California gives away oceanfront land to tribal – Latest News
From the “It looks bad, even if it’s legal” recordsdata:
California has given away 136 acres of coastal land in Mendocino County to a group of three Indian tribes.
This land was a helpful public useful resource, ceded for no financial consideration.
California has given away 136 acres of coastal land in Mendocino County to a group of three Indian tribes. Getty Images
The key questions are apparent:
What is the land’s market worth? Why give it away for basically nothing? And what does the public actually gain from this obvious handout?
While politicians like to virtue-signal about “returning” native land — a coverage that by no means extends to their own real estate, of course — it’s unclear how overtaxed Californians benefit from giving public property away.
Even so: This was enough of a precedence for state officers that they spent years making certain that it occurred.
In 2021, legislators handed and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a invoice authorizing the giveaway to Kai Poma — a nonprofit managed by three tribes with ties to the area: the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Round Valley Indian Tribes and Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians.
The land was formally ceded in June.
In 2021, legislators handed and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a invoice authorizing the giveaway to Kai Poma. AP Photo/Jon Cherry
Question: Why did the laws authorizing this giveaway specify the switch to happen “at no cost,” but fail to embody an appraisal of the land?
Shouldn’t the public know what an asset is value earlier than the state fingers it to a non-public group? Seems primary.
It’s additionally truthful for state residents to surprise: Why, with taxes so high and the state always spending more than it collects from residents, ought to California hand over a huge tract of land for no financial consideration?
Such “transfers” additionally raise questions going ahead.
The acreage had been acquired by the state’s transportation division, now Caltrans, within the Sixties to help the State Route 1 hall.
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The present giveaway, on the premise that Caltrans no longer wants the property and does a poor job sustaining it, units a troubling precedent.
Which public sources may the company search to hand out subsequent, and at what price to taxpayers?
From a legal standpoint, the switch isn’t a reward of public funds as a result of it was particularly approved by legislators, and since nonfinancial consideration was ostensibly acquired by the state.
The latter declare is doubtful, no less than in sensible phrases.
The laws requires the tribes to preserve the land and permit no less than some public entry, for example.
But the land already had been conserved and the public already had entry to the land.
So what would Californians gain, precisely?
Perhaps the tribes will more successfully handle the land than Caltrans did, because the state has claimed.
But if that’s the advocates’ key argument, is there a written plan to higher steward the property? And if no such plan exists, how might state officers know this was a good concept?
It’s additionally truthful to surprise if — down the highway — the “deal” will evolve into one thing even more useful to the tribes, with fewer public protections.
The whole course of seems, from Californians’ perspective, much less than rigorous and never notably clear.
Legislators and the governor ought to deal with public property as belonging to the public, and never as baubles for politicians to give away as they need.
