Essential county services at risk with train spending

Santa Cruz County already struggles to fund basic services: fixing roads, keeping neighborhoods safe and supporting families and children in need. Yet as costs rise and budgets tighten, millions of taxpayer dollars are still being spent evaluating a passenger rail project that most now recognize is infeasible.

The latest study estimates the total cost of building the train at $4.28 billion — with no clear way to pay for it. The study alone has already cost $9 million. Even if the project somehow advanced, it would require hundreds of millions in new local taxes just to fund our share of construction and operations.

Every dollar spent on this fantasy is a dollar not spent where it’s truly needed — like supporting first responders, improving our schools or repairing aging infrastructure.

Our budget can’t do everything. We have to choose. It’s time for county leaders to recognize what the data now shows: this train is not feasible. Let’s stop draining resources on reports and consultants. Let’s refocus on the core services that protect and improve the lives of everyone in Santa Cruz County.

— Will Mayall, Live Oak

US policies have brought about immigration crisis

If we’re serious about fixing immigration, we have to get honest about its root causes. People don’t leave their homes, families, languages and cultures because they want to. They leave because they have to.

And in many cases, they have to because we made their homes unlivable.

The United States has a long, well-documented history of undermining governments, propping up dictators, orchestrating coups and rigging markets in countries across Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and beyond to protect American corporate and strategic interests.

The result? Destabilized economies. Civil wars. Drug cartels filling power vacuums. Generations of poverty.

When those people seek refuge, we act shocked. We argue about walls and visas and asylum quotas. But we rarely talk about our responsibility for creating the conditions they’re fleeing.

So if we want fewer people migrating out of desperation, we need to stop creating desperation.

We need foreign policy that invests in stability, not chaos.

We need trade policy that uplifts, not exploits.

We need to support democratic movements.

Immigration reform begins long before someone crosses a border.

— Tighe Melville, Santa Cruz

Equating Trump and July 4 flag shows disloyalty

Some truly awful commentaries get printed. Like the opinion writer who suggested we should not respect and raise the American flag on the Fourth of July, our nation’s birthday, but any other flag.

Normally I’d just consider this stupidity, but there is a real difference between having something against America, its laws and traditions or its ideals, and having something against, for instance, a politician who won’t be around in three years.

I find equating the two indicates disloyalty deserving of the question: “Are you an American, or not?”

— Garrett Philipp, Santa Cruz

Rotkin warned about Workforce Housing tax

In November, voters must decide whether the Workforce Housing Affordability Act (WHAA) should be supported or rejected.

In Mike Rotkin’s final commentary, he cautioned us about WHAA “… the city is pinning a lot of its hope for affordability on the proposed new transfer sales tax and affordable housing parcel tax, known as the Workforce Housing Affordability Act ... [i]f it passes in November … how much land and building cost can that subsidize if massive new building is planned for the SoLa area? … [t]he necessary ducks are simply not lined up to ensure the success of this plan …[c]itizens have a right to a lot more answers before they jump on board this fast-moving train.”

However, Santa Cruz’s vice mayor and a county housing advocate (June 18 Guest Commentary) avoid accountability and deflect specific concerns.

In 2024, the Santa Cruz County grand jury investigated how affordable housing is managed and documented. Maybe the grand jury or FPPC needs to open an investigation into Mayor Keeley who “dropped $50,000 of his own money … into {WHAA) campaign…” as well.

Time to stop this “fast-moving train.”

— Jeff Staben, Soquel