On February 4 at 10:00 a.m. and February 19 at 2:00 p.m. I’ll be hosting two telephone townhalls for small business owners. These free events, co-hosted by the National Federation of Independent Business, will provide specific information to small business owners on how best to avoid common tax errors.

Small businesses play a vital role in our economy, but every day owners face challenges with tax laws in the State of California. The laws can be complicated and owners can face stiff penalties and interest if deadlines and accuracy are not met. As their elected taxpayer advocate, I want to hear their concerns and answer their questions.

The telephone townhalls will inform small business owners about how to protect themselves from common tax traps such as missing records, successor liability, undercollection of tax, and invalid resale certificates. Information about these issues will help small businesses avoid making potentially costly mistakes.

If you’re a business owner or interesting in starting your own business, I encourage you to join me on one of these calls. Please register online at… Read More

In 1975 Billboard’s number one song of the year was Captain and Tennille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” – and apparently that worked for almost years, with news coming out last week that 70’s that the two entertainers, who were married, had filed for divorce. ’75 was the year that newly elected Congressman Henry Waxman was sworn into his first term in Congress. And now, 40 years later, he’s calling it quits as well.

Liberal icon Henry Waxman announced today that he is retiring from the House of Representatives. That such a senior Democrat would bail out, on the heels of fellow 40 year incumbent Rep. George Miller’s… Read More

The debate around the benefits of superstores is often dominated by irrational fears, political grandstanding, heavy handed union thuggery, and misleading arguments based on emotion. It’s a tired conversation and one I’ve never personally bought into.

Fortunately, there are more facts – than fears – that show the other side of the debate.

A study just published by the Hatamiya Group, and commissioned by Walmart,… Read More

The Assembly Budget Committee heard from the governor’s office last week in defense of the proposed 2014-15 budget. I thought I’d share the bizarre and surprising answer I got to a question I asked about that budget.

By way of background, the governor proposes to spend 30% of the state’s receipts from the Cap and Trade auction on high speed rail. Now, Cap and Trade is a neat little scam the government runs under the AB32 scheme to supposedly reduce greenhouse gasses. Under AB32, businesses that emit greenhouse gas are limited in the amount of such gasses they can put out. However, in a significant loophole, the government has set up a “market” by which gas emitters can purchase the right to discharge excess gas. The effect, of course, is to increase the amount of greenhouse gasses that would otherwise be produced, by allowing companies to buy their way out of the limits. But since the government gets the money, it overlooks this gaping logical hole in AB32.

One use to which the budget proposes to put some of this Cap and Trade money is the governor’s misguided high speed rail project. Specifically, a… Read More

It appears the local news experiment run at a huge corporate level, called Patch, is now dead, or at least being “significantly realigned,” following its sale. I wondered aloud a few years ago how long AOL would continue to subsidize a revenue negative experiment.

Despite my occasional angst at what I saw very locally in San Diego as “Jimmy-Olsen-boy-reporter” style journalism, fewer news sources in the community is never good news.

See Romenesko for the news.

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The state budget has a $5 billion surplus and Governor Jerry Brown proposed paying down $11 billion in state debt and stashing away revenue in a “rainy day” fund as a buffer against future emergencies. The existence of a surplus and sufficient state funds to reduce debt and establish a rainy day fund would seem to obviate any rationale for imposing yet another tax increase on one of the most intensely-taxed states in the Union.

But this is California, where an inexhaustible supply of rationales for raising taxes is one of the state’s great unnatural resources.

If proponents get their way, there will be an initiative to slap an additional $2 tax on tobacco products, with the money to be spent on cancer research and fund programs to discourage people from buying the products that fund the cancer research.

Wherein lays the irony of this type of taxation. The revenues are always dedicated to fund a worthy cause. Who can argue against funding cancer research? The initiative implicitly acknowledges that enough people will continue to purchase tobacco… Read More

State Senator Roderick Wright should immediately resign from the State Senate. He should not vote on any more bills, he should not take another dime of pay, and the way should be paved for the Governor to call a special election to fill his seat.

For those who may have missed the news, yesterday, after two days of deliberations, a jury of Wright’s peers found him guilty on eight felony counts of perjury and voter fraud. After hearing both sides presented to them, it was found that Wright did not actually establish… Read More

Across the United States there is an escalating political conflict over the role of labor unions in society. But it is inaccurate to characterize this conflict as one between Republicans and Democrats. There are members of both major political parties, as well as independents of widely diverse ideologies, who are concerned about civil liberties, the growth of authoritarian government, inadequate investment in infrastructure, and