But this is Chico, too

There has got to be a lot of suffering going on in Butte County. A report released in August by the California Budget Project came out with the shocking finding that among the 39 largest of the state’s 58 counties, only two had household median incomes that were less than Butte’s.

In Butte County, the median household income in 2005 was $36,602, according to the report. This is less than half of what the median income was in Marin, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties last year.

It seems likely that the incomes of Chico State University students, who account of about 7 percent of the county’s population, would tend to skew the figure downward, but I was still surprised by how badly we’re doing.

Figures for the smaller counties surrounding Butte — Glenn, Colusa and Tehama — weren’t included in the report, but Sutter County had a median income of $49,913, Shasta $42,227 and Yuba $37,695.
At the bottom of the heap of the 39 larger counties were Imperial at $35,533 and Humboldt at $33,093.

These figures ought to have convinced me that my own household is downright affluent by comparison. My wife’s and my combined income is well above the Butte County median figure. And yet I know for a fact that our claim to middle class status is shaky. I’m in charge of our household finances, so I know what I'm talking about.

For one thing, we don’t own a house. That has become an impossible dream in most areas of the state.

The newer of our two cars has well over 100,000 miles on it and our old car, the rattle trap, is on its last legs. We have no idea how we’ll finance a replacement although the car we buy will certainly be used and have at least 60,000 miles on it.

Our credit card is always on the verge of being maxed out.

Next week, my wife and I will be taking our first real vacation in more than 20 years. By that I mean we won’t be staying with friends and family. We’re not going to Europe or on a Caribbean cruise, but at least we’re leaving the state. No complaints about that. Southern Oregon is a nice place to visit.

We hold on to our linens until they’re threadbare. We still use the towels we received as wedding gifts — more than 27 years ago.

We often run out of money between paychecks. That’s when I issue an edict to my wife and son. I tell them “Don’t buy anything until Friday.”

My son attends Chico State University. Part of his expenses are covered by a grant, but we’re still expected to come up with about $2,000 a year for tuition (Oops! I mean fees) and books. The days when California’s public colleges offered an education that was virtually free (fees were $600 a year the back in the early 1970s was going to UC Berkeley) are a faint memory.

We are having to make monthly payments, stretched out over a year, to pay off my 2005 hospital bill — for the 3 percent of the cost not covered by my health insurance. How do median income Butte County households with no health insurance manage to avoid going bankrupt after even one trip to the hospital? The California Budget Project reported that 21.3 percent of Californians had no health insurance in 2005, up from 20.6 percent in 2004. When it comes to health care, we’re living in scary times.

These are the reasons I know that $36,602 is a tough proposition for Butte County households. What does it take to even start to feel comfortable here, $100,000? And what percentage of households earns that much? I’ll bet it’s not more than 10 percent. It may even be as little as 5 percent.