Every year in California’s state capital, 120 full-time lawmakers, 2,000 full-time staff, and 130 legislative committees, introduce an average of 5,000 bills each legislative session, thus creating a booming industry for California’s 1,100 registered lobbyists. They do this with a $150 billion annual budget. And they do this while simultaneously managing to keep out most of the public.

In… Read More

Those who value liberty, good government and a reasonable level of taxation have a lot to complain about if they are citizens of California. Not only do we have one of the highest tax burdens in America, we rate very poorly in term of efficient and effective governance as well as transparency. Those of us who point out the state’s shortcomings are labeled as contrarian, “declinists” or pessimists by state politicians, including our governor.

And let’s not forget about corruption. Just a couple of years ago, the California Senate actually had a higher arrest rate than the general population of California. Because of all the negative press, it is no wonder that that the public believes that most of what the California Legislature does is self-serving.

Although there is more than sufficient justification to criticize California’s political system (and especially its legislature), for the sake of fairness, we should take special notice when our politicians do the right thing. For example, every so often bills are introduced that cut against the stereotype by providing genuine benefit to average folks.

To read the entire column click here… Read More

On the heels of the Sacramento Taxpayer Association awarding the bankrupt Sacramento Regional Transit its annual GOLDEN FLEECE AWARD, the Sacramento Bee published a story claiming Regional Transit “may be better than you think.” Rather than acting like a watchdog on government, the Bee appears to be the Public Relations firm of RT.

GOLDEN FLEECE AWARDs are bestowed upon public officials, governmental agencies and organizations for their “wasteful, ridiculous, or ironic use of taxpayers’ money.”The SacTax FLEECE AWARD went to the… Read More

Rather than waiting for the new California $15 state minimum wage law to be phased in over five years, UC Berkeley decided to accelerate its own minimum wage to $15, starting this coming September (2016).

Naturally the Progressives celebrated. Shortly after making that decision, the administration announced the layoff of 500 workers, as the school now has a $150 million deficit to contend with.

Can someone explain to me how a organization bleeding a $150 million annual deficit planned to pay for a 50% minimum wage increase? Do they teach Economics 101 at Berkeley?

Sadly, the answer is that like all colleges, Berkeley has an Economic Department. They have very expensive and self-important Econ professors. But they don’t teach common sense economics. Far from it.

“Common sense” may… Read More

The worst, or maybe the best thing about being Pete Kanelos’ friend was his dedication to the Raiders. Sure, I’ve had other friends who like that team, but in Pete’s case it was a personal badge of pride and honor. Almost as if being able to shove it in his friends’ faces was the real motivation, not so much a love for the team itself.

Pete was relentless about it. If the Chargers lost, the text would arrive about how lousy they were. If a San Diego player was arrested for assault, or drugs, or a shooting or something — not unlike any other team in the NFL, including the Raiders — he’d make sure to point it out.

It never mattered how lousy the Raiders were at the time (they were, often), or if any of their players were in jail for the night, Pete always had the last word, which simply couldn’t be answered: “Yeah,… Read More

It’s Earth Day, and our federal government is here to help. Browse any agency’s website to see press releases crowing about the good being done for our big blue marble. Take the United States Army. Seriously. According to the Pentagon, in an April 7, 2015 press release, “taking care of the Earth is an everyday mission for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.” Setting aside the irony of history’s most destructive fighting force boasting of protecting bunnies and bushes, how true is this even?

Northern California’s Sacramento Valley hosts several million acres of America’s most productive… Read More

Rather than support a statewide school bond to build new and update older school facilities, many Sacramento liberals want to shift the entire cost of funding classroom repairs and new school construction onto the backs of local school districts – forcing them to raise taxes or cut programs. By off-loading the state’s responsibility to the locals, liberals want to free up state resources to grow pensions and create new government programs rather than support school facilities.

For nearly two decades and with the support of many Republicans, California has provided matching school funds to local communities for classroom repairs or new school construction through the approval of statewide school bonds. This approach has been equitable, protected local taxpayers, created jobs, and helped keep massive new state spending in check.

But now with California’s state school bond fund is depleted, there is an effort by Sacramento liberals to shift the funding of school facilities to taxpayers in the form of higher local property taxes – hitting seniors and young families especially hard.

Don’t be fooled by this scheme!

There is a better way to… Read More

Here’s an upbeat (if rather bizarre) story from a California jail. When faced with an inmate security problem in the jail, there was the $20,000,000, two year government solution, and then there was the $761.24, one week Costco solution. Kudos to the sheriff for making the right call, and putting it on her own credit card!

But sadly, this story has a dark side. The prison guard union president decried the sheriff’s purchase because “it hurts morale.” Not clear why. Never mind that the guards recently had beaten a mentally ill inmate to death under questionable circumstances and away from cameras.

Perhaps even worse, the county is STILL going to install the $20,000,000 “Cadillac” surveillance system! After all, the money is already budgeted. And what government bureaucrat would rethink this spending — perhaps putting in a comprehensive camera monitoring network for one-tenth the cost (a “paltry” $2 million dollars).

NOTE: I first saw this story in the free weekly blog “This Is True.” But for copyright reasons, I’ve changed the reference to the… Read More