I stood eyeing this compact colossus from a safe distance. What was it, 25 years now, maybe more? Except for some deep-set lines in his face, Lou Ferrigno looked as terrifying as ever.
I wasn't able to face the former star of "The Incredible Hulk," who was signing autographs inside San Francisco's immense Moscone Center South at the WonderCon Feb. 23.
It had been more than two decades since he scared the bejesus out of a comic book-loving 4-year-old and inspired the single worst recurring nightmare of my childhood. If you want to traumatize a kid, paint a yoked muscle man green and put a Tina Turner wig on him.
With some equally terrifying decisions facing the county this week, I hope our elected officials display more bravery than I did.
Most infamous will be today's board of supervisors decision on an agreement that could deliver the county's second casino. Supervisors flubbed on making a decision last week in a narrow 3-2 vote, with board Chairman Richard Forster saying there were unresolved issues that needed addressing. But without formal direction to staff to look into any of those issues, that argument seemed more like a stall tactic.
It's understandable, but making difficult decisions is what they get the fancy titles for. And today's vote is the epitome of a Faustian bargain, as last week's Sacramento Bee editorial put it. Take the deal and the county accepts a demoralizing defeat with it, the casualty of which may be Amador's very essence. But the county would also net tens of millions in casino payments to address a host of impacts, among them law enforcement, fire protection, roads and schools. It's true that it all may amount to less than the county will ultimately need, but the downside of not taking the deal is even greater.
Not only would arbitration lead to a casino anyway, but a potentially larger one than currently outlined in the Intergovernmental Services Agreement negotiated by the Buena Vista Band of Me-Wuk Indians and the county, and for millions less. Such is the grand wisdom of the state's compact system.
The upside of turning down the "blood money," as Forster called it, is the slim possibility that the county's federal lawsuit may yet be heard, that the county could win an injunction before a judge who has failed to consider the county's suit for nearly three years, that the county could pass a bond to continue fighting its case, that the judge would ultimately find in the county's favor, all before arbitration moves forward and the tribe achieves a fait accompli.
The other obvious upside of not accepting the ISA is that somewhere between the 54 percent of county voters who opposed expanded gaming compacts in February's primary election and the 84 percent of voters who said they didn't want any more casinos in 2005 would support such a decision.
The prognosticators, at least those foolhardy enough to make predictions, were wrong last week. They and others, this Ledger Dispatch editor included, expected the board of supervisors to ultimately flinch at the prospect of taking a principled stand only to possibly bankrupt the county. In effect, they would vote for an unpopular agreement rather than cling to a pipe dream that seemed more wishful by the minute. This is why I don't gamble
The choices won't be any easier for the school district tomorrow, as it shapes a list of budget cuts to deal with an unprecedented fiscal crisis. School board members agreed to put off making any decisions one more week, with possibly the last budget advisory committee meeting today. The district must somehow figure out a way to cut more than $2 million from an already bone-thin budget, and no sacred cow will be left untouched, except raising taxes of course.
Until the governor and state legislators make tax reform a part of the discussion - and the Republican Legislature's failure to eliminate the so-called yacht tax is only the most symbolic example of its callousness - we will continue to have tense local government meetings where parents, students and administrators grapple with each other because they've been divided and conquered.
Whatever recriminations there are for this county are the same ones applicable to a state in the midst of a $16 billion budget crisis - that we didn't plan well enough for this rainy day. It was going to come, to be sure, but we didn't need to get this wet. The fact that some residents are looking to the proposed Buena Vista casino as a needed source of jobs should shame local politicians who didn't have the vision or ability to attract other industries beforehand.
Instead, we coasted on a bedroom philosophy in which the only developments being considered are enormous subdivisions most locals can't afford to fill. Now there's nothing left but to saw into bone.
And those cuts don't always heal.
| Raheem Hosseini |