Airek Publius

Fires, Drug Raids, and Budget Deficits

I spent the last week out on the central Californian coast (San Jose/Monterey areas).  The area was gorgeous, but California is coming off its driest spring in decades, so looks can be deceiving.  Up and down California there are dozens of wild fires ravaging the state and the exhausted local fire crews are turning to the National Guard and foreign firefighters (Mexicans, Canadians, and even Kiwis) for help battling the blazes.   The immediate impact of these fires are being felt by the communities taking the brunt of the damage, but what about the cost of containment on an already financially overburdened state like California.  Slurry bombers, giant bulldozers, and helicopters don’t operate off of hope and good will.  What of the overtime pay for those containment crews that have been working around the clock for the past couple weeks?  I don’t think a signed copy of Terminator 2 will make up for the hundreds of hours on those sweltering fires line.  These summer fires have already cost the state close to $100 million dollars (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMCfgemLP_E) and most of the large fires are still not completely contained.  Estimates are projecting, in totality, these fires are costing upwards of $1 million a day to fight (http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/128060 ), and the ‘official’ fire season doesn’t start until August.  And all the while the state of California will have a budget gap of $16 billion for this upcoming fiscal year (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget21feb21,0,6427050.story).  The fact is, the state won’t stop fighting fires because there is no money and so either debts piles up, other services are discontinued,  or the federal government comes into help (adding to the already embarrassingly large federal deficit).   This may seem meandering, but it gets me to my last point.  I spent a night at my Aunt’s house in the hills Saratoga, it’s like the Evergreen of Silicon Valley (pretty swanky).  While I was there, across the valley there was a large marijuana growing operation bust that turned into a shot out, leaving one of the growers dead with the two other growers still at large, probably in Mexico by now (http://www.mercurynews.com/copyright/ci_9848631).  According to police estimates there was between $80-30 million dollars worth of pot seized, but since this in from the cops I would bet the true street value was closer to $20 million.  Regardless, it was still a lot of hooch.  Now, much like wild fires, drug raids don’t happen for free and these costs gets even higher when guns get fired, people get killed, and manhunts have to occur.  So, rather than capturing potential tax revenue on $80 million dollars worth of pot, the state probably spent over $100,000 for this seizure operation.  This seems so odd to me, because governments, be it local, state, or federal, are always so good at squeezing us for money for almost every purchase or action we take and yet they seem incapable of considering marijuana as a revenue source, despite their growing financial burdens.  Legalizing pot and taxing the hell out of it is no panacea.  The onus is still on the government to practice financial restraint, but a pot tax would surely provide some relief, if only to offset the cost of fighting these wild fires.  Our government is quite entrenched in its opposition to allow the legal use of pot among responsible adults and there would be a lot crow pie out there to be eaten if things were to ever change, but let us not forget, pride cometh before the fall. 
Cheers,
Airek Publius