Santa Barbara Burns Again: New Prop 1A Ad To Follow?
For the third time in less than a year, a major wildfire is burning in Santa Barbara – which could be propitious political timing for Gov. Schwarzenegger and his allies pushing Proposition 1A.
About 1,200 homes were evacuated Tuesday night, a few hours after the wind-whipped Jesusita fire broke out in the drought-dry tinder of the San Roque and Mission Canyon areas above the city.
The fire ignited just one day after the governor warned that as many as 1,700 Cal Fire firefighters could be laid off if voters don’t approve his Prop. 1A budget package at the May 19 special election. The governor and his allies have also used the threat of reduced fire protection in TV ads promoting the measure.
Calbuzz World Marketing Headquarters lies about three blocks outside the evacuation warning area, and we’re listening to air tankers and helicopters drop retardant and water on the fire zone now; we won’t be surprised if Arnold, who recently bought a $4.7 million, 25-acre spread in nearby Carpinteria, turns up in the next day or two to pose with firefighters – great up-to-the-minute stuff for his next ad.
BTW, the best real time local coverage of the fire is available online from our blogroll partners at Noozhawk and the Santa Barbara Independent (where we got the photo above.)
It’s unfortunate that the firefighters have allowed themselves to be used for Arnold’s effort to pay for corporate tax cuts by raising taxes in a way that disproportionately hits poor and middle-income people. Fortunately, no one believes Arnold’s nonsense about cutting firefighters: threatening the most popular public service is an old, old trick. It’s about intimidation, not responsible government.
Most expected an early start then longer than normal fire season this year. Are the Canadian “Super Scoopers” on the line, or are the airborne suppression assets solely from helos?
At WEDNESDAY SUN-UP: “Super Scoopers” could then stage and re-cycle water [with aboard supressant chemicals] out of Lake Piru — a short distance as crows fly (air suppression airframes). When I was working that part of Northern Ventura County, that WAS PART OF THE PLAN and had been used successfully in the past.
The firefighter in the commercial needs a better makeup job. The silly looking black smears across his forehead, supposedly acquired after having just battled a blaze and then stepping in front of the camera, add to the phoniness of the pitch. It’s an insult to all firefighters.
Corporate tax cuts? With the second highest tax rates in the nation, after New York City? What uninformed nonsense.
All this anonymous spin is making me dizzy. Even with passage of the measure the budget problems continue to be deep and threaten many core services. That is the truth vs. nonsense of Coupal, Whitman and the Flash Report…
Thank you Anonymous 7:33! I cracked up at your assessment of the black smear. It was driving me crazy too. Like, couldn’t the idiots hired to make this ad come up with something better than that?!?!?!
Relevant facts on the corporate tax cuts and CA’s tax burden, from the California Budget Project:
http://californiabudgetbites.org/2009/04/15/taxes-are-what-we-pay-for-a-civilized-society/
# California is a moderate, not high, tax state when all state and local taxes and fees are taken into account. This results from the fact that California has moderately high state taxes, but low local property taxes due to the impact of Proposition 13 on local property tax collections.
# Over the past 15 years, lawmakers have enacted tax cuts that will cost the state nearly $12 billion in 2008-09. That’s a larger loss than the $11.0 billion 2009-10 temporary increase in state tax revenues included in the February budget agreement.
# Moreover, while the tax increases included in the budget are all temporary, regardless of the outcome of the May election, the September 2008 and February 2009 budget agreements included massive corporate tax cuts that are permanent and that will reduce state revenues by approximately $2.5 billion per year when fully implemented.
Is Santa Barbara still burning? Or are we near containment at long last? Now headed = Over to “The [SB] Independent” site and NOOZHAWK.com for updates, per above recommendation in the original postings on this timely subject.
Radio News report [from St. George, UT “The Fox” (102 / 107 fm] = CA Governor declared “state of emergency” for Santa Barbara fire.
The news reports on KNX 1070 NewsRadio have a recording from one of the local fire agencies saying there are 12 aircraft committed / assigned to this fire. Are all flying? Are they en route? Are they in maintenance stand-downs? Are they awsaiting the 'Sun-downer high velocity gusts' foecast for laster this afternoon? Watch the live streaming video — really excelLent [THANK YOU RISK-TAKERS & ALSO ENTREPRENEURS, SINCE YOU'VE ONCE MORE 'lifted the performance bar' ON local news gathering techniques — via NOOZHAWK.com link then listen to the KNX live reports on 1070 a.m. ["traffic on the fives"]! 😉 Aren't you glad you don't live in LA County, during rush hour down there?
I hope the Firefighter they’re laughing at with the black smear on his forehead after fighting the fire isn’t my son – not funny at all to me.
I agree that that silly black smear adds to the phoniness of the pitch – I laughed at that act, not real firefighters. Only prompted me more to vote no on 1A. How come we do not hear anything about the firefighters talking about giving a change to their 3% at 50 retirement .. talk about EXPENSIVE!!!
Corporate tax cuts? With the second highest tax rates in the nation, after New York City? What uninformed nonsense.
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