Welcome to all those out there. It's time again to help change the direction of our present pitfalls in our economic situation. This is Tom Benigno.

Most of you know me as a person who has tried to make changes for the betterment of the people. As we have seen, many elected officials have dropped the ball for the people who count. It was my dream to have a business and pass that business to my family. That is no longer possible in America, with many of the policies that are tied to special interest. My attempt has been to bring information to the people, so they can think for themselves.

As we can see, the current administration has not been successful in bringing a resolution to the War in Iraq. That war to date has cost Americans 7 hundred billion dollars, not including the 4,000 lives lost and the 29,000 injured. Now that we have seen the fall of home ownership through foreclosures and the loss of jobs, we need to go back to the drawing board to find a new solution to our problems. Local government is feeling the worst of it, with the loss of revenue through foreclosures and decrease in the tax revenue that supports jobs in the private sector, as well as government employees.

With the State of California again facing a deficit of 16 billion dollars, we find ourselves with decisions that are not popular to all. It is my hope that I can bring some of my experience to the table to help regain some solutions to the current crisis. We need to understand it is a fine line between the two parties, to make the right decisions for the taxpayers.

To say that we are not going to raise taxes is foolish, because the system has been built on that concept. My opponent says he is for economic development (as are most people), but why haven't he and others tried to help those in need? Helping others will create jobs. As an example, just supporting developers to build houses is not the answer, like building units in our county for those troops that were wounded in the Iraq war.

We are spending more money on prisons than we are hospitals. For example, our San Joaquin County Hospital is in financial trouble to the tune of 18 million dollars. Now they are talking about turning it over to the private sector. All that will do is transfer the uninsured people from that hospital to other hospitals, causing havoc at those as well. Yet, those same employees will support my opponent just because he's already in office. I might say he is there by default on term limits, but that is another story.

I want to stay on course on my attempt to give this side of the story. Help me give our county a chance to get back on its feet by helping ourselves and by letting me show you my leadership capabilities to lead our county out of this mess. There is no free lunch. We need help with our problems for our schools, our transportation, jobs, housing, crime, and many other issues. This is just the first of an overview on why I'm running for San Joaquin County Supervisor.

During my campaign I was asked many questions, about what  I would support. It is hard to make make decisions on what to support, just to get votes. My opponent did that very thing. The list of projects I supported were about bringing jobs to the valley, especially now with the poor economy. I supported the rebuilding of the delta levees, the peripheral canal to keep water clean from the salt intrusion, the opening of the airport to generate revenue for the county and create jobs.

While supporting those interests I also supported the expansion of the General Hospital for War Vets, who needed the help to get back on their feet.  I also supported the SEIU in their attempt to get a fair wage. With the new county budget cut problems, it was going to be difficult to do all those things, but I was committed to try to bring Federal money to the districts of the San Joaquin Valley. I'm still trying to understand why I lost the race, but for sure it was not experience. I do believe that my loss was due to my not supporting the war in Iraq. I did want out of Iraq and our troops to come home now. Somehow that did not settle well with the small percentage of Republicans who controlled the local councils, Mayors and Supervisors who supported the war. It is my goal to remove Mr. Ornellas from the elected position because of term limits. With the topic of term limits looking at us in the face, and changing the rules in the middle of the game as the county council did to help my opponent get elected to help special interest agendas.

In conclusion, the peripheral canal issue is being politically financed by special interest to stop the canal from being built. The farmers say they need that water but it's not about needing water, it's about saving water from the intrusion of the salt from the bay. The other issue of closing down the General Hospital and building a new prison are also what I oppose.

More to come:

Tom Benigno

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