Laguna Republicans must meet and conquer

Frank Ricchiazzi

Are we finally waking up to the disaster in Sacramento?

The State Water Resources Control Board told Laguna officials it

has run out of money and cannot help in our sewer system violations

of federal codes of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Last week, the state told the County Vector Board of Orange County

that it had no more money to fund the red ant infestation program

that has done a great job in trying to eliminate this horrible

problem.

In January, it is estimated that the Unemployment Fund will

extract from the business community an additional $2.3 billion to

keep this fund from sinking.

State government stole millions from special funds to help with

the deficit. Even worse, pols in Sacramento have borrowed upwards of

$15 billion, some illegally, to cover past mistakes. On Tuesday, a

Sacramento court ruled that bonds issued to cover a nearly $2 billion

dollar payment to the Public Employees Retirement Fund was illegal,

since the bond did not first go before the voters. Believe it or not,

next year’s budget is already in the hole $10 billion -- and

climbing. There is a part of me that would rather have the recall

election in March. These additional few months will give the voters

in this state the first real hard facts of how bad it is in

Sacramento.

Did anyone notice that the bill passed by the legislators and the

governor for illegals to drive with a valid license will cost about

$80 million. With the tremendous volume of people that are going to

flood the DMV offices, did anyone notice that the legislators and the

governor passed the bill but have not appropriated one dollar to

implement the costs.

Oh, and also to the many wonderful citizens who contribute to

SchoolPower. This year you needed $400,000 because we lost funding

from Sacramento. Do you want to guess how much we will need next

year?

The Laguna Beach Republicans are having a recall meeting at 7 p.m.

on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at Hennessey’s, to discuss other whoppers of why

we have no choice but to get Gov. Gray Davis out and begin what is

going to be a terrible belt tightening of our state purse strings.

As the largest political party of registered voters in Laguna, it

is time to get the information out and get our voters to the polls on

Oct. 7.

* FRANK RICCHIAZZI is co-chair of the Laguna Beach Republicans.