The 2014 mid-term elections will be remembered for many things – pioneering use of information technology to comprehensively profile and micro-target voters, escalating use of polarizing rhetoric, historically low levels of voter turnout, and historic records in total spending. In California, in spite of all this money and technology – or perhaps because of it – the political landscape is probably not going to change very much this time around. But appearances can be deceiving. While Democrats will still control California’s state legislature and nearly all of California’s large cities and urban counties, new fault lines are forming within California’s electorate that defy conventional definitions of Republican and Democrat, or conservative and liberal.

Because as it is,California’s schools are failing, businesses and middle-income residents are fleeing, and the cost of living is the highest in America.Three powerful groups benefit from and perpetuate this arrangement with their money and their votes: Wealthy individuals and crony capitalists, unionized public sector workers, and low-income residents who have become entirely dependent on government… Read More

Wow, what an election night. Hope makes a comeback… but not entirely in California.

As exciting as the nationwide races were, my favorite race was local: Mayor Kevin Johnson’s Strong Mayor initiative, Measure L, went down in defeat, 57-43 percent. Slam Dunk.

Despite the Sacramento media running months of constant free advertising for the measure, Measure L, which would have concentrated power in the Mayor, Chicago-style, and dramatically reduce the other council members’ powers, Sacramento voters voted “no.”

By midnight when I finally gave up and went to bed, the measure appeared to be defeated 57.31 percent to 42.69 percent. Unless more ballots magically appear, the fourth Strong Mayor initiative should be cooked… until Mayor Johnson resurrects it again for a fifth time.

GOP Takes US Senate

But… Read More

Are you better off today than you were two, four or six years ago when progressive Democrats took over and expanded more of government? Of course not: As government grows, liberty decreases.

It was Thomas Jefferson who warned, “The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”

But elections are changing. Voters are changing. America is changing. California has been leading much of that change, and not in a good way. This election is a potential… Read More

The contest for Secretary of State between Republican Pete Peterson and Democrat Alex Padilla appears to be a classic race between a citizen politician and a career bureaucrat. Padilla, 41, is a termed out State Legislator, and a former Los Angeles city councilman. Peterson, 47, leads the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership at Pepperdine University, is a business owner, and was the first Executive Director of Common Sense California, a bipartisan, nonprofit “think-and-do tank” devoted to improving civic participation in California.

Their “top two” primary race in June was very close though only 25 percent of registered… Read More

For more than 35 years property owners in California have been subject to parcel taxes – special taxes imposed by local governments that go above and beyond traditional property tax based on the property’s value.

The rates, definitions and structures of parcel taxes can vary dramatically from area to area, creating a system with no consistency and little transparency.

To help shed light on this issue, the California Tax Foundation, the research and education arm of the California Taxpayers Association, recently conducted the first comprehensive study of California parcel taxes. The report, “Piecing Together California’s Parcel Taxes,” found that property owners in California pay more than $1.9 billion in parcel taxes each year.

Robert Gutierrez, director of the California Tax Foundation explained, “We surveyed every local government in the state, and filed hundreds of Public Records Act requests, to collect more than 11,500 files relating to parcel taxes. This first-of-its-kind study sheds light on a complicated, expensive tax that many property owners know very… Read More

For many the real scare this time of years is not the monsters at our doors on Halloween but the property tax bill in the mail box.

Fortunately, as a direct result of Proposition 13 which limits increases in a property’s assessed value to two percent annually, most property owners have a good idea what their tax bill will be even before opening the envelope. However, like we do every year about this time, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association reminds taxpayers to carefully examine their latest property tax bill. Although not common, assessors sometimes do make mistakes.

Taxpayers should understand the various charges and make certain that they are not being assessed for more than they are legally obligated to pay. The best way to check a tax bill is to have your previous year’s bill handy for reference.

Checking the bill is especially important for those who bought their homes a few years ago at the height of the market. If the current home value is actually lower than the assessed value shown on the tax bill the owner is entitled to file for a reduction in taxes.

Typically the property tax bill will show three categories of charges. They are… Read More

As Californians hope and pray for an end to California’s drought and dangerous fire conditions, I am thankful for the many brave men and women who put their lives on the line to fight fires throughout our state.

We’re also reminded that not one dime of our state’s so-called “Fire Prevention Fee” has helped fund this year’s firefighting efforts.

Someday a court will strike down the unfair and, I believe, illegal fire tax enacted by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in 2010.

But getting there is proving quite a challenge.

As you may recall, in 2012 the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA), with my strong support, filed a class action lawsuit seeking to invalidate the so-called fee on the basis that it is really an illegally enacted tax.

Since then, California Department of Justice attorneys paid with your tax dollars have repeatedly sought to do everything in their power to slow the case down.

I’m told some of the state’s stalling tactics go far beyond what is typical of government attorneys involved in legal proceedings. These tactics include filing multiple demurrers aimed at blocking… Read More

In the southeast corner of the Capitol, sitting silently, is our cadaver in corner office, Governor Jerry Brown, ready to begin his fourth term as Governor. In 1974, he was the anti-Ronald Reagan, the expression of California’s dualism, as it moved from the iconic conservative to the liberal apologetic. He is now the symbol of modern liberalism, lifeless, unimaginative, and lost in its own past, tied to the monsters Brown created in his first term as Governor, the government unions, whose voracious appetites, satisfied at the taxpayers’ trough, will not be denied, and cannot be opposed, leaving their minions in the capitol bereft of ideas, because they have to feed that beast.

Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light, my head grew heavy and my sight grew dim, I had to stop for the night

It was the 60’s that saw California begin its shift. Prior to that time, California was an odd mix of midwest Democrats and progressive Republicans. The home of Hiram Johnson, Earl Warren, and (oddly enough) Pat Brown, California tended to have a unity of purpose, creating a strong economy, an education system second to none,… Read More