Pubdate: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 Source: Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, CA) Copyright: 2010 Appeal-Democrat Contact: http://www.appeal-democrat.com/sections/services/forms/editorletter.php Website: http://www.appeal-democrat.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1343 Author: Howard Yune, Appeal-Democrat Cited: Sutter County Board of Supervisors http://www.co.sutter.ca.us/doc/government/bos/bos_home Cited: Proposition 19 http://yeson19.com/ Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/find?272 (Proposition 19) SUPERVISORS OPPOSE POT PROPOSITION Sutter County leaders on Tuesday reaffirmed their resistance to legalized marijuana use, coming out against a state ballot measure to decriminalize a drug involved in a tug-of-war between California and federal laws. The Board of Supervisors unanimously opposed Proposition 19, which would decriminalize the possession and transfer - but not the sale - of up to one ounce of pot for those 21 and older. District Attorney Carl Adams denied the county's stance was a statement on the drug's legitimacy as medicine. Instead, he attacked Prop. 19's ability to collect taxes from cannabis sales - a strike at its supporters' claims pot sales could infuse deficit-wracked local governments with fresh funds. "This bill provides no mechanism to collect revenues, no way to pass the money back to local government," he said, also criticizing Prop. 19 as a threat to efforts to reduce impaired driving and workplace accidents. "In other words, pass it and we'll figure it out later?" asked Supervisor Stan Cleveland. "Then I don't want that." The stance followed supervisors' rejection in April of a identification card program for users of doctor-prescribed marijuana, which the state legalized in 1996 in defiance of a federal ban. Sutter and Colusa are the only California counties not to issue the ID cards. Supervisors also threw their support behind the effort to freeze the state law curbing greenhouse-gas emissions, unanimously backing Prop. 23. The measure would suspend enforcement of Assembly Bill 32 unless California's unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent - a level reached just three times since 1980 - and stays there for a year. The climate bill passed in 2006 and aims to roll back greenhouse-gas production to 1990 levels over the next decade. Anxiety over rural counties losing control over spending priorities drive the board's tighter vote to fight Prop. 25, which aims to get state budgets passed more quickly by dropping the requirement to win approval from two-thirds of the Legislature. California is one of only three states to demand more than a simple majority to pass a spending plan. Lowering the bar for budget approval would rob Yuba-Sutter and the rest of the Central Valley of a safeguard against urban communities steering funding away from them, argued Supervisor James Gallagher, who joined Cleveland and Larry Montna in opposing Prop. 25. Without the two-thirds requirement, "come budget time, guess who has the influence on the budget? San Francisco and Los Angeles," he said. "You think we have problems with the Williamson Act now? Just wait until they get their hands on it again. Funds for rural roads? You can forget about that. "I don't want to California any more rope to hang us." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake