OHV Fund budget

[Brew]

I don't know if any of you have been following the CA. state joint Budget Conference Committee proceedings, but some of the members of that committee have suggested that $27million be transfered from the OHV trust fund to the general fund. That is on top of the $21million that the governor has in his budget proposal to be transfered out of the OHV trust fund. If these go through, there would be no funds left for the OHV Grants program! The LAO stated that the Grants fund would be stripped before the SVRA funding. There goes the extra law enforcement and restoration projects.

Brew

[Sal]

For the record I am against any transfer of OHV funds. We need them to try to manage an already out-of-control recreation.

[Dan]

They did this twice back in the 1970's during Brown's first go-round. Starting to look like it's his idea. I think it was about $8.5 million each time, if I remember correctly. When Alan Robbins tried to introduce a law forcing them to return the money to the OHV fund, they hauled him up on charges for doing the very same thing they were doing all along (and still do), which was selling influence. The money was never returned.

[Sal]

sounds like an urban myth Dan. got any proof?

[Dan]

sounds like an urban myth Dan. got any proof?

Sorry, Sal. I was wrong. It was $21.5 million, not 17/18 million as I recalled. First round was $8.5 million, and the second was $13 million.

http://books.google.com/books?id=XfsDAA ... nd&f=false

See page 31. Bill numbers and all. To add insult to injury, enviro groups got the DOJ to open ethics investigations on Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), who introduced a bill to force the state to repay the funds, which were not extracted from all of the public. They were paid only by OHV enthusiasts, after negotiating for the program to be a pay-to-play rather than taking money from the general fund to support the program. After it was discovered that the fund was one of the few which had any money, during several state budget crises, the money was "borrowed" by the state general fund, but never repaid. Robbins was a major coordinator of campaign fund donations from various developers, lawyers' groups, and insurance companies, for a number of other Democrats in California. I think this shows how enviro extremist groups will even eat their own young if the agenda is challenged. In 2009, another $90 million was "borrowed" from the OHV Trust Fund. Once again, there is no intent whatsoever to repay that money. In essence, OHV owners are paying for benefits that non-OHV owning citizens are reaping. From what I can see, that's once again taxation without representation, which was the point of Tea Parties in the 18th Century, and again in the 21st Century here in the US. This is arrogance in the extreme.

[Sal]

well if you can believe "facts" reported in a trade magazine for dirt bikes, you can base your opinion on them!

As I stated before, I do not support taking money from the OHMVR funds. The state needs them to fund law enforcement, restoration of areas denuded by OHV use, and rider education.

[Dan]

By the way, Sal, this last $90 million theft was not even recorded on the state books, nor in several other ledgers where it's legally required to appear. In the lawsuit just recently concluded, the judge ordered it all recorded, and that the state log the money as a loan and a liability on the balance sheet. Neither was the intent prior to being legally forced to accomplish all this. The crooks in our state legislature who crafted this little money grab had no intention of paying the money back. The general population didn't establish this fund, and they have no right to snatch it and use it to balance the general fund to the benefit of the general population, simply because these socialists who have been running this outfit have finally run out of other peoples' money to steal. The robbery of the OHV fund is nowhere near the only crooked deal going on in Sacramento over other peoples' money. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of them. Environmental extremism, and all its resultant policies, is very expensive and economically unsustainable! And we can't afford it any longer. Don't get me started on the so-called "green jobs" scam.

Unfortunately, it's requiring the equivalent of a state bankruptcy to expose the crookedness with which the economic and political left has been operating this state, and the symbiotic little deals between democratic socialists and environmental extremist groups are at the very heart of the malfeasance.

Party's over, Sal.

[Dan]

PS: Don't be mad at OHV people, Sal. No matter how thoroughly you may believe lies told to you, they are still lies. We're no longer your biggest problem. The American people don't believe you and your friends any more. You told a few too many tall stories, and the cred is in the tank now. You guys were given just enough rope to hang yourselves, and you did it like experts. In the long run, I think this will actually be a problem for the environment. Not because you people were actually protecting anything very effectively. But because now too many average citizens will believe the whole entire environmental group schtick is a bunch of crap. Instead of critically thinking their way through what's truth and what's nonsense, they'll dismiss it all with impunity as the rantings of a bunch of nuts, and the environment will eventually be worse off for it.

[Brew]

On Friday, Mar. 4, the joint budget committee voted to move $10 million from the OHV Trust fund to the general fund. $5 million from the OHV Grants program and $5 million from the OHMVR Division operating account.

Brew

[Dan]

No surprise here. The state is bankrupt, and they're desperate to find a way out. They will stop at nothing. Just keep your hand on your wallet, and your eye on your 401k. Money is power to socialists. Once bankrupt, the state can do them no further good.