Site search
sponsored by
News
TRUCKEE, Calif. — During Rep. Tom McClintock’s tour of Truckee Friday, the new-to-the-district congressman took issue with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
Representing the 4th Congressional District of California, McClintock said he doesn’t believe in state or regional control of a local asset. Instead, he suggested local control of environmental policy would better serve the economy, and the eco-system.
“I don’t think the [Tahoe Regional Planning Agency] is a particularly good management tool. I think locals are far better ... local communities are in a far better position to judge their own needs and desires,” McClintock said.
Dennis Oliver, spokesman for the agency, said if it weren’t for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, things could be a lot worse at the lake.
“If the [Tahoe Regional Planning Agency] didn’t exist we might very well have a city the size of San Francisco at Tahoe — planned in the 60s before the two states joined — a four lane highway around the lake, and a bridge over Emerald Bay,” Oliver said. “The environmental gains and economic benefits have been done through partnership and collaboration.”
Transportation funds coming
McClintock, in his first year representing this district of California after winning a tight election last November, said he is in the middle of nominating area transportation projects for the Transportation Reauthorization Bill — the closest an Interstate 80 project in Roseville.
“I don’t believe a taxpayer in Iowa should be paying for a local street in Alaska. There has to be a federal nexus,” McClintock said.
McClintock said he is still getting up to speed on the Mousehole — the Highway 89 undercrossing of the Union Pacific Railroad — something that his predecessor, John Doolittle, helped acquire federal funding for in the past.
Education cuts reflection of culture change
McClintock also spoke to the current lack of funding in school districts, causing ones like the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District to cut dozens of staff members and teachers.
“You have to look back at the management model,” McClintock said. “A generation ago, we did far more with far less. How did we do that?
“I think now parents feel their opinions don't matter at much. They learn that in kindergarten when they're enrolling their students. Since the 60s and 70s, we've been centralizing ... and unionizing our public school system so it doesn't work anymore.”
As a solution, McClintock said he would push for more local control of everything from funding to curriculum.
The economy
McClintock said the current and past administrations have been fiscally irresponsible, and it’s getting worse.
“If you take all the debt accumulated by the federal government from George Washington to the Bush administration — which was the most fiscally reckless I’ve seen — that entire debt will double in the next five years and triple in 10,” McClintock said. “If you reduce the burdens on productivity, productivity increases. But if you expand government spending and taxes in the middle of a recession, it could trigger a depression.”
Forestry and Fire
McClintock said forest management to reduce fire hazard is a key issue for this part of his district.
On the issue of forestry, McClintock said he will be meeting Monday in Quincy about 150 pink slips issued in the local timber industry, which he said is the result of environmental litigation.
“The same folks opposed to clear cutting are adamantly are all right with forest fires doing the same thing,” McClintock said.
Representing the 4th Congressional District of California, McClintock said he doesn’t believe in state or regional control of a local asset. Instead, he suggested local control of environmental policy would better serve the economy, and the eco-system.
“I don’t think the [Tahoe Regional Planning Agency] is a particularly good management tool. I think locals are far better ... local communities are in a far better position to judge their own needs and desires,” McClintock said.
Dennis Oliver, spokesman for the agency, said if it weren’t for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, things could be a lot worse at the lake.
“If the [Tahoe Regional Planning Agency] didn’t exist we might very well have a city the size of San Francisco at Tahoe — planned in the 60s before the two states joined — a four lane highway around the lake, and a bridge over Emerald Bay,” Oliver said. “The environmental gains and economic benefits have been done through partnership and collaboration.”
Transportation funds coming
McClintock, in his first year representing this district of California after winning a tight election last November, said he is in the middle of nominating area transportation projects for the Transportation Reauthorization Bill — the closest an Interstate 80 project in Roseville.
“I don’t believe a taxpayer in Iowa should be paying for a local street in Alaska. There has to be a federal nexus,” McClintock said.
McClintock said he is still getting up to speed on the Mousehole — the Highway 89 undercrossing of the Union Pacific Railroad — something that his predecessor, John Doolittle, helped acquire federal funding for in the past.
Education cuts reflection of culture change
McClintock also spoke to the current lack of funding in school districts, causing ones like the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District to cut dozens of staff members and teachers.
“You have to look back at the management model,” McClintock said. “A generation ago, we did far more with far less. How did we do that?
“I think now parents feel their opinions don't matter at much. They learn that in kindergarten when they're enrolling their students. Since the 60s and 70s, we've been centralizing ... and unionizing our public school system so it doesn't work anymore.”
As a solution, McClintock said he would push for more local control of everything from funding to curriculum.
The economy
McClintock said the current and past administrations have been fiscally irresponsible, and it’s getting worse.
“If you take all the debt accumulated by the federal government from George Washington to the Bush administration — which was the most fiscally reckless I’ve seen — that entire debt will double in the next five years and triple in 10,” McClintock said. “If you reduce the burdens on productivity, productivity increases. But if you expand government spending and taxes in the middle of a recession, it could trigger a depression.”
Forestry and Fire
McClintock said forest management to reduce fire hazard is a key issue for this part of his district.
On the issue of forestry, McClintock said he will be meeting Monday in Quincy about 150 pink slips issued in the local timber industry, which he said is the result of environmental litigation.
“The same folks opposed to clear cutting are adamantly are all right with forest fires doing the same thing,” McClintock said.
Learning his district
McClintock, new to the district, said he’ll be coming back to his constituency — the 4th congressional district of California that spans from Tahoe up to the Oregon border — once a week to visit different communities.
Talking with the town
Truckee Mayor Mark Brown said he was pleased with Rep. Tom McClintock’s first visit.“We stressed the Mousehole issue,” Brown said. “And he talked about some issues he has — his district goes all the way from Sacramento to the Oregon border — so he talked about how to make the economic stimulus work in his rural areas.”
Brown said he will be meeting monthly with one of McClintock’s staffers, Kimberly Pruett, to keep open the lines of communication.
