By Andy Caldwell

If only Arnold Schwarzenegger had been a football player instead of a body builder, perhaps he would recognize a regulatory chop block for what it is, blow his whistle, and stop the game before somebody gets irreparably hurt.

For those of you who don’t know what a chop block is, it is basically a low blow delivered to an opponent while, at the same time, your teammate is hitting the opponent on the high side. The high/low combination hit is a recipe for broken legs and irreparable, career-ending knee injuries.

I have previously mentioned that the governor’s appointees on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) have been threatening the economic viability of trucking, construction and farming in our state as a result of diesel-engine rules currently being phased in.

Additionally, CARB is in the process of implementing Arnold’s proudest piece of legislation, AB 32, which will serve to decimate our manufacturing and industrial sectors, ostensibly to save the planet from global warming. These programs will cost the reeling California economy in excess of $200 billion.

While all these main drivers of our economy struggle with CARB, a low blow has been delivered by another group of Arnold’s appointees, who serve on the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Not to be outdone, the water board has embarked on a series of rules that are not just expensive, but impossible to comply with.

In a nutshell, the water board wants new buildings to be built in such a way so that in effect, no rain water leaves the site in a storm. This goal, albeit extremely expensive, is, in some cases, achievable compared to what this same regulatory agency is asking of farmers.

Farmers are being asked to not only control the water quality flowing off their farms from irrigation and rainstorms, they are also being asked to control the temperature of the water and the amount of dirt in the water.

The regulators are in essence demanding that this wastewater be cleansed to drinking water standards and be beneficial to wildlife — the same wildlife that poses a food safety threat to the crops being cultivated.

Further, they are being asked to control the quality of the water that soaks into their fields to recharge the groundwater basin below their property. You would think such a standard is impossible, and you would be right. The bottom line is Mother Nature, in the absence of mankind, does not meet these standards.

The state’s economy is winning the race to the bottom, thanks to mindless politicians and bureaucrats who continue to pass rules that are more stringent than anywhere else in the world. Our economy can’t take it anymore.

The rules are now exceeding the bounds of science, engineering and common sense, and leveling a path of economic mayhem and destruction. If Arnold doesn’t do something soon, there will not be anybody left to put in the game.

The California economy needs immediate relief from these rules affecting land, air and water. It is impossible to keep jobs in the manufacturing, construction, farming and transportation sectors of our economy without having at least a negligible impact upon our environment.

It is the cost of living in a society with an abundance of food, shelter, goods and services. There is no quality of life without these things. There is no quality of life without jobs.

The regulations in the pipeline are ridiculously arbitrary and capricious in their nature. They are prohibitively expensive and, in most cases, impossible to achieve.

No doubt, the board members and/or the staff of these agencies need to be replaced. We need reasonable people to help us in these desperate times.

 Andy Caldwell is executive director of COLAB and a 41-year resident of the Central Coast. For contact information, visit the COLAB website at www.colabsbc.org.

By Andy Caldwell

Who is serving whom? That is the question that must be asked. Are public servants those who serve the public, or those who are served by the public?

Throughout California, government at all levels is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, as they face catastrophic costs associated with salary, benefit and retirement costs. In life and business, one must always consider the law of unintended consequences, diminishing returns and proverbial tipping points.

Unfortunately, we are talking about government, an entity unto itself, run by few politicians and even fewer public union members who are seriously willing to take on this crisis.

In a nutshell, we are past the tipping point whereby government can continue to provide basic services to the citizenry, because the cost of government has outpaced the natural growth of our economy and our tax base.

Compounding this problem, government continues to constrict and repress the economy with punitive taxes and costly regulations, serving to make matters worse.

This past Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting was a prime example of government run amuck. Consider the following series of items on the board’s agenda.

First were resolutions to some 17 employees set to retire. Undoubtedly, some of these employees are leaving now because the county offered them an extra incentive to retire early. Even though the board can’t pay their current pension obligations, they still incentivized early retirements — because they can’t make current payroll either.

They obviously figured it would be easier to kick this can down the road.

Another item dealt with the board’s legislative priorities for the upcoming year. Near the top of its agenda is getting in line with the other government entities looking for handouts from the federal government.

It does not matter that the federal government has either borrowed — which affects our debt burden — or printed the money — leads to inflation — it is giving away, the county nonetheless wants to get in line with the other frenzied pigs seeking to feed at this trough.

And true to form, some of the programs the county is seeking funding for, like issues dealing with the threat of global warming or preventing development on the Gaviota Coast, are only going to further erode and stymie our economic base.

Finally, the Board of Supervisors considered raising the fee charged by the Planning and Development Department to a new billing rate of $182 per hour. This hourly rate is going up in an attempt to cover rising retirement and health insurance costs.

The fee increase is nothing less than a subsidy to government. In most cases, when a member of the public wants to build something in the county, which by definition raises the assessed tax value of the asset, they have to pay the county at this hourly rate to process the application.

By comparison, the rate for the city of Santa Maria’s Planning Department is $65 per hour, and they get the job done quicker. Some communities, such as Lompoc, are actually suspending associated fees, with the hope of stimulating the economy, but not the county.

We are already at the point where we will not be able to adequately fight fires, respond to emergency calls, arrest and jail crooks, and maintain public infrastructure, because the salary and benefit costs of the employees associated with these and other tasks will prevent our ability to employ enough people to perform the tasks.

The only solution? We need to start cutting salaries and benefits and initiate privatization. We truly are running out of time.

Andy Caldwell is executive director of COLAB and a 41-year resident of the Central Coast. For contact information, visit the COLAB website at www.colabsbc.org.