Yesterday was a day of big announcements in Sacramento. The holiday gifts that have been given out this year are more proposals for massive spending. But this isn’t surprising. More spending has been the theme out of Sacramento all of this year, and we’re closing out the year on the same note.
Yesterday the Governor proposed a massive spending program (over ten billion dollars) to build prisons to deal with our overcrowding problems. The FlashReport is concerned that this proposal for more massive borrowing should have been made before the November election so that voters could have considered whether they still wanted to approve the tens of billions in borrowing that they did on that ballot. We also feel that these proposed new bonds should be taken to the ballot for a vote of the electorate. As they are proposed, these bonds would supposedly be paid off by revenue — so someone will have to explain to us what kind of revenue is generated by a prison? Also of concern in the proposal is a Sentencing Commission who, it seems, would have the job of lessoning the sentences of convicted criminals. Clearly action is required as the over-crowding problem is a serious one, and an activist Judge in Sacramento is threatening to take control of a solution if politicians cannot figure it out. It will be interesting to see Republican legislators have to battle their inner demons. The ‘tough on crime’ side of each Republicans legislator would make the massive borrowing to build more prisons a necessity. But many of the arguments that have been made by GOPers about California’s structural deficit are right on target, and more borrowing will only make the situation worse.
Never one to be out-done, liberal Democrat Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez yesterday rolled out his "government, not parents, are responsible for California children" proposal to massively expand welfare programs in California. Nunez would vastly increase the number of people getting their healthcare benefits directly from state government (see, MORE spending) and also would create a massive mandate on California businesses (with three or more employees) to require that they provide health care for their employees. His proposals are exactly what we DO NOT need in California. The mandates on businesses wreak unknown havoc on employers, costing an uncountable number of jobs. And the chilling effect that this mandate would have on job creation in California would be devastating. Sometimes I wonder if the liberals who run the legislature understand that this miracle of the United States is our limited form of government. That we are a nation that has as its core principles more freedom, and more responsibility, than any other country on the globe. I don’t think so. Nunez will next propose a law that prohibits a company from firing an employee because they cannot afford to provide insurance to that worker.
Also in the news today were a few significant court decisions made yesterday — in D.C. the ban on issue-based ads running close to an election were nuked. This represents a significant victory for free speech rights in America. The draconian limits on free speech (McCain-Feingold) passed by Congress and signed by the President were poor public policy. I applaud when any part of it is struck down. The California Supreme Court, by a margin of one vote, backed the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission in saying that Indian Tribes have to comply with State campaign finance laws. Based on what little I know, it seems like this is a good decision. Finally, a Judge has struck down the recently passed law that gave jurisdiction over much of the Los Angeles Unified School District over to Mayor Villaraigosa. You can be sure there will be an appeal….
There is much more to read on the main page.
Today is the last day of the year that the FlashReport’s main page and this commentary page will be updated. As is our tradition, we take the holidays off to spend time with family and friends. We’ll be providing you with links you can follow to get news stories. Also, as we did last year, we will keep the FR Blog up and running, although many of our bloggers are taking the holidays off, too. We’ll be coming out of the gate charging hard on January 2nd, with great columns from our State Capitol Correspondents Dan Schnur and Ray Haynes, and with a lot more!
2006 was the first full year that the FlashReport website was operational, and thanks to your support, this website was visited millions of times! I would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to our advertisers, whose support keeps this site going, to all of the writers of this site — over on the blog, and the dozens who have contributed columns. Finally, thank you to our loyal readers. You’ve all been great!
Have a Happy Hannukah or a Merry Christmas, and a great New Years! We’ll see you on the blog!
Jon
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