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Nunes Expresses Serious
Concerns over Economy

By Rick Elkins

When Congressman Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, begins his fourth term in Washington next month, it will most likely be a term unlike any other he has experienced.

For the first time since he was elected in 2001, Nunes will have someone other than George W. Bush in the White House, or for that matter, a Democrat in the White House. Barack Obama will be sworn in as the nation's 44th president in January and with him will undoubtedly come new ideas and a new way of doing business.

“It's hard to say at this point,” said Nunes of what to expect from Obama. “If Obama governs the way he campaigned, it can't be very good. If he changes and stops talking about raising taxes, we might be OK.”

Nunes is visibly concerned about the nation's economy, saying more than once it could “implode” completely if the right steps are not taken. The trick is, he pointed out, determining what are the right steps. Right now, he is not sure anyone has the correct answers.

Nunes, who is moving up the leadership ladder on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is not sold on the economic bailouts. He voted against the $700 billion package that was eventually approved by Congress. He says the plan now to prop up the financial institutions is better than what was first proposed – for the federal government to buy up foreclosed properties.

“There is no free lunch. That's what Obama promised, too many free lunches,” he said.

He expects to be called back to Washington, D.C. this month to vote on the latest bailout – reportedly a $15 billion rescue plan for the ailing American auto manufacturers. Again, he is not sold.

“If they can show how they get from $80 an hour to closer to $40 an hour (the difference between what U.S. companies pay workers compared to what Japanese carmakers pay in the U.S.),” then I might support it,” he said. Basically, he wants meaningful and long-term reforms before throwing cash at the car companies. “I just don't have a lot of confidence in that.”

He is also not sold on the Main Street bailout plan that would dump about $150 billion more to provide money to local governments for infrastructure work. The city of Visalia is preparing projects that might qualify for some of those projects.
“The government has only so much money to give out. The infrastructure money – it depends on how it is given out. If the Valley only gets a small amount, then I won't participate,” he said.

Deep Causes

He said what has fueled this economic downturn – some say recession – is that people overspent and over borrowed. “Now, we've got to get back to basics.”
He pointed to the state of California and its severe fiscal mess as an example of what went wrong. “The State of California thought it was cute for years to have all those things that are bogus (fees, taxes and costly regulations) and all we've done is driven ag and industry to other states. It is the best example of total implosion.”

He said while the Central Valley is somewhat immune to the big swings in the economy seen nationally, it is nevertheless being hurt. Dairy farmers are getting less for milk. Production costs are up. Regulations continue to increase costs and hurt development, he pointed out.

An example he gave is the state Air Resources Board that is voting this week on a regulation that would force the replacement of nearly all diesel engines by 2015, a timetable Nunes said would drive many out of business.

Overall, he is deeply concerned. He said people need to be smart and watch their spending and borrowing.

“We're about to implode. I don't know how we can be so regulated. The people have to wake up and do it. My goal is to educate my constituents,” he said.
Some other topics touched upon:

President Bush: “You can't really rate him for 10-15 years. His presidency will be judged by the outcome of the war in Iraq and on terrorism. We'll know in a decade or two.”

San Joaquin River Settlement: Nunes has vehemently opposed the settlement bill expected to be passed by Congress next year. The settlement would eventually send one million acre feet of water down the San Joaquin River every year – water that now goes to farmers.

“Everybody says let's give away the water. It's total insanity that you give up something you have. Farmers were sold this on two things. One, that water was coming back and two, no more lawsuits will be filed.”

He said the promise to pump water back to farmers after it flows down the river to help the salmon is a “complete lie.” He said the filing last week of a lawsuit to stop all water deliveries to Central Valley farmers shows that the lawsuits will not stop.

“This lawsuit could change things. Maybe people will realize we shouldn't be in bed with environmentalists.”
Success Dam: “This is in the pipeline. The government knows it has to fix it,” said Nunes. He said while the plans are not finalized, it has been agreed that both the dam and the spillway will be raised to hold more water in the lake.

The Army Corps of Engineers decided to replace the dam after it was discovered the dam could be unstable in the event of an earthquake. That finding came during studies to raise the spillway of the dam east of Porterville so it can hold more water in wet years.

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Donations Decrease,
Needs Increase for Local Charities

By Steve Pastis

Local charities are working extra hard this holiday season to provide food, money and toys to families in Tulare and Kings counties. Unfortunately, the economic downturn has given most of them two major problems – they are receiving fewer donations and more people need their services and assistance.

“It is slower than it has been in the past,” said Major Orpha Moody, who with her husband, Gregory, oversees the Salvation Army in Hanford. “We're probably down about 40 percent in money, toys and food, but that is a rough estimate.

