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Editorial Entitled To Their Own Opinions, But Not To Their Own Facts
(Jan. 26, 2008) -- The late U.S. Senator/U.N. Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said [quote attributed in various forms] that "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."
In that spirit, we invite readers to consider the Jan 24 Press-Telegram editorial titled, "A Rational Port Vote" alongside our comments on its asserted "facts."
| Press-Telegram editorial text | LBReport.com comments |
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| A Long Beach councilwoman proposed amending the state Constitution so the city of Long Beach could dip into state tidelands money, which wouldn't happen in a million years. Dumb idea? Dumb like a fox. The idea got her big headlines, didn't it? Fortunately, wiser members of the City Council then scotched it, 6-3. | The Council didn't vote on what the PT cites. The Sacramento proposal was agendized but not advanced. The motion before the Council was to have a Council committee discuss letting voters decide whether to increase the percentage of Port profits payable to the City for use in LB's Tidelands. The additional monies could help fund City shoreline area projects including beach improvement and clean-up. There is no legal impediment to the Tidelands use, the City Attorney said. The motion sought to refer the issue to a Council committee to get the facts, hear all sides and make a recommendation to the full Council. Among those testifying in support of increasing the percentage of Port profits payable for the City's Tidelands was Jim McCabe, a retired LB Deputy City Attorney who for roughly a decade handled Tidelands-related matters for City Hall. Three Councilmembers (Schipske, Reyes Uranga, Gabelich) voted to refer the issue to the Committee to get the facts, hear all sides and make recommendations to the full Council. Without speaking a word publicly, six Councilmembers (B. Lowenthal, S. Lowenthal, DeLong, O'Donnell, Andrews, Lerch) voted in unison against this. |
| By the same margin, the council voted down another bad idea, which was to resurrect a tax on bunker fuel for ships. The tax is opposed by both shippers and union members alike, for the simple reason that ships would just pick up the fuel elsewhere, which happened once before, and there would be no tax revenues for Long Beach to collect. | Mary Nichols, Gov. Schwarzenegger's choice to chair the CA Air Resources Board, told LBReport.com in August 2007 (expressing her personal view, not necessarily that of the Schwarzenegger administration) that she believes the bunker fuel tax break would be an excellent measure to repeal. The 2003 tax-break (renewing an earlier tax break that expired) was sought by Port-industry interests. It was co-authored by LB state lawmakers Betty Karnette and Alan Lowenthal with Oakland's Don Perata. The three Port area Democrats advanced the bill without normally required hearings using Sacramento's notorious "gut and amend" procedure (stripping text from an unrelated bill and pasting their text into it). A legislative analysis at the time warned that under an earlier Perata bill, the State Bd. of Equalization "estimated that repealing the sunset date on the bunker fuel exemption would result in a total state and local sales and use tax loss of between $22 and $36 million (between $13.5 and $21.5 million General Fund losses and between $8.9 and $14 million local revenue losses). The range in BOE's estimates reflects uncertainty over the degree to which the sales tax causes water common carriers to fuel out-of-state." It said bill proponents [a long list of Port industry interests] said it would result in "relatively minor sales tax revenue losses, because the taxation of bunker fuel suppresses sales at California ports" and the sales tax on bunker fuel "reduces overall economic activity at California ports." Industry interests claimed restoring the sales tax exemption would "bolster economic activity, both by increasing sales of products purchased by vessels that choose to bunker and by reversing employment losses among businesses that serve bunkering ships (e.g., ports, pilots, barge operators, boom operators, and marine suppliers)." You decide whose arguments are more credible. |
| The timing of the proposals, by 5th District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, was particularly bad. As Harbor Commission Chairman Mario Cordero pointed out, the Port of Long Beach is becoming a global leader in cleaning up diesel pollution. Cordero is among those leading the cleanup, and the last thing he needs is a political distraction. | Councilwoman Schipske's proposal was limited to Port net revenue (profits). It only applied to sums remaining after the Port spending on its budgeted items including environmental clean-up, meaning it shouldn't affect those projects. The agenda item is timely. In November 2007, the City Council voted 8-0 (Gabelich absent) to hand roughly $250,000 in Tidelands funds to the Aquarium with no legal obligation to do so...and city management says it plans to do this each year and possibly make it part of a future debt bond measure. That's in addition to the multi-million dollar Aquarium debt bailout already tapping Tidelands money that previous City Halls claimed wasn't likely. And that's in addition to new infrastructure that some want around the Queen Mary. Those are taxpayer burdens, not "political distractions." |
| Left unsaid was another fact. The city's tidelands fund already gets more than $15 million a year from port revenues, but if local politicians tried to turn the port into their own cash machine, state politicians could be inspired to take it over for their own benefit. The port, like certain other shoreline developments, is a tidelands asset, managed in trust by the city but owned by the state. | We don't dismiss the prospect that Sacramento might try to tap Port profits...but if Sen. Lowenthal and Assemblywoman Karnette can't prevent their own Party allies from hurting their city, they need to go...and shouldn't be replaced by any LB Council incumbent afraid to advocate publicly the interests of LB taxpayers. Again: the Council motion was simply to discuss increasing the percent of Port profits payable for the City's Tidelands. |
| The six council members who were smart enough to realize this are Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal and council members Dee Andrews, Gary DeLong, Val Lerch, Suja Lowenthal and Patrick O'Donnell. It would be better if there were nine, but a majority is what matters. | The Gang of Six are only a "majority" in that Council Chamber. They are afraid of a real majority vote by LB residents on this issue. That's why they ganged up to try and prevent a hearing on the merits which this proposal deserves. |
To silently gang up in unison and block discussion of a larger share of Port profit for this City's beaches was an appalling act. It was a pat on the back to Port interests and a middle finger to LB taxpayers.
LBReport.com plans to Velcro members of the Gang of Six to their Jan. 22 vote and to other Port actions that they've taken to the detriment of LB residents.
We will do this until at least two of them reconsider their conduct, creating a Council majority that will start putting the public interest and not the Port's interests first...or start paying the price in elections that they think they have some entitlement to win.
LBReport.com commends Councilmembers Gerrie Schipske, Tonia Reyes Uranga and Rae Gabelich for their courageous, principled votes for LB taxpayers and for this City.
We predict that what took place on Jan. 22 will ultimately be revisited. It cannot stand.
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