Republican politician defends out of state corporation against local farmers and ranchers over water

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/09/why-all-elections-matter-republican.html

A local Republican county supervisor in a small, agricultural county in Arizona defended the presence of an out-of-state corporation that has set up two large dairies in the county because in Arizona, there is little corporate regulation, they pay no taxes, and there is very little regulation of groundwater supplies. So this dairy company runs two dairy farms with about 100,000 cows, each consuming between 20 and 40 gallons of water a day, and requiring additional copious amounts of water to grow cattle feed, while the aquifer, located in a closed basin, in a desert, drops six feet per year. As wells go dry, private, small farms must spend as much as $45,000 to deepen their own wells, or haul water in.

While there's not really a whole lot that a county supervisor can do about a situation like this, she could stand with her neighbors and fellow members of the community she represents, and who elected her in the first place, and show some understanding of their plight. She could, at the very least, become an advocate for them against an out-of-state corporation that employs no locals, does very little business with local merchants and providers and pays no taxes to help with the problems they cause. She could speak up and use the influence of her position as a means through which the local farmers and ranchers could get their message to the attention of politicians who need to hear what they have to say.

But, it is too much to expect of Republican politicians, even on the local level, to stand up for the common people who have to work for a living against corporate exploitation. They just can't bring themselves to do it, even if they are members of the same community. And to save the water in the shrinking aquifer in the Willcox basin, local farmers and ranchers are going to have to set aside the conspiracy theories, the phony social agenda, and all of the lies and falsehoods and cast ballots for politicians who represent their own interests and will support their own community. And those politicians, even down at the county supervisor level, are likely to be members of the Democratic party.

[onecaliberal]

1. Republicans only care about money. I don't know what is so hard to understand about that

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Vote them out or have a special election to vote them out. I'm surprised that you don't have

any water regulations there.

[lees1975]

4. Surprised? In a state where Republicans have controlled the legislature since the 1940's?

Corporations and big business have had access to everything they've ever wanted in Arizona. They'd turn over their last drop of water, give them tax cuts so they don't have to pay for the damage they do or help the communities from whom they are stealing water and property value.

And not only do the deadbeat county supervisors try to make excuses for the corporate thieves, they won't stand with their constituents, some of whom have had their farms and ranches for three or four generations. The supervisor in this story is from one of those local, three or four generation families who stand to lose everything if that aquifer dries up, but she's puttering around with conspiracy theories, trying to prove that machine ballot counts, which were 100% verified in her county, are rigged. Stupidity to the tenth power.

It's not been that long ago that the state robbed the native Americans of their water rights, while two of the reservoirs where the agricultural water comes from are on their land.

[IbogaProject]

6. Here is an article about that situation

https://economichardship.org/2021/06/mega-dairies-disappearing-wells-and-arizonas-deepening-water-crisis/

[lees1975]

7. Thank you!

There's a link in the Signal Press article to a story in the local county daily, the [link:http://myheraldreview.com| Sierra Vista Herald, but it has a paywall.

[pwb]

3. Trump used all of New York States infrastructure without paying his fair share in taxes.

Pukes don't give a second thought to consequences. Air, Earth, Water it matters not to them.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

5. Vote Puke, lose your rights. Then your shirt.