“Requests for food, utilities and rent have doubled since the economic breakdown,” she said, before explaining what happens when donations don't meet the needs of the community. “If we get less money, we turn people away. We give less food in the food boxes because we try to stretch it out. The same thing with toys.”

How will the Salvation Army meet this year's challenges? “We just pray about it and let the community know we're down,” she said.

“So far, it has been a good year,” said Chris Burrows, development coordinator of FoodLink for Tulare County, about the amount of donations received by the charity. “But the need is much greater than what it was last year so even though our numbers are good this year, we still have more requests for our Christmas (food) boxes.”
Last year, FoodLink gave out 8,200 Christmas boxes. This year, more than 9,300 will be given out throughout the county.

Burrows said that the numbers of families needing FoodLink's services are up this year and “the families are more in the middle class sector. The families that were doing okay last year are not doing okay now.”

The financial donations are “right about at what they were last year,” said Burrows. She explained that the effects of this year's economic downturn are comparable to the effects of the “donor fatigue” caused by all of last year's fundraising efforts following the freeze of early 2007.

Burrows said that FoodLink prefers cash donations “because we can turn a dollar into four pounds of food. We can spread the dollars much farther than the average person”

Another charity facing challenges this year is the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots. Toy donations at its drop boxes are down significantly.

“Usually, by this time, a lot of areas have drop boxes that need to be unloaded,” said Grace Munoz-Rios, the local Toys for Tots community organization coordinator in Porterville. She said that so far this year, only six drop boxes in the Porterville area had to be unloaded.

Munoz-Rios estimates that the toys left in boxes in her area are about one-third of what was donated last year. “Fortunately, we had some monetary donations that allowed us to augment what came in,” she said, but added that financial donations are also down this year. “One group that gave $1,000 last year only gave $500 this year.”

Children who receive toys from Toys for Tots are chosen by their teachers, who each select five students. The brothers and sisters of the selected children also receive toys, which averages 3-4 children per family. There are 636 teachers in the Porterville Unified School District. In addition, the Porterville Toys for Tots office serves communities such as Terra Bella, Woodville, Richgrove, Strathmore and Springville.

“We're hoping we're going to make it through as money comes in,” said Munoz-Rios. “We're not going to do it all in one day.”

United Way

“We're seeing a little bit of a decline,” said Brandi Clark, resource and development director of the United Way of Tulare County, which collects donations differently than most charities.

“When people pledge, they pledge one year in advance,” said Clark. “The money is taken out of their paycheck – $5 or $10 each month. Where there may be a decline is in the companies that are seeing layoffs.”

United Way usually conducts its employee campaigns August through December. Most of the current donations it receives are a result of pledges made in 2007.
“We're working very closely with Land O'Lakes this year,” said Clark. “We said we'd like to see 100 percent participation, and their pledges for 2009 doubled.”
Some companies have over 95 percent of their workforce contributing to United Way, including FedEx, Best Buy and AT&T, according to Clark.

Clark speaks to local companies to increase participation in United Way funding. She tells them, “We're all one paycheck away from needing assistance.”

“A lot more people need utility assistance,” said Clark. “Quite a few people will call us and tell us that people in their family are ill or they lost their job and can't pay their rent. Just last week, we had somebody come in and ask for socks. A lot of people are asking for food.”

Another challenge some people face is waiting for the first disability or unemployment check after losing a job. “During that lapse, they don't have money to pay rent or things like that,” said Clark.

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Public Works Plan Recalls New Deal Era
Work Done in 1930s Still Standing Today

By John Lindt

President-elect Barack Obama vows to fund the largest public works program since the Eisenhower era built the interstate highway system. The plan is reminiscent of New Deal projects that put an army of unemployed people back to work building trails, planting trees, constructing public buildings, roads and sewer systems, both nationally and locally.

Like Roosevelt during the Great Depression, Obama has been laboring to raise spirits even as we lose hundreds of thousands of jobs. He is reminding Americans that we “can rise to the moment once again,” vowing to build the infrastructure that could be a legacy for the next generation.

Tulare County has seen this before during an 11-year period from 1933 through 1941 when an alphabet soup of public works programs led by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built $3.3 billion in projects that resulted in valuable public works, offered a job instead of welfare to idle hands, boosted the spending power of consumers and stabilized the depressed economy.

That period saw an explosion of needed infrastructure in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, including mile-by-mile work on the Generals Highway, Moro Rock, Mineral King Road and Kings Canyon Highway (1939), as well as construction of the famed High Sierra Trail, infrastructure at Crystal Cave and thousands of other projects we enjoy today.

