ARNOLD, SACRAMENTO and the fall of California

Dear CARB,

As someone who lost their job, in no small part as a result of your agency's idiotic and counterproductive regulations, I would like to take this opportunity to point out how California's government, more than any other factor, has lead to the economic problems that the state is now suffering from. This is but a single example of government's negative impact on our lives.
With a single example, I can show just how destructive your agency has been, both to the lives of thousands of citizens, but also to the very government that created you.
How many millions of dollars has the State of California not collected, from sales taxes and license fees, because your agency hasn't approved Indian motorcycles to be sold in this state? Let's say, two thousand bikes, at approximately $33,000 per unit? I'm guessing, but I put that loss to the state coffers at about $6.6 million.
But the stupidity and the economic injury doesn't stop there, oh no! Because, not only did you prevent those sales from happening, you prevented the sale of many millions of dollars of clothing, boots, tools, trailers, helmets, gloves, bungie cords, tie-down straps, pins, sun glasses, bandanas, trucks, lifts, t-bags, calendars, the list is endless, but also includes after market performance products and paint jobs, that sometimes double the actual price of the motorcycles, so you probably choked on another $6 million of sales tax, but not allowing someone to buy those motorcycles.
But the damage doesn't stop there, my friends, no indeed, because you also didn't get the income taxes from the people who sell and service those bikes, or who make those goodies, or who warehouse those goodies, or who deliver those goodies.
Are you starting to get the picture? Probably not, but at this point, being one of your victims, I'm going to make it perfectly clear. You people are a menace.
Now, if you extrapolate this economic effect out, over several brands of vehicles, and include your regulations against after market exhaust systems and performance equipment, even a bureaucrat should be able to understand the catastrophic effects you are having on our state, and national economy.
And, guess what! Your regs aren't just hurting the motorcycle industry, not by a long shot. Because, when you discourage the aforementioned activities/sales, you also reduce the enthusiasm for the sports, that means you are taking food out of the mouths of the children of the people who work in the restaurants, hotels, gas stations, convention centers, etc., all along the routes these people take while enjoying their motorcycles.
So, when I see the people in Sacramento, our (laughing) "representatives", and the California State Employees Union spokes people, complaining that they aren't getting enough money, it's pretty hard not to use profanity while writing to you.
For the economic activity that motorcycles, and other recreation vehicles, create, if they burned coal, like old locomotives, they wouldn't create enough pollution to justify your agency's policies. Frankly, the state would be better-off if we closed your agency, and had NO regulations on these types of vehicles, any way you look at it.
In light of this political and economic reality, it seems only reasonable that politicians and bureaucrats in Sacramento should be targeted for replacement in the earliest possible elections, and that every effort be made by industry publications and spokespeople to enlighten the people/voters of California as to the bottom-line impact your agency is having on our collective lives.

Eric Robinson
Huntington Beach, CA