I had the privilege of meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown on the first day that I arrived in Sacramento as a brand new State Senator. He observed that we needed to find a way to fund transportation improvements.

Three budget cycles later, and the Governor has not put real transportation funding in his budget. His latest budget mentions $4.2 billion. However, it needs a new revenue source to fund it! Let’s use the old euphemism of “contributions from you” versus yet another… Read More

Climate change is California Gov. Jerry Brown’s “crusade,” his jihad, his holy war. Yet Gov. Brown’s climate change and drought policy is flooded with a manic madness – never has his manic obsession with climate change been more evident.

In March on Meet the Press, after declaring Ted Cruz unfit to run for president because of his views on climate change, Brown said, “We are running out of time because it’s not raining. This is a serious matter we’re experiencing in California, as kind of a foretaste. But there is no doubt that into the future, we’re going to have more problems.”Brown also claimed research shows a “connection” between California’s drought and climate change.

California’s drought conditions are actually historically normal; water shortages are created by incompetent and scheming government. California’s recent drought was billed by government and media as the driest period in the state’s recorded rainfall history. However, scientists who study the Western United States’ long-term climate patterns say otherwise: California has been dry for significantly longer… Read More

Governor Jerry Brown announced today that the budget was $1.4 billion in deficit. At the end of last year, the state announced that it was giving state employees a raise which would cost taxpayers over $2 billion over the next four years. Do you think there is a connection?

A story ran locally in Southern California saying that over 105 employees in Santa Monica, a medium sized city, earn over $300,000 a year. The Governor of the state of California earns $174,000 per year. If you do the research, you will find that there are over 200 state employees that earn more than that

When I was deciding what I wanted to do in my younger years, my mother told me I should go to work for the government, good benefits she said. I knew I would be bored and would die young if I became a government drone. My little sister listened to her. Today, my little sister is retired on a great government pension, I still fight to pay my taxes. Given the pay that even the lowest government official receives, my mother was right.

Our government pension system is over $500 billion upside down. Retired state employee health benefits add an additional $300 billion or more to… Read More

Even with “the most progressive tax system in the United states,” California Gov. Jerry Brown is facing huge deficits, and cannot balance the state budget. The huge $180billion state budget proposal for 2017-18, may be another record budget but for millions of Californians, it’s still record stagnation and less income.

Brown has presented yet another budget fairytale that will have $5.8 Billion in deficits over the next three years – even with the recently passed ballot tax of $10 Billion in new tax revenue. And the budget does little or nothing to pay down more than $240 billion in state debt.

Why? Because personal income tax, corporate, and sales tax projections are… Read More

Ajust released studycalculates the total state and local government debt in California as of June 30, 2015, at over $1.3 trillion. Authored by Marc Joffe and Bill Fletcher at the California Policy Center, thisupdates a similar exercisefrom three years ago that put the June 30, 2012 total at $1.1 trillion. As a percent of GDP, California’s state and local government debt has held steady at around 54 percent.

For a more detailed analysis of how these debt estimates were calculated, read the studies, but here’sa summary of what California’s governments owe as of 6/30/2015:

(1) Bonds and loans – state, cities, counties, school districts, community colleges, special districts, agencies and other authorities – $426 billion.

(2) Unfunded pension obligations (official estimate) – $258 billion.

(3) Other unfunded post-employment benefits, primarily for retiree health insurance – $148 billion.

This total, $832… Read More

In any comparison of California and Texas, the issue of job creation should be a major factor to consider. Not surprisingly, since the start of the 2008 recession, Texas has been doing a terrific job, while California is only now recovering from its deeper recession — a problem exacerbated by the anti-business taxes and regulations in the Golden State.

Indeed, Texas pulled the entire country out of the recession sooner, in large part because of the Lone Star State’s excellent business climate ant the resulting robust job market.

… Read More

Liberals excitedly point to the so-called “California miracle” — the relatively healthy rise in the Golden State’s prosperity as measured by recent GDP increases. And yes, the state has done well these last four years. But that’s been primarily a rebound from its deep, painful recession — a recessionworse than almost all other states experienced.

Sadly, this boasting by progressives is cherry-picking at its worst (or best, I suppose) — the selection of a narrow time frame. Instead, we should look at the GDP growth of the Golden State over the FULL recession cycle — from the end of 2007 through 2015 — and compare CA with the progressives’ nemesis state — Texas.

GDP (trillions)***** 2007 ********* 2015 *** % Increase

California ********* $1.999 ****** $2.225 ******* 11.3%

Texas ************* $1.179 ****** $1.630 ******* 38.2%

Not even close. Over that time frame, Texas has grown more than THREE TIMES FASTER than California. Actually 3.4 times… Read More

For fiscal conservatives and free market advocates, the national elections in 2008 and 2012 brought no small measure of disappointment. In its eight-year run, the Obama Administration imposed a host of new taxes – including several as part of the failed “Affordable Care Act” – and, just as egregious, nearly doubling the national debt from $10 trillion to over $20 trillion.

Those who advocate for lower taxes, property rights and less burdensome regulation understood and begrudgingly accepted that “elections have consequences.” (As President Obama was known to brag). So it is now with amusement – if not outright schadenfreude – we are watching progressives across the nation, and especially here in California, melt down in shock and disbelief.

Particularly frustrating for Progressives is their growing realization that many of the policies and actions of the last eight years that they jammed down the throats of conservatives and center right citizens from “fly-over” country are now coming back to haunt them. For example, former Democrat Senator Harry Reid from Nevada changed longstanding Senate rules regarding how many votes it would take to stop… Read More