Across the Sierra, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built scores of local fire watch towers, many in use today including Buck Rock, Blue Ridge and the Needles lookout on Highway 190 – altogether 3,470 fire stations nationwide.

The CCC employed nearly two million men at 900 camps nationwide and 11 in our backyard. Among other benefits, boosters point to a 55 percent drop in crime for young men who faced continuing unemployment. The workers were paid $30 a month and had to send $25 of that home. The men worked in camps – 200 strong – clearing brush, improving trails and campgrounds and fighting fires.

Bill Tweed, author of Challenge of the Big Trees, says the CCC workers at the 11 camps built 90 buildings and removed another 16 in our twin national parks.

“Visitors today who file through Crystal Cave, lean on the parapet at Amphitheatre Point, camp at Lodgepole campground, drive through Tunnel Log, run their hands along the Moro Rock handrail, hike the trails and drive the roads of Sequoia and enjoy a thousands of other little benefits can thank the young men of Civilian Conservation Corps for their labor.”

New Deal Public Buildings

On the Valley floor, we can thank the WPA for building the Visalia airport terminal between 1936 to 1941, for the design and construction of the classic Lindsay City Hall, construction of the original Visalia Public Library (1936) that has just been renovated, Woodlake High School (1938) and design work for Tulare High School.
The New Deal era promoted the arts and architecture in this '30s “stimulus package” for the economy, resulting in classic photographs of the area being preserved today of workers in a Tulare work camp singing folk songs and playing baseball in their spare time and Dust Bowl photographers recalling the day to day grind in the San Joaquin Valley – supporting talent like Dorothea Lange.

Are You Shovel Ready?

In anticipation that a large public works program will be funded in January, local cities and the county have lined up “shovel ready” projects ready to move forward quickly. Obama has said he wants the public works bill on his desk when he takes office January 20.

“We're absolutely ready to ramp up to carry out more projects,” says California Conservation Corps Communication Director Jimmy Camp. At 1,300 Corps members statewide, the state agency also partners with local spin-off programs like Tulare County Conservation Corps that carry out a similar work programs.

“We are modeled after the original Civilian Conservation Corps but there are some differences,” says Camp. “For one thing, we have women enrolled. For another, there is an educational component with about half the members coming in without a high school diploma. But they leave with one.”

Camp says this is the 75th anniversary of the organization. The 1930s “CCC boys” – grads of the original program now in their 90s – sometimes come back to do some mentoring of young Corps member grads.

Camp says that “we expect that there will be new funding coming into California” to boost the state CCC in part because all the infrastructure is in place to accelerate its activity quickly, something Obama wants to do to generate jobs right away in this teetering economy.

New money will be needed for California to gear up for more public works projects considering concerns that state budget woes could mean a halt to ongoing construction projects already in place, warned State Treasurer Bill Lockyer this week.

Obama's new “New Deal” could have some 21st century twists to it - promoting energy efficiency and other alternative energy projects, broadband improvements in rural areas as well as emphasizing the need to build new schools. In California, officials have a list of 5,000 road and bridges ready to move forward quickly.

In charge of the local wish list of transportation projects that could be funded countywide is TCAG Director Ted Smalley. Smalley, who heads up the organization that includes all jurisdictions in the county, is expecting some substantial monies to come into the county that will have to be spent on projects quickly, perhaps contracts that can be signed in as little as 120 days. “We are putting together a diversified list of transportation projects” by category – roads, transit, rail, trails and alternative energy, etc.

Projects Listed

Smalley says tops on the TCAG list is accelerating the Road 80 widening project or Road 108 widening – projects where all the right-of-way acquisition has been done. The projects in the transit category might include the expansion of the Visalia transit maintenance station and the building of the new Sequoia Visitor Center in Visalia.
“Caltrans has their own list in the county,” says Smalley that could accelerate construction of the next leg of Highway 99 from Kingsburg to Goshen and widening 198 west of 99, already scheduled to begin in 2009.

In the rail category, Smalley hopes some federal monies might be available to buy and restore the eastside rail line being abandoned by the current owner and link Kern to Fresno County with a viable eastside rail line.

“The bottom line is we don't know if we can count on $100 million or $5 million when all the dust settles.”

Tulare Vice Mayor Phil Vandegrift says he favors a plan for the Treasury to sell government bonds at 3 percent interest and let Freddie Mac sell the bonds to municipalities at 4.5 percent and the cities building a backlog of infrastructure projects “without costing the taxpayer or Treasury anything” – an idea he will be presenting to Rep. Devin Nunes.

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Tulare Racetrack Project
Clears First Hurdle

By Julie Fernandez

The mammoth 711-acre Tulare Motor Sports Complex proposal comfortably cleared its first major hurdle this week when the Planning Commission supported the project in a series of six votes.

