COUNTY LEADERS: 'THE SKY IS FALLING!'... AND THEY'LL NEED MORE OF YOUR TAXES FOR BUCKETS

Your intrepid Lompoc Record, bless its earnest little heart, reported that the County of Santa Barbara recently gathered a whopping 2,500 residents for an 'El Niño Community Meeting.' One can almost hear the panic bells tolling from the Board of Supervisors' chambers as they conjured up images of deluges, mudslides, and, naturally, a brand-new raft of 'emergency preparedness' line items for the next budget cycle. It seems the only thing more predictable than a coastal storm is the county's reflexive urge to declare a crisis and then, with hands outstretched, demand more tax dollars to mitigate it.

While the Trump administration is busy actually bolstering America's infrastructure and securing energy independence, our local progressives are perfecting the art of the 'community meeting' – a performance art piece where unelected officials drone on about climate calamities while subtly paving the way for lucrative government contracts and even more red tape. You can bet your last gas dollar that somewhere in those thousands of pages of 'preparedness' documents, there's a consultant's report justifying a new fee or regulation designed to fix a problem that often fixes itself.

What the Lompoc Record, in its guileless reporting, might have missed is the real 'preparedness' effort: training the public to accept ever-larger county budgets and ever-more intrusive bureaucratic oversight. Instead of clearing brush, maintaining drains, or, heaven forbid, approving sensible energy projects that could power actual emergency services, they convene talking shops. Perhaps a little less 'dialogue' and a lot more practical action – like letting local businesses thrive and keeping our energy flowing – would be a better storm defense than another PowerPoint presentation.