
00:28:11
extra. It's just it never it never
00:28:14
ends, it's this constant constant constant and so yeah, I
00:28:17
agree. We do have to pay for things, we
00:28:20
do but I don't know, I don't you guys shouldn't be paying his
00:28:24
songs, six hundred thousand a year plus benefits.
00:28:26
Benefits and steak dinners and a million dollars basically a year
00:28:32
and that he has a car. Allowance, the guy tonight, I
00:28:37
fell, I said that like two weeks ago, I'm like, I bet you
00:28:40
anything he's gonna Gars and he tried to feed SUV.
00:28:45
Yeah. And he doesn't live in San
00:28:47
Diego, so it annoys me that he has control over San Diego
00:28:51
County. That key doesn't live there.
00:28:52
He doesn't understand what your needs are.
00:28:55
Well, I know he's No. You keep them.
00:28:58
He does. Yeah, that's my understanding.
00:29:01
Yes. As of his last political
00:29:04
donations, in November 20, 22, his address was listed in Rancho
00:29:08
Cucamonga. Was that him or him?
00:29:15
You know, it's a wacky world out there and the facts are Stranger
00:29:20
Than Fiction. So I didn't know that.
00:29:22
I yeah maybe he has an apartment but his house is it's the same
00:29:27
residence. I did a little research and
00:29:32
yeah, huh. Well, he's never was one of the
00:29:34
best researchers. So yeah, he's never invited me
00:29:38
over for dinner. So I do No.
00:29:41
Well, he's a fan of filet mignon and we have a, yeah, we have our
00:29:44
feelings about filet mignon. That it's not the best steak in
00:29:47
the world one last thought about going all the way back before we
00:29:52
let you go. Because I know you're a very
00:29:53
busy man. The ironic thing.
00:29:57
And I want to talk about the weighted vote and how I find
00:30:00
that just such an abuse of power.
00:30:04
The fact that there was this whole video of I think it is
00:30:08
shawni low Rivera We're sitting next to nor of Argos and she
00:30:12
won, she didn't win the tally. Vo, but then they went to a
00:30:16
weighted vote. Was that correct that she didn't
00:30:18
win on the first time? I, you know, I don't know that.
00:30:22
I thought it was for the vice chair that they had the weighted
00:30:25
or tally vote. But but go ahead and it really
00:30:30
doesn't matter who, but you're right, yeah, put it in one of
00:30:33
the executive positions and they went to a weighted vote on that
00:30:38
because they lost on the tally. But I think I made the point on
00:30:43
Twitter that there ironically making the argument for
00:30:47
something like the Electoral College, which is when you have
00:30:51
these cities that overrule smaller communities, it that's
00:30:56
exists is played out right now as you have San Diego in Chula
00:30:59
Vista. Who?
00:31:00
Because they have the larger population, they say, oh Poway,
00:31:04
we don't care what you think. Or say Marcos, we don't care
00:31:07
what you think. We're just going to put you
00:31:08
down. We're going to Force our will on
00:31:10
the small communities and they don't have an equal vote.
00:31:13
So that was just something I found interesting.
00:31:15
Was, they always say, we love democracy.
00:31:18
We love democracy and all that. But when it comes to a pure
00:31:21
democracy and it doesn't work in their favor, they go away.
00:31:24
No, hold on. We want to actually change
00:31:25
things around and break the way we vote.
00:31:27
So it's not actually pure democracy anymore.
00:31:30
We want to have it. So we benefit because it wasn't
00:31:34
going our way before final thoughts.
00:31:37
Supervisor, how How can people o?
00:31:40
People always ask me how can people help to stop this from
00:31:45
happening? Because that's what everybody
00:31:46
wants to know. And I want to be able to tell
00:31:49
everybody who watch this this and messages me.
00:31:53
How can people get involved to stop us?
00:31:56
Well, you know first of all I hope there's a representative
00:31:59
from each City on the, on the sand a gourd and it's changing
00:32:06
your council members is kind of the, you know, the best way to
00:32:10
do it to get, you know, clear voices on Sand egg.
00:32:14
But also showing up, if you can, you know, I can maybe afford you
00:32:19
some information here, fill the on how people can call in and or
00:32:25
even show up. The sandbag beatings.
00:32:26
Unfortunately there Friday mornings 9:00 downtown San
00:32:30
Diego. So it's not always convenient to
00:32:32
get to but a people can call in and have their voices heard.
00:32:36
Unfortunately, most of the people that show up to the,
00:32:40
these meetings are mostly the environmental groups.
00:32:43
And like I said, I want clean air and water, but they seem to
00:32:46
sway the day, raising taxes and implementing a public transit
00:32:51
only. So, we need voices, heard at the
00:32:54
sandbag meetings, and if you can Call in to those meetings and
00:32:58
reach out to my office, Jim Desmond and North County, San
00:33:02
Diego County, Supervisor, reach out to my office.
00:33:05
We can get to the information on how to call in and out how to
00:33:08
get your voices heard. One thing I will say, also just
00:33:13
I didn't hit on earlier was sand egg had promised all of the
00:33:19
jobs, all of the jobs of building any and all projects to
00:33:22
the union, only contractors, So I'm if I was in a union of the
00:33:29
airline pilots Union for many years, but what they are doing
00:33:35
is by promising. One group of people, all of the
00:33:39
jobs with public money. To me is a travesty.
00:33:43
I don't care because you get the jobs, I don't, but other
00:33:46
entities and other workers should have the opportunities to
00:33:50
work on these jobs. And what they've done is
00:33:52
promise, did them all, all to Union Labor, only, Which I think
00:33:56
is a travesty, I think most people, if they learn about that
00:33:59
and say, how can you just say to other groups, if you're not, if
00:34:03
you don't belong to this club or tribe, you can't work.