Each vote was 5-2 with Chairman Richard Miller, Vice Chairman Jeff Killion and Commissioners Chuck Miguel, Deanne Rocha and Sandi Miller in favor of the project. Commissioners Richard Nunes and David Kinard were opposed. The actions came after a 90-minute public hearing attended by about 150 people.

The Tulare City Council, which will make the final decisions, has scheduled a special meeting for 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 29, at the Tulare Senior Center to consider the project, which is proposed for property adjacent to the International Agri-Center.

Four of the commission's votes were recommendations to the city council to adopt the final environmental impact report (EIR) and related documents, approve land-use designations and pre-zoning for the properties and adopt a 20-year development agreement between the city and developer. Requests for a conditional use permit and height variances were granted, contingent on the council approving the EIR.

The project, which includes construction of a speedway, drag strip, hotels, retail commercial and professional office buildings, an RV Park and a new city fire station, is projected to bring thousands of new jobs to the area — a key factor in the commission's votes.

“I'm for [economic] diversity and I am for jobs,” Commissioner Chuck Miguel said. “Our town is wonderful, but it is poor.”

He disagreed with a comment of one speaker during the public hearing who said the jobs are not important, because most will pay only minimum wage.

“If someone has the audacity to say a minimum wage job isn't good enough, they need to talk to the woman who has to choose between feeding her children and paying the rent,” Miguel said.

He also said that in Tulare there are “a lot of people who have no future in agriculture” and the project will offer them other options in the technology or business arenas. “This isn't just a track,” he said.

Commissioner Sandi Miller, who works for the Tulare County Workforce Investment Board (WIB), reported her office sees 5,000 people a month looking for jobs. “I think it's just too big of an opportunity for us to miss,” she said.

WIB colleagues, who work in communities where similar projects have been built, reported some jobs are minimum wage, but many involve technological skills and local community colleges, and adults schools are able to train residents to successfully compete for the higher paying positions, Miller said.

Rocha said that for every job created by the project, the money earned will turn over three to four times, helping to create even more jobs.

Killion said a comment from a citizen helped him make up his mind. “Do you have the right to tell somebody in this free county, 'you don't have a right to go into business?'” he recalled the man saying. Killion said the creation of new jobs was an important factor in his decision.

Chairman Richard Miller said he believes the project stands on its own merit.

He also addressed concerns raised about the project's viability.

“If someone wants to spend money — a lot of money — who am I to say, 'you've spent a lot of money but you don't know what you're talking about,'” Miller said.

Developers already have spent $1 million on the environmental impact report alone, city officials said.

Although asked twice, Kinard did not state his reasons for opposing the project. Nunes said he was opposed because there were just too many things that concerned him, including the viability of the project — an issue raised by several people including Ron Clark, a Tulare farmer who wrote a 13-page report based on his personal investigation of facts and figures in the economic analysis of the project. (See page one of the Tulare Voice.)

Nunes also mentioned possible impacts on nearby residents in Sunrise Estates. “They don't have mansions out there, but it's their home,” he said.

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What's New

Merced County motor sports complex - in the planning stage for several years - is up for sale, according to media reports. The 1,200-acre project faced lawsuits from the Farm Bureau and owes Merced County more than $300,000. The project is similar in scale to the proposal at the edge of the city of Tulare. The Tulare project's EIR will be heard by the City Council Dec. 29.

Red ink in the newspaper business nationwide is hitting California papers as well with news that the parent company of the L.A Times (Tribune) filed for bankruptcy. In our area, the Bakersfield Californian laid off 10% of its workforce last week, 25 staffers. Gannett, owner of the Tulare and Visalia newspapers, will lay off 10% of its workforce chainwide. One source says the cutbacks at the Times-Delta number eight this month. The company said it would eliminate 40 positions at its Salinas paper last week. Also McClatchy, owner of the Fresno Bee, Lee Enterprises, owner of the Hanford paper (their stock is below 60 cents at press time) and Porterville Recorder parent Freedom Communication, have all announced cutbacks.

Recession has cut ticket sales for the California Lotto about 10% from this time last year, say officials. Lottery sales in the state have been declining for the past two years. Tribal gaming revenues have slowed as well in recent years although they are still growing.

Bush administration struck down federal regulation that bans guns in the national parks including Kings Canyon and Sequoia. The move won't be reversed quickly by the Obama administration because of the red tape involved but was criticized by California Senator Dianne Feinstein.

