One might look towards the California State Capitol, and wonder if our state’s taxpayers are represented in the building at all. After all, last night a mass of state workers descended on the 
place to hold a what could be characterized as a "sympathy rally" for state workers in Wisconsin, where the elected Governor and legislature there stand on the bring of ending "collective bargaining" for public employees in that state (this is a process where elected officials no longer can make financial decisions about the spending of taxpayer funds without negotiating that with state workers).
You can tune into Strickland and Wagner at noon with Eric Hogue in the Sacramento Area — or at 5pm they will be on with John and Ken in SoCal and the Bay Area!
Today the Democrats convene meetings of the budget committees in the Capitol for the purpose of crafting a state budget that presumes not only that Republicans will be complicit in an effort to push the largest tax increase in the history of California onto a special election ballot, but also that California voters, after rejecting the last seven tax increases put before them, will suddenly decide they want to hike their own sales, income and car taxes — during a recession.
Well, to those taxpayers out there — I have great news for you. The proverbial cavalry is arriving today — at 11am. This is the appointed time that taxpayer advocates in the State Capitol (there are actually dozens of them!) will be announcing the formation of a Taxpayers Caucus within the State Legislature. Heading up this new group will be two of the strongest voices in the State Capitol for taxpayers — State Senator Tony Strickland and Assemblyman Don Wagner — both of whom will be Co-Chairmen of this non-partisan caucus. At this press conference, Strickland and Wagner will announce those legislators of either party who have joined the Taxpayer Caucus, and agree to their straight forward public policy agenda:
- Support any State budget that balances the budget without gimmicks or Tax increases;
- Oppose and vote against any budget that increases taxes;
- Oppose and vote against placing tax increases on the ballot unless offset by an equal or great tax decrease placed on the same ballot;
- Uphold Proposition 13; and
- Support tax cuts that bring back jobs and stimulate the economy.
Of course the formation of this caucus in the midst of the state budget crisis, with liberal Governor Jerry Brown obsessing on the need to once again put voters through the contortion of a vote on higher taxes, this new Taxpayer Caucus will be significant. Each of the legislators who signs up is sending a very straight forward message to Governor Brown — don’t look for my vote to put your tax increase before voters…
I’ll be flying up to Sacramento this morning to cover this event, and will be sure to report back to FlashReport readers. In the meantime, it is heartening to know that taxpayers do have representatives in the legislature, and that they are unifying to fight off the efforts of the public employee unions and others who would ask us to pony up more of our hard-earned dollars to pay for decades of overspending…