00:34:07
You can't work these jobs that are get these jobs, so that's
00:34:11
kind of a travesty in and of itself as well.
00:34:14
So, you know that their inclusion, unfortunately, it and
00:34:19
I think it's they're given a bet unions, a Bad Name.
00:34:21
By these Union compromising these project, labor agreements
00:34:24
is what they're called. Old Union, only jobs that other
00:34:28
entities, if you're not a union shop you can't you can't work
00:34:31
here or work on these movies. Large public money projects, So,
00:34:36
anyway, I'll get off of my Ranch but there's, there's a lot a lot
00:34:39
to it. I have two quick questions about
00:34:42
the board representatives of sandag so that there's the 18
00:34:46
cities and then the 19th is the county.
00:34:48
Is that for the unincorporated residents?
00:34:52
Well, on the county. There's two there's two it
00:34:55
suppose there's two positions, we only get one tally vote.
00:35:00
It gets really strange here with the voting stuff like that.
00:35:03
But so, and and there's two positions.
00:35:06
Then one of those positions has to be one of the supervisors
00:35:11
that has the unincorporated area.
00:35:14
There's two of us that really have the vast majority, then we
00:35:17
incorporated. I'm one of them and then Joel
00:35:19
Anderson is the other supervisor that represents the
00:35:24
unincorporated area as well. So you would think primarily it
00:35:28
would be the unincorporated areas, but three of our County
00:35:31
Supervisors have mostly City and urban areas.
00:35:36
And they don't have the unincorporated areas as much, so
00:35:38
it is almost as if those cities are like city of San.
00:35:42
Diego has three books because the County Supervisor who
00:35:45
represents the city and could also be understanding and, and
00:35:49
kind of skew that vote as well. So, there is somewhat of a
00:35:53
represented for the unincorporated area but not
00:35:55
enough. So how is the San Diego County?
00:36:00
Standout board. Representative voted, who votes
00:36:03
for that person. Well, What we do and like every
00:36:07
other city does is the city's nominet nominate and appoint the
00:36:15
sandbag representative. So, like right City of Oceanside
00:36:19
says other city council decides. Usually it's the mayor, it gets
00:36:24
to decide this, but lately it's been some cities, the council
00:36:28
overrides, the mayor? I know this isn't you.
00:36:31
We there's, you know, the route, the mayor's a Republican.
00:36:36
There's one other Republican but there's three Democrats and the
00:36:39
three Democrats can outweigh the other two votes or not.
00:36:42
It's that waited. But it would can then appoint
00:36:45
who they want to sand a so the same.
00:36:48
I just city council's, are the ones that are point to it.
00:36:52
They're representative on the sanding board.
00:36:56
Right. But what about?
00:36:58
Because the county, there's the city of San Diego and then the
00:37:00
county of San Diego, both have boats.
00:37:03
So, who who decides who represents the County vote.
00:37:07
That's what I'm very curious about risers as five of us just
00:37:11
mostly just city council, okay? So the five of us and
00:37:15
unfortunately, I'm in the wrong end of a 32 on it.
00:37:19
Okay? So when that 32 happened, I got
00:37:22
pulled off of Santa Okay, yeah, I watched that Vista a long city
00:37:27
council meeting, sorry, I would be.
00:37:29
Wow, you need you need you need some other things to do with
00:37:33
your free time. Come here.
00:37:35
Anyway. Go ahead, she loves she's the
00:37:39
best at this. Hopefully it's not 32 against
00:37:42
you for too long. We got a race coming up so we're
00:37:46
going to try and work this flip that supervisor.
00:37:49
I want to thank you so much for coming on tonight, we're so glad
00:37:53
you were able to share Are all of this knowledge about sand, a.
00:37:56
Get something that if you live in San Diego County, you
00:37:59
absolutely need to know what's going on.
00:38:01
I think more people are starting to wake up and figure it out.
00:38:04
Thanks to people like yourself are constantly ringing the alarm
00:38:08
Bell about it. So, thank you again for coming
00:38:12
on. If you ever have anything else,
00:38:13
you want to talk about regarding Santiago or any other, San Diego
00:38:16
County issues doesn't have to be.
00:38:17
San diegan self, you have an open invitation, feel free to
00:38:20
come on any time. So, thank you again.
00:38:24
You very much. Thank you.
00:38:26
I appreciate it and happy to come back.
00:38:29
Anytime a film Camille. It's been fun.
00:38:31
And you've let me rant here. I appreciate it.
00:38:35
Yeah, it's a little bit better. That's why I like podcast better
00:38:38
than the, the quick news B, where you have to get it all in.
00:38:41
And like, two minutes of podcast, you get to really
00:38:44
explain stuff and dive into it. So thank you again, for coming
00:38:47
on for everyone else who is listening or watching.
00:38:50
If you let specially, if you live, in San Diego County, make
00:38:53
sure you share. Share this episode with as many
00:38:55
people. As you know tell them about the
00:38:57
tax from I'll tell them to get involved.
00:38:59
Tell them to call up their representatives or call the
00:39:01
sandbag meetings. That's basically it have a good
00:39:05
night everybody. Share this episode with as many
00:38:55
people. As you know tell them about the
00:38:57
tax from I'll tell them to get involved.
00:38:59
Tell them to call up their representatives or call the
00:39:01
sandbag meetings. That's basically it have a good
00:39:05
night everybody.