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My View: Notes from the Front Row

Carl Ribaudo
Special to the Tribune

Local Musings:

The state of California has announced it would leave the TRPA compact on Jan. 1 if SB 630 passes. Funny, I always thought that Nevada would be the one to leave the compact first, but apparently that not the case. The passage of SB 630 by the California Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee is designed to force Nevada to repeal SB 271 which it enacted to force the completion of the TRPA Regional Plan Update (which took seven years and zillions of hours of meetings) which was then promptly sued by the Sierra Club. Got it now! If these two states can’t get it together, the impact on the lake and the local community will be significant. For starters, say goodbye to local public and private funding for environmental projects including water quality, watershed restoration, forest health and transportation. Secondly, those on the California side will really suffer. You will managed by appointed staffers and politicians with no directly elected representation. Projects to improve the destination and the environment will be nonexistent because the regulations will be to lock in the status quo in place, this will have a negative impact on commercial and private real estate value. The State of California will be akin to an occupying army managing the local affairs of the community. Nevada will do fine. They will manage their own affairs, move projects forward that will benefit the environment, the economy and the local community putting a wider gap between the two states.

California’s reaction to Nevada is really dumb, instead of inviting some key Nevada legislators for a meeting they pass this piece-of-crap bill that reaffirms just how dysfunctional California is and how they just don’t understand the local issues nor the environment. Take a look and read it, it’s like something out of the failed policies of the past 30 years. It’s like they could care less about all the scientific data and information that was used to develop the Regional Plan Update it really reveals how poor quality their thinking is. It wouldn’t surprise me if Nevada just decided to walk away rather than being partners with people who wave a big stick but just don’t have a clue.



Meet the new league — same as the old league. It was amazing (or maybe not) to find out here was the league to Save Lake Tahoe in Sacramento to support California’s SB 630 legislation. Just when you thought you were seeing a Darcie Goodman-Collins directing a new League to Save Lake Tahoe approach, there they are supporting efforts to have California walk from the TRPA compact. As they have for years they talk out of both sides of their mouth. On one side they talk about how much they care about the environment and the local community, then they go and supporting legislation that would further diminish the environment and destroy the local community. It would be one thing if SB 630 would have a positive impact on the environment and the local community but it doesn’t it makes matters worse. When they had their chance for a standup moment they failed. No surprise from an organization that opposed Van Sickle Park. What little credibility they had is gone.



The Big Picture:

Here is something for California to think about. In a recently published column, Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee reported that members of the state Senate recently heard some interesting economic and demographic news from economists Bill Watkins. Specifically California’s once-vigorous population growth has slowed to a crawl and the state’s population is likely to begin dropping in the next couple of decades due to out-migration and a dropping birthrate, and it’s mostly losing middle-class families “because of a lack of opportunity.” Ouch.

Recommendations:

Don’t miss the release of “42” even if you are not a baseball fan this is a must see film. What Jackie Robinson did far transcends baseball and speaks the heart of what kind of society we should continue to strive for. A must see!

It’s a wrap:

Monitor Pass is open. If you can take a car, bike or motorcycle and go for a drive. It’s beautiful! Remember to bring a camera.

— Carl Ribaudo is a contributing columnist to the Tahoe Daily Tribune. He is also a consultant, speaker and writer who lives in South Shore. He can be reached at carl@smgonline.net.


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