The Golden Rule (Those Who Have the Gold Make the Rules)

Last week we wrote about how San Francisco and Santa Clara might seek to wrest control of Caltrain as a condition of putting sales tax funding on the ballot.

On Tuesday the San Francisco Board of Supervisors formalized their threat: [bold added]

The three counties that fund Caltrain have reached an impasse that may shut down the Peninsula rail line, which is limping through the COVID-19 pandemic while carrying 5% of the passengers it had last year.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved putting a ⅛-cent sales tax measure on the November ballot, with controversial conditions that would tie up most of the money until the counties resolve a conflict about governance.

San Francisco progressives don't hesitate to alter existing deals when they have the financial upper hand.



In related news the State of California is withholding funds from two small California cities because they "rejected public health orders to shut down certain businesses":

At their city council meetings on Monday, leaders in Atwater, a city of 29,000 off Highway 99 in Merced County, and Coalinga, a city of 17,000 in the southwest corner of Fresno County, stood by resolutions they passed this spring allowing all businesses in their communities to reopen.

The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services warned the cities last week that they could collectively lose about $600,000 of federal coronavirus relief unless they come into compliance with state health requirements...

Atwater Mayor Paul Creighton and City
Attorney Fran Splendorio (Chron photo)

Local officials said it was an economic trade-off they are willing to make. They decry Newsom as a bully who is illegally denying them money they are owed.

Atwater Mayor Paul Creighton, who led an effort in May to declare it a “sanctuary city for all businesses,” said he worried that shutting down again would cost more in lost tax revenue and failed businesses than whatever financial aid the state is offering.

(These small cities have learned to use the vocabulary of progressives--"sanctuary"--to describe their resistance to edicts from the Capitol.)

If the State holds back funds to enforce compliance, it will do exactly what it has accused the President of doing when he threatened to withhold Federal monies from California, not to mention what he is alleged to have done vis-a-vis Ukraine.

The President's alleged misdeed was on the front pages for months and resulted in his impeachment trial. When the Governor of California does it, it's on the bottom of Page C1.