A Bear is a Bear is a Bear
By Ray
 

The Spampinato Brothers

I was on vacation last week skiing in California and attending the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. One evening while contemplating a place to eat, we were grooving to the song, by the Spampinato Brothers, A Bear is a Bear is a Bear. This gave me the idea to go back to a Lake Tahoe institution, Bacchi's. It has been many years since we stopped in this place which is famous for its minestrone and family style ski-fare. They have been operated by the same family since 1932. They have survived 40 foot snowfalls, the depression, and the re-routing of the main Lake Tahoe highway away from their front door. The reason I got the inclination to go was because back in December the owner made national news by shooting a bear in his dining room. Somehow this video has mysteriously disappeared from the internet. It is listed on hundreds of sites but it is gone from all of them.

 

Bill Hunter

As we walked in it looked like a pretty quiet night. The first thing I ask the bartender "ok where was the bear shot?" The bartender replies "I shot him right where you are standing." Oh my lions tigers and..... I ask "So you must be the owner?" He replied "yes" and you could tell he was already on the defensive. The reason being there are a lot of "treebear huggers" out there. "It was the fourth time the same bear broke in here and the last." He seemed very reluctant to talk about it any further. As we sat at the bar we started to talk and I found out he is the third generation owner and about my age. Of course with two restaurant owners at the bar and drink involved the topic quickly changed to something much more dangerous to our businesses than bears. At least to us anyway.

 Since I left a week ago Tuesday I have been trying to avoid the news, mostly the news in Illinois. In asking about his business, which is customary amongst two restaurateurs, he started to talk about the business climate in his state of California. I think most people, at least most business people, have that impression that California is the hardest state in the Union in which to run a business and is also the state that has the worst financial condition. I said "wait a minute Bill, I just found out today that my income tax went up 66% and my business' income tax went up about about the same. How would you like that?" We went about crying on each others shoulders and comparing notes. Our sales tax is about the same. California's income tax is much higher at 10%, but the property taxes are much much lower. Illinois property tax, at least from my experience, are 300% to 400% higher than in California. I also tell him "we have had 3 governors in prison or going to prison and in our last election in November the governor candidate that won 99 of our 102 counties lost the election. I am starting to wonder if it is all hopeless". Bill just smiled. After this he opens up a little more on the bear experience and tells us about the whole event.
 

Click to read about Illinois' Electorial Map

How ironic that I was comparing notes with a restaurateur from California and I could make the case I was worse off than he. As the week goes on, I started to make other comparison's with California, the state that supposedly is in the worst financial condition of any. California's debt per person is about half of what ours is in Illinois, depending who you listen to and what you include.

In California, Jerry Brown is saying he is cutting spending and it seems like he really is going through with it. With our tax increase we got a promise they would limit spending increases to 3%. To me, it did not seem like there was any honest discussion of any spending cuts at all. From 1997 to now, spending has increased at an average 5.7% per year while revenue has increased at 3.4%. Almost every family and business in Illinois has had to make some spending cuts. It is infuriating to think that our elected government thinks they don't have to share in the pain. I really do not understand how this fiscal idiocy can be justified. With all this increase in spending in the last 13 years, please tell me what has gotten better in Illinois?

Finally, I thought if Bill and I were manufacturers at least we could move our businesses to Florida or Texas where our share of the pie would be 10% bigger. But we can't. Our hard assets and our customers are tied down. Our businesses as well as our homes become less valuable. But what is exponentially more important to me is that our customers share of their own personal pie is getting smaller. Every single tax paying entity in Illinois now has 3% less pie, 3% less to spend at eating places. As the week went on, I heard the governor of Wisconsin is actively enticing businesses to move there. He has a plan to offer businesses relocating a period of lower or no taxes on top of the state's much healthier fiscal condition.
 

Click to go to the website, in the music section hear "A Bear is a Bear is a Bear"

In speaking of Wisconsin, I am trying to go back full circle where I started, with the Bears. The last couple of years I started watching the Packers. I realized that I really like the way they play. They had to make that difficult choice of getting rid of a Hall of Fame quarterback. They are dedicated, work hard and are very efficient. I like almost every one of their players. The team and their fans have fun.

I love my state and I love the Bears. I think we live in the best area in all of the Midwest. I have to be honest I am starting to root for the other team. It might be the only way things could change for the better, permanently. A Bear is a Bear is a Bear.

LINKS.....

The Spampinato Brothers- A Bear is a Bear is a Bear Video

Tahoe Man Cleared In Fatal Shooting Of Bear

Black bears wreaking havoc in Lake Tahoe area 

Click the picture to watch a Samantha Crain video

Click the picture above to watch Fred Eaglesmith on David Letterman

Click the picture to watch a Spampinato Brothers video

Click the picture to watch a Bill Kirchen video

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