Rodney Stubbs -- West Coast Communities Face Economic Devastation

Salem, OR -- Last month the Salem City Council increased the water and sewer rates to fund a multi-million dollar construction project to protect salmon listed as endangered. The decision increased water rates on food processors and high technology factories that make silicon wafers. For all practical purposes the wafer plant is gone, and the agricultural products processed by the food processing industry are at serious risk.

On 17 July 2003, "A federal judge ordered the government to establish temporary buffer zones for more than 50 common pesticides along salmon-bearing streams while it creates permanent environmental regulations http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=64 853 ."

The Twin Towers in New York were destroyed by Terrorists. Communities along the West Coast of the United States are being systematically destroyed by sabotage. The weapon of choice: The Endangered Species Act. The Salmon-bearing streams are located throughout the Willamette Valley (see map.) and no farm land is exempt from this court order.

The following map identifies all salmon-bearing streams in the Willamette River drainage basin.

This order will seriously impact Salem's economy. The water and sewer rate plan for the City of Salem is based on a consumption tax. The processing plants pay millions for the water because they consume tons of water identified to pay a significant share of the annual debt service to finance a $300 million bond. When they stop consuming because there are no longer crops to grow, then what?

How did Salem get here? According to Attorney J. Buchal who wrote The Great Salmon Hoax, and other scientists who wrote The Northern Spotted Owl by Benjamin B. Stout and The Smart Growth Fraud by Dr. Michael Coffman we see a pattern of deceit and fraud on scale never before imagined from those we hire to manage and run our government.

Where is the political oversight? Why did former Mayor Swaim and his Council fail to submit the $300 million bond measure to the voters of Salem? How did the Salem City Council implement a Consumption Tax on water and sewer without a vote? Why does the Salem City Council continue to promote more environmental regulations? If the large revenue stream from high technology and the food processors are lost, how much will the Consumption Tax need to be increased to make up the difference?

So what needs to be done?

Local governments need to Declare an Emergency, stop all environmentally related ordinances, and put a hold on the bond and construction programs. Marion County Board of Commissioners need to determine the short and long term fiscal impacts of this court decision on their ability to generate revenue to operate government. The elected officials need to develop a plan of action before this public policy destroys the agricultural community in the Willamette Valley, OR.

Local elected officials need to be diligent and exercise their fiduciary responsibilities as representatives of the people they represent. Foreign and Special interest non-governmental organizations are working hand in hand with Oregon's Governor Ted Kulongoski to change our form of governance, triggering non representative government dictated by the needs of bugs rather than on the needs of the citizens. http://governor.oregon.gov/speech_0 53003.htm