California’s State Controller, Betty Yee, normally displays a measured, albeit liberal, view of California fiscal affairs. While viewed as reasonably competent and not given to hyperbole, her recent statement in a local government blog was one she must have known to be flat wrong.

The blog, called County Voice, is disseminated by the California State Association of Counties. In it, Controller Yee pushed her vision of California tax reform – something about which she has written frequently. Yee, like most policy leaders both liberal and conservative, has recognized that California’s tax structure is broken. In fact, Yee is correct when she writes “our system leaves the state budget prey to boom-and-bust cycles, in turn disrupting funding of essential public services.”

While the real cause of California’s fiscal distress is that political leadership lacks the will to save money during the boom times, most agree that revenue volatility is a real problem that needs to be addressed.

However, after her observations about California’s volatile and highly progressive tax structure, Yee said this about property taxes: “Meanwhile, in the nearly four… Read More

RIDER NOTE: While my article below describes the rigged nature of the ​San Diego ​​establishment’s“taxpayers association,” it’s really a textbook example of what is the situation in most of the large cities and counties in California.

The board of directors of the San Diego County “Taxpayers” Association just voted UNANIMOUSLY to support the county SANDAG countywide sales tax increase on the ballot this November.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2016/aug/03/taxpayers-association-endorses-half-cent/

To me, the SDCTA decision is not surprising, but theunanimousvote is both surprising and disappointing. Especially so when one realizes that 30% to 50+% of the VOTERS in the county will vote against the tax. How can four dozen members of a “taxpayer” boardALLbe in favor in massive new 18 BILLION DOLLAR county tax increase?

I’m a long-time taxpayer activist. I’m also a member of… Read More

An article in today’sAmerican Prospect, of all places, offers an in-depth look at just how little progress has actually been made towards restoring quality education to California’s public school students. Because the article appears in a publication that is “dedicated to American liberalism,” and because “American liberalism” depends more than anything else on billions in annual political contributions from government unions, you almost have to read between the lines to realize who the bad guys are.

Nonetheless, “California’s Ed Reform Wars,” by Rachel Cohen, all 3,200 words of it, is a fine piece of work. Read it closely, if you can stomach the facts. The bad guys – a matter of opinion, of course – are the government unions. The victims? California’s students, and the future of this great state.

Covered first is the uncertainfate of theVergara case, funded by wealthy activists – many of them liberals – in the Silicon Valley.… Read More

If public attention is being drawn to national politics and the presidential race, there is a group of local officials who are thrilled. They have plans for the contents of taxpayers’ wallets and they would prefer to fly under the radar. The less voters pay attention, the greater the chance they will be able to pass local school bonds, which raise property taxes. Voters need to be alert. If past general elections are any indication, we will be facing several hundred local school bonds and additional tax measures in November.

August 12, is the deadline for officials to approve local measures for the November ballot. Consultants — usually paid by firms that expect to do business with the school district once a new bond is approved — advise local education officials not to publicize the bond election to the entire community, but to target only their supporters. This means running a stealth campaign, communicating only with administrators, the local teachers union, the PTA, and parents who have children in school. Part of this strategy is waiting until the last possible minute to approve the new bond measure, giving potential opponents less time to… Read More

When it comes to gathering sufficient property taxes, Prop 13 is no problem at all–except for profligate spenders. Look at the history of my San Diego County–a history which pretty much reflects the history of property taxes in theurban/suburbancounties that hold over 80% of California’s population.

According to San Diego County, in 1977–the year BEFORE Prop 13 took effect (when everything was working great, according to Prop 13 critics)–our countywide property tax revenue was about $639 million. In the 2015-2016 fiscal year, our county reports property tax revenues of $5.684 BILLION. Hence for every property taxdollarcollected in 1977, the county in 2015-16 collected$8.90. And BTW, according to the County Assessor, since Prop 13 passed, 97% of the pre-Prop 13 county owner-occupied homes have changed hands (and been reassessed) at least once.

During that time frame, our county population has grown about 95%, and inflation has gone up about 270%. Henceproperty tax revenues today are… Read More

The 2016 election is so crucial to America’s future, it appears Democratic Party operatives are willing to break every election rule and law in order to win.

California’s June 7 Primary election was tainted by rigged voting machines, forced party affiliation changes of long-time voters, and voter purges of newly registered voters.

Since June, the reported cases of election fraud are on the rise, but are ignored by the mainstream media. In California, the crucial state for both Bernie… Read More

In the wake of tragic and deadly attacks on police officers, those of us who have never wavered in our support for the members of law enforcement, but have questioned the role of police unions and have debated issues of policy surrounding law enforcement have an obligation to restate our position. Civil libertarians and fiscal conservatives have disagreements with police unions which were summed up quite well recently byguest columnist Steve Greenhut, writing in the Orange County Register. Here are some of the principal concerns:

Police unionization protects bad officers and stifles reform. Lack of transparency into investigations of police misconductaids and abets the worst actors. Police unions often support laws designed to extract increased revenue from citizens in the form of excessive fines. The “war on drugs” andmilitarization of law enforcement can further increase the tension between police and the populations they serve. And, of course, police unions fight relentlessly for increases to compensation and benefits, especially straining the budgets of… Read More

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