If You Support Government Bloat Vote Yes, Otherwise Vote No on Measure AA!

Measure AA is billed as a measure “to protect San Francisco Bay for future generations by reducing trash, pollution and harmful toxins, improving air quality, restoring habitat for fish, birds and wildlife, protecting communities from floods, and creasing shoreline public access.” To do this the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority would have you the voter “authorize a parcel tax of $12 per year, raising approximately $25 million annually for twenty years.”

However the fact is that there is already a San Francisco Bay agency tasked with managing the Bay, it is called the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC.) The BCDC is not only fully funded, but as noted on their website a “California state planning and regulatory agency with regional authority over the San Francisco Bay, the Bay’s shoreline band, and the Suisun Marsh. BCDC was created in 1965 and is the nation’s oldest coastal zone agency. Its mission is to protect and enhance San Francisco Bay and to encourage the Bay’s responsible and productive use for this and future generations. State law requires sponsors of projects that propose to fill or extract materials from the Bay to apply for a BCDC permit. In addition to minimizing any fill required for an appropriate project and ensuring that the project is compatible with the conservation of Bay resources.”

Don't let yourself be intimidated into thinking that you aren't an environmentalist, you are already paying to protect the Bay. While not using the exact same words the reality is that the mission of this new agency could simply be a part of an updated mission statement of the BCDC. This is government overlap and bureaucracy incrementalism at its worst.  The bottom line is that there already exists a fully funded agency that manages development and conservation on the SF Bay we don’t need another one. Don't let yourself be intimidated, Vote NO on measure AA!