The SC County Sheriff's dept budget is a "sacred cow" which boasts higher wages, benefits than other job classifications in job descriptions which require many more years of college preparation but are paid much less. Teacher's pay is the most glaring example I can think of.

Conversely, using incarceration as a deterrent to crime does not prove itself to be an efficient way of spending our public dollars. Speaking of $60,000 a year, we can literally send a youth to four years at Harvard cheaper than we can send them to four years in prison. Which solution do we, as a society choose to do?

Well, you can see where we are putting our money.

Coming up soon at a ballot box near you is a plea to tax ourselves for 30 years to raise funds to build a $533 million dollar hwy. one widening project. Oh,and when it is all finished, we will still have the fishhook!! HUFF passed a resolution on June 23rd opposing the widening of Hwy One as a misuse of public funds of which a fraction could solve homelessness in Santa Cruz County. Please take the time to educate yourself on this issue as well.

I believe if police stick to real crimes (and the City and the DA) such as fraud, theft, assault, rape, kidnapping, arson, and murder to name most of them none of us would have the criticisms of the police that we do now. The Police need to leave alone a person who is holding a sign closer than 500 ft. from a freeway entrance, sleeping, camping.

And while we have our heavy-duty cleaver out,lets cut the heart out of the drug war money. No more undercover sting operations or special ops who spend huge amounts of money with the limited results of sending many more poor people to jail. No more arrests for possesion of less than an ounce of marijuana. The public will save a ton of money, the status of police in our community will be restored