In an effort to save frogs and other amphibians, a court has ordered the state Fish and Game not stock some lakes and rivers in Central California with non-native fish, including both Kern and Kaweah River locally. Many small rural towns depend on trout fishing for revenue and they will be hurt. But in Kern County, Fish and Game could have stocked the river with native rainbow trout, but didn't, say critics.

Kings County turned down a request by Tulare Basin Wildlife Partners to survey six waterway corridors in the county. The purpose of the survey is to identify areas to avoid when moving forward on development projects, road and infrastructure. A similar survey was done in Fresno and Tulare counties. Kings County supervisors agreed to move forward by a 3-to-2 vote, but the decision required a four-fifths majority.

Target Corporation reported that its November retail sales were off 6.1 percent from the November of 2007. November comparable-store sales declined 10.4 percent. Sales results were unfavorably impacted by the loss of seven post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping days compared to November 2007, reported the company.

The state Air Resources Board is backing off a proposal to require automobile companies apply paint that is more reflective. The board decided the technology is not available to require that 65 percent of the infrared solar energy impinging on the painted or coated surface be reflected, beginning with the 2012 model-year.

Gottschalks reported a loss in the third quarter, the third consecutive quarter the retail sales giant has reported a loss. For the quarter, Gottschalks reported a loss of $10.1 million, compared to a net loss of $4.2 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2007. Same store sales for Gottschalks were off 13 percent in November, compared to November of 2007.

Gas at a dollar a gallon? That is what some are predicting as the price of gas at the pump continues to drop and the price of a barrel of crude also drops. As of Tuesday, drivers in the Visalia-Tulare area were paying on average $1.845 for a gallon of unleaded regular, down from $2.549 a month ago and $3.406 a year ago. Diesel also continues to drop. The average price as of Tuesday for diesel was $2.543, compared to $3.148 a month ago and $3.653 last year. Crude oil dipped below $43 a barrel this week, but rebounded a little when OPEC spoke of cutting production.

The Visalia Planning Commission denied a request by the city to change the general plan designation on 31.2 acres along Dinuba Highway between Shannon Parkway and the St. Johns River from residential to shopping/office commercial. The proposal was opposed by the property owners, but supported by the city which wants to see hotels and other commercial developments in the area.

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New SPCA Site Next
to Existing Shelter

The committee studying where to place the SPCA animal shelter will recommend to the Visalia City Council on Dec. 15 that the new shelter be built just north of the existing shelter.

Councilmember Amy Shuklian, a member of the shelter site selection committee, said the location makes good sense in that it is highly visible from the freeway and access is not that difficult. She said concerns that the present site on the west side of the Visalia Municipal Airport is in a flood plain are no longer valid because new flood plain maps do not include the airport.

“I think it's a great spot. We needed to make a decision to get the ball rolling” on this project, she said. Twice before, the council has rejected other recommended sites.

Lower Interest Rates
Spur Housing Hopes

Expectation that the Treasury will push Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae to lower 30-year mortgage rates to 4.5 percent has the home industry buzzing.

Lower mortgage rates might get prospective buyers off the fence, suggests a survey by Bankrate.

“I think it will happen,” says Visalia mortgage broker Greg Sherman. “I've been saying all along that if they want to get us out of this housing crisis, they need to lower interest rates.” Interest rates on a new home have been in the 6 percent range recently, a cost of around $1,500 a month to borrow $250,000. That same amount could be financed for $1,266 a month at 4.5 percent.

“By lowering monthly payments, we will essentially be giving each homeowner a stimulus check by putting money in their pocket and not placing a burden on the Treasury or the taxpayer,” says Valley Congressman Dennis Cardoza.

FHA rates dropped to about 5.5 percent last week providing relief. Lower rates have also stimulated the refinancing of mortgages for the first time in recent memory. Stock of home buyers got a boost too in the past few weeks because of a sense that the housing market had hit bottom. The S&P homebuilders' index has risen from an all time low of $9 per share to $13.5 since Nov. 21. Foreclosures in the state are down nearly 50 percent since September by one survey, suggesting the housing market will “roar back” in 2009. In Visalia, where permits for just eight new homes were issued last month – any news is good news.

Visalia to Study Mobile
Home Rent Control

The Visalia City Council is expected to approve hiring an “economic consultant” to study the merits of imposing rent control on mobile home parks in the city, said Ricardo Noguera, city of Visalia director of Housing and Economic Development.

Mobile Home residents have been encouraging the city to take action to both clean up mobile home parks in the city and to enforce some form of rent control. At a recent council meeting, scores of residents turned out to air their complaints, many saying they cannot afford the rent increases they are getting.

Noguera said he does not expect to see a completed study until at least May. The council will vote Monday on whether to hire the consultant.

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