OUTSIDE MERCENARIES HIRED TO HELP WITH THE TAX RAPE OF SAN MATEO COUNTY TAXPAYERS BY SAN MATEO UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

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Perhaps it is time for the public to call for an investigation into the techniques, practices and methodologies used by these political consulting/"polling" firms and opinion management mercenaries that municipalities and school districts hire to extract more tax dollars from taxpayers?..............................Godbe's very expensive; cleverly crafted, managed and worded polls are commissioned and paid for by  clients who financially benefit from the poll results.

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by Bill Baker, J.D.
Editor and Publisher, The San Bruno Beacon

Residents of San Mateo County, you are being played for suckers by the union shills on the San Mateo Union High School District Board of Trustees, the mercenaries they have hired to help them increase your taxes and the union bosses behind the scene who want to put more of your tax dollars into the pockets of greedy union members who refuse to take across the board pay, benefit and retirement cuts that would make these taxes unnecessary.

Tax rape measures increasing property taxes are flooding election ballots in San Mateo County and putting a lot of money into the pockets of firms that make their living running telephone polls, managing public opinion and playing psychological games with the voters on behalf of the greedy fiscally irresponsible, possibly corrupt, taxpayer unfriendly school districts and municipalities that hire them to extract more taxes from already overtaxed voters. As I see it, these mercenary firms are running campaigns that utilize techniques that may deceive and mislead voters into voting for tax measures that have the effect of destroying families, the local economy and home ownership by creating tax burdens that taxpayers cannot afford.  

In my opinion, these mercenaries are modern era grim reapers who come out of their holes during bad times to feed on and profit from other people's misery under the guise of performing a public service. As I see it, these opportunists are not unlike the Reconstruction Era carpetbaggers who flooded the post Civil War South feeding off other people's pain and suffering. Perhaps it is time for the public to call for an investigation into the techniques, practices and methodologies used by these political consulting/"polling" firms and opinion management mercenaries that municipalities and school districts hire to extract more tax dollars from taxpayers?

Godbe Research just received $35,000 from the allegedly broke San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD) to perform one of Godbe's telephone surveys to see if voters would vote for a parcel tax. Basically, what Godbe did for its $35,000 is call about 800 people and talk to them for about 18 minutes and prepare a report.

In California, the lying, sometimes corrupt, usually unioned up, fiscally irresponsible municipalities and school districts who claim not to have any money always seem to have enough money to pay for these mercenary public opinion management and polling firms to do their bidding and help them extract more taxes from taxpayers.

Even before we see the results, there is a very strong probability that the Godbe poll will show that taxpayers support a tax. Godbe's very expensive; cleverly crafted, managed and worded polls are commissioned and paid for by  clients who financially benefit from the poll results. The Godbe poll will be touted by the union shills on the SMUHSD Board of Trustees and their union bosses as showing there is  enough support to pass a tax. The SMUHSD and their pro tax, heavily unionized supporters will put a huge property tax on the ballot so the screaming, whining unionistas teachers, administrators, and other SMUHSD workers can continue to get their outrageous pay, benefit and retirement increases while most other San Mateo County taxpayers see their wages reduced, lose their jobs and their homes.

Next, the unions and their shills will pour tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars into slick, expensive campaign pro_SMUHSD tax brochures featuring posed students so voters will be led to believe this SMUHSD tax  measure is about the students when it is really about paying out big money to support the country club lifestyles of the political  consultants and "pollsters" hired to manipulate voters into passing more taxes to put more money into the pockets of greedy unionized SMUHSD employees and administrators who refuse to take pay, benefit and retirement cuts. Taxpayers and students usually lose with these tax measures. The mercenary political consultants and "pollsters" take their cuts, the unionistas get bigger pay, more benefits and fatter retirement plans. Taxpayers get to pay higher taxes and the students get whatever crumbs are leftover after feeding the trough feeders.

It was reported by The Daily Journal, that the  allegedly broke SMUHSD has even paid another $7,500 to a firm, that goes by the initials TBW&B, to help manage public opinion by coming up with some refined wording for the Godbe polling questions and to get the SMUHSD message out. TBW&B is run by Michael Terris, Barry Barnes, Erica Walters and Jared Boigon  who are running their operation out of a very expensive San Francisco Financial District office at 400 Montgomery Street, 7th Floor in San Francisco. Higher taxes paid by overtaxed Californians are supporting the expensive offices, salaries and lifestyles of the crew at TBW&B.

The TBW&B slogan is Public Consensus --> Winning Strategies. Winning strategies for who? The crew at  TBW&B appear to be making big money helping pass taxes for what in my opinion are fiscally irresponsible, allegedly broke, maybe corrupt, unioned up school districts, municipalities and taxing agencies that are gouging taxpayers with higher taxes and destroying the State of California. At their web site, the TBWB crew brags:

"Since 1996, our firm’s clients have passed local ballot measures generating over $4 billion in vital funding for schools, transportation, public safety, flood control and other essential services.

If your school district, city or agency is considering a bond measure, parcel tax, sales tax increase or other funding measure, TBWB has the experience to help you. We know how to guide public agencies through the process of making tough decisions, and we know how to lead campaigns to victory in tax elections."

In other words, if you want to raise taxes on taxpayers you hire the TBW&B crew and they will help you win your tax measure so you can increase taxes on already overtaxed taxpayers. Everything an anti-taxpayer,  tax and squander, union shill school board like the SMUHSD Board of Trustees needs to tax the hell out of taxpayers. And while we are talking about Hell; I wonder if there is a special place reserved in Hell for people like the TBW&B crew and their fellow mercenaries?

Voters need to wise up and stop falling for these slick, well funded, mercenary led tax ballot measures that are destroying San Mateo County by raising the cost of living to prohibitively high levels. Voting to hand over ever increasing amounts of your paycheck to support greedy public employee and teacher union members who refuse to take the pay, benefit and retirement cuts necessary to balance school district and local government budgets is a recipe for disaster. The unions and their shills will continue to take more and more and more of your money as long as they can.