kbra has nothing to do with creating new jobs klamath guy turnage 101410

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KBRA has nothing to do with creating new jobs

Klamath Falls Herald and News Letter to the Editor October 6, 2010 by Guy Turnage, Klamath Falls

In a recent commentary, Commissioner Cheryl Hukill gave us a sales pitch for the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.

She used the hackneyed slogan that KBRA equals jobs. I have read the agreement, and it has nothing to do with job creation.

Rather than being a job creator, the agreement sets in motion a very expensive and broad plan for fisheries restoration that may or may not work. The implementation of the agreement in the first year is estimated to cost $41 million and $97 million each year thereafter.

Over 90 percent of that amount is for fisheries restoration and water for fish. The $450 million cost cap on dam removal will be about half paid for by the power ratepayers and the balance by California bond issuance.

We should all be reminded that our federal and state governments are essentially bankrupt. The bottom line is that we cannot afford this overpriced boondoggle.

When will politicians get the message that taxpayers are fed up with big government spending and ruinous debt?

The Tribes and environmentalists have no interest in helping our local economy.

Their chief interest is in gaining more power and more government money. Only farmers produce real income and jobs.

In the end, KBRA will further strangle our local farming community for generations and saddle us with more debt to pass on to future generations.