CARPINTERIA COUNCIL TO RESIDENTS: 'GIVE US YOUR LUNCH MONEY...OR ELSE!'

Carpinteria's city council, in a move that signals their deep understanding of 'how money works,' has decided what every good bureaucrat decides when revenues don't match their spending habits: take more from the peasants. According to Noozhawk, residents will get to 'consider' a 0.25% sales tax increase this November, as if a quarter-cent here and a quarter-cent there doesn't somehow add up to more of your hard-earned dollars leaving your wallet.

One has to admire the sheer brass of these folks. They cry about 'growing expenditures' while simultaneously waving through every pet project designed to further expand the already bloated municipal workforce or fund another 'study' on how to make your life more heavily regulated. And 'stagnating revenues'? Perhaps if the state wasn't actively working to chase away productive businesses and families with endless red tape and exorbitant fees, the local tax coffers might not look so empty. But then, that would require competence and foresight, wouldn't it?

What Noozhawk, in its endless quest for polite local reporting, probably won't tell you is how much of these 'expenditures' are actually going to fund unfunded pension liabilities for the very bureaucrats who are now demanding more of your money. Or which special interest group, developer, or consultant firm might just happen to benefit from the new 'programs' an influx of tax dollars would fund. It's always about the 'community' and 'essential services,' of course, until you look at the ledger and find another six-figure salary for a communications director or a 'diversity coordinator.'

So this fall, Carpinteria voters will have the privilege of rubber-stamping their own lighter pockets. It's a classic progressive playbook: spend recklessly, blame circumstances, then demand more from those who actually generate wealth. President Trump's White House understands the value of a dollar; perhaps Carpinteria's council could use a field trip to learn about fiscal responsibility.