The California Teachers Association has just dropped $10 million into its campaign to extend the “temporary” income tax hike voters approved when they passed Proposition 30 in 2012. Proposition 55, which will appear on this November’s ballot, would extend the highest income tax rates in all 50 states for another dozen years.

Four years ago, the muscular union, called by many in Sacramento the “Fourth Branch of Government,” spent over $11 million to convince voters to increase sales and income taxes. The campaign, paid for by government employee unions and led by Gov. Jerry Brown, repeatedly promised voters the higher taxes would last only a few years and then go away.

These ultra-high tax rates are scheduled to end in 2018 and union leaders are panicking. If the tax increase ends, there may be less money to fund increases in member pay and benefits.

To read the entire column click here http://www.hjta.org/california-commentary/teachers-union-hits-taxpayers-with-money-club-again/… Read More

“California is definitely back,” Governor Jerry Brown boasted in 2014. Brown then proclaimed the state a “job creation engine,” proving he was still living in the 1960’s. However, Brown has shown little stomach for sensible tax and regulatory cuts, and instead pays lip service to the media about how fiscally prudent he is….everything he touches turns Brown.

For a state $130 Billion upside down in budget debt, and another $750 Billion of long term unfunded public employee pension debt, the estrangement between what the Democrats in charge say and do, and what Californians know and live daily, continues to grow.

Things are not rosy in California, despite what… Read More

Back in the early days of Saturday Night Live, Paul Simon showed up as the host, dressed in a turkey suit, and started the show singing “Still Crazy After All These Years”. Midway through the song, he stopped saying “this is not working. I told them it wasn’t going to work. Then they said to me, What? Do you want to be Mr. Alienation all your life? (for those of you who are Paul Simon fans you know his songs, like “Sounds of Silence,” “I am a Rock,” “American Tune,” and “Slip, Sliding Away” were songs of hopelessness and alienation).” So Simon continues “Well, I didn’t want to be Mr. Alienation…” so there he was, in a turkey suit, on national television.

Some of my friends have told me my blogs on the Flash Report are too doom and gloom. Well, to paraphrase Paul Simon, I don’t want to be Mr. Doom and Gloom, so I give you something completely different than my usual blog. Please forgive the cross cultural references from my younger days (Monty Python and Saturday Night Live), but I think you will enjoy this, and it will only take a minute of your time. From… Read More

Earlier this month the California Policy Center released astudythat provided additional evidence that the U.S. stock indexes are overvalued by approximately 50%, along with calculations showing the impact of a major downward correction on the solvency of California’s state and local government pension systems. Stocks are now at unsustainable bubble valuations.

Not covered in this study, but equally overvalued, are bonds, which pension systems misleadingly categorize as “fixed income” investments in their portfolio disclosures. CalPERS even went so far as to trumpet their success in earning a 9.29% return on “fixed income” investments in theirmost recent press release– a healthy return that offset losses elsewhere and allowed them to earn a marginally positive return of 0.61% last year. But “fixed income” investments usually refers to bonds, and bonds are also at unsustainable bubble valuations.

Here’s why bonds are… Read More

This November, California voters will face a slew of tax and bond proposals at both the state and local levels. Each of those ballot measures will be supported by the usual pleas from those who benefit from higher taxes – especially well funded labor organizations.

Special interests will complain about the “cuts” to vital public programs in education, transportation, health care, etc. that they have suffered in the past. But the problem they have is that they run head long into the facts – facts which show California government is now more flush with cash than at any other time in its more than 160 year history.

The California state budget projects spending of $122.6 of general fund dollars which is over 5% higher than last year and a stunning 42% more than when Brown took office in 2011.

As we get closer to the November election, this column will present a host of reasons why most tax increases should be rejected. We do this in full knowledge that our opponents, with tens of millions of dollars in campaign funds, will drown out any competing messages of fiscal responsibility, protections for homeowners and a healthy economic climate to ensure that… Read More

The fad in the California Legislature in 2006 was “global warming” (aka “climate change”). Passion ran high with legislators debating what role government should play. Many folks warned that a “go-it-alone/California-only” program could put our state’s economy at risk. Even the most wild-eyed, green believers knew that California’s proposed program would have virtually no effect on so-called worldwide global warming, yet our state could lose thousands of jobs in the process.

Instead of waiting for more conclusive scientific evidence, the Legislature acted rashly, as is often the case. Unfortunately, the result was Assembly Bill 32, which requires the state… Read More

Since 1971, the United States has been off the gold standard. Instead of the value of the dollar being defined in terms of gold, our currency is said to be backed by “The full faith and credit of the United States.”

However, listening to politicians, the new standard for backing taxpayer dollars may be coffee, or, more specifically, the latte.

Endorsing efforts to impose a parcel tax on property owners to support parks — parks that have been purposely ignored in the Los Angeles County general fund budget — Supervisor Hilda Solis trivialized the tax saying, “For Pete’s sake, what does it amount to for the average voter, a latte a month at Starbucks?” Her colleague, Sheila Kuehl, upped the ante, gleefully saying the permanent property tax increase would be like, walking into Starbucks and getting anything you want because parks are free. “I proudly support taxing and spending,” she added.

To read the entire column click here http://www.hjta.org/california-commentary/is-coffee-the-new-gold-standard/… Read More

Back in 2012 we published an article entitled “The Forgotten 33%,” which included a graphic entitled “American Voter Breakdown 2012.” It depicted the U.S. electorate as comprised of 46% who pay zero nettaxes, 20% who work for the government and are net tax consumers, the 1% “super rich,” and the “forgotten 33%,” who work in the private sector and earn enough to be positive net taxpayers.

The point of the article, then and now, was that people with an intrinsic preference for big government comprise a super-majority of voters in America. But something has changed since 2012…

AMERICAN VOTER BREAKDOWN 2016

The emergence of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders as serious contenders to become president of the U.S. reflects a growing awareness among voters in all of the above categories that things can and should be better. The… Read More