It truly must be a terribly lopsided redistricting plan that allows the state legislature to be dominated with left-wing liberals who are so out of touch with the people of California. On the same day that four separate surveys of public opinion on Proposition 13 show that Californians overwhelmingly support the Measure and its protections against higher taxes (Field, PPIC, Jarvis, and Cal-Tax), newly-minted Assembly Speaker Karen Bass has picked up the Fabian “Higher Tax Conch Shell” and yesterday unveiled an unfortunately predictable budget proposal on behalf of Assembly Democrats. The unstable foundations of their plan are the same two balsa-wood pillars upon which they always stand –… Read More

Proposition 98 was destroyed at the ballot box this past Tuesday. Most pundits will say it was the inclusion of rent control provisions (really vacancy decontrol) that led to it’s demise. State wide it got 39% of the vote.

In Los Angeles County it got a whopping 31% of the vote.

While, polling I’m sure bears out the rent control argument. The reason that these measures have difficulty statewide is that it isn’t personal to people.

In the San Gabriel Valley cities with very different demographics have some interesting outcomes.

43% of Baldwin Park voted for 98. Now, Baldwin Park is a very Democratic city that consists mainly of working class families and has a large Hispanic population. Over 77% of the ballot cast were Democratic ballots.

44% of the Arcadia vote went to 98. Arcadia has been a Republican stronghold for the last few decades. 59% of the ballots cast were Republican.

Both these cities did better than some of the others. Glendora another GOP town went with 98 with 38%. Conservative Sierra Madre hit 37%. West Covina only 34% votes yes. Azusa and La Puente are much more like Baldwin Park demographically. Proposition… Read More

There is quite a dearth of them in Washington these days. To create a football analogy, the Democratic leadership believes that they have a two touchdown lead in the 4th quarter before the November election and so they are in a prevent defense and running off-tackle running plays so they don’t fumble the political football before then. That is why they are pushing this year’s budget/appropriations bills off until January and not doing anything substantive about energy or immigration or anything else that is not on deadline.

So, they definitely do not want to take on the looming entitlement crisis, about which I have told you before, that threatens our fiscal soundness and future standard of living. Every expert (conservative, liberal and in between) agrees that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, if left alone, will eat up 100% of the tax rates you pay today by 2040. That means that every tax on everybody by then would have to be more than double the rates they are today if we are to keep any of the rest of government functions like the military, judges, parks, unemployment insurance and the like. And every year we wait, the problem, and the current… Read More

The California Taxpayers Association ("Cal-Tax") is one of the leading pro-taxpayer organizations in Sacramento. I cannot tell you how many assaults take place on California taxpayers that only come to light because of the work they do focusing on the vast amount of terrible legislation proposed by Sacramento liberals.

Leading up to tomorrow’s 30th anniversary of Proposition 13, Cal-Tax President Teresa Casazza (pictured to the right) unveiled a new study today that lbusts a myth perpetrated by -the spending lobby. According to the Tax study, “Revisiting Proposition 13,” the landmark initiative has NOT shifted the property tax burden from businesses to homeowners, as the liberals constantly claim. Cal-Tax says: “Since passage of the initiative, the assessed value of non-homeowner property subject to Proposition 13 has grown an average of 8.5 percent per year, while homeowners’ property has… Read More

Downtown Long Beach’s military recruiting station was scrawled with anti-war graffitti. Did Democratic hate speech help cause it?… Read More

The California Taxpayers Association ("Cal-Tax") is one of the leading pro-taxpayer organizations in Sacramento. I cannot tell you how many assaults take place on California taxpayers that only come to light because of the work they do focusing on the vast amount of terrible legislation proposed by Sacramento liberals.

Leading up to tomorrow’s 30th anniversary of Proposition 13, Cal-Tax President Teresa Casazza (pictured to the right) unveiled a new study today that lbusts a myth perpetrated by -the spending lobby. According to the Tax study, “Revisiting Proposition 13,” the landmark initiative has NOT shifted the property tax burden from businesses to homeowners, as the liberals constantly claim. Cal-Tax says: “Since passage of the initiative, the assessed value of non-homeowner property subject to Proposition 13 has grown an average of 8.5 percent per year, while homeowners’ property has… Read More

Tuesday’s results indicate in that my own Assembly district, the 2nd, we still value private property rights. With Prop 98’s defeat and 99’s win statewide, there is some indication voters want to protect homes from takings but get nervous about anything beyond that as the 98 opponents did very effectively use the rent control fear and hype to deter voter support.

Up our way, we can point to the returns showing that of the 9 counties I represent, 7 voted in majority for Prop 98, with 3 of them, Modoc, Tehama and Colusa eachover 60% for 98.

Only one county in California had a majority voting no on Prop 99 and that was, again, in the 2nd AD, with Colusa County rejecting 99. [If Modoc had flipped 34 votes from "yes" to "no", it wouldve been in the No club too.]

In the 2nd Assembly race, it’s congratulations to former Senator Jim Nielsen, an active proponent of eminent domain reform, who won with a very strong showing in a 4-way primary. Jimreceived very nearly twice the votes of the 2nd place challenger and was first in all nine counties. I expect that he will hit the ground running and do very… Read More

“Obama has captivated the world.” That is the full banner headline in today’s Los Angeles Times. At least they had enough control of themselves to put it on the third page rather than the first.

I recall a time when political news sources in Los Angeles were limited to and dominated by the three traditional networks, PBS, and the Los Angeles Times. The best alternative media for conservatives in those days were the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, and the weekly Sam Yorty Show on KCOP. Thank God for the age of the internet and cable television.

Now with both less influence and readership, the Los Angeles Times nevertheless continues its 40 or so year-old practice of sugar-coating news in favor of liberal Democrat candidates for office, now centered on its certain-to-be-endorsed candidate for President, Barrack Hussein Obama. The gushing – in news stories mind you – is getting out of control even by New York Times standards of journalism.

Another example, for instance, was the report the other day that Obama had “swept past” McCain in a recent Gallup opinion poll. Mind you, the lead was just 3… Read More