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Where does the money come from? They can’t easily raise taxes to pay for it, and farmers are going to charge a lot even if they’re willing to sell because payin
by acdha 2y ago
Where does the money come from? They can’t easily raise taxes to pay for it, and farmers are going to charge a lot even if they’re willing to sell because paying market rates for water places them at a significant disadvantage compared to other farmers who are not paying market rates. There are a lot of efficiency issues in agriculture – drive through the Central Valley in the summer and see how much runoff there is - but the solutions tend to increase labor costs.
I’ve wondered whether the angle might be some kind of tax: don’t argue with the guy who has a 4 century-old claim, just charge a waste tax on usage over a certain amount per unit of food and apply it state wide so nobody can benefit by holding out.
- shrimp_emoji 2y agoUhh how about that 15% income tax being used for multi-million-dollar public toilets? https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/04/22/san-francisco-noe-valley-toilet/73387351007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/04/22/san-fr... I swear, it better have free Wi-Fi and EMP shielding.
- acdha 2y agoDo you think that they’re just sitting on a pile of unspent money? If not, it doesn’t matter what the existing tax rate is since we’re talking about new money which has to come from somewhere. And while $1.7M is indeed silly, it’s a drop in the bucket for something which would cost billions. A custom building plan is much easier to avoid than a tense negotiation with many parties.
- ryandrake 2y agoIf there was actual political will, it would happen. Heck, the government could use Eminent Domain to simply take those water rights from agriculture, and/or pay a token amount for them. It would be a lot more justifiable than many other recent examples of Eminent Domain use.
- cameldrv 2y agoThe money comes from water bills. These bills are extremely high in California for non-ag customers and are more than enough to purchase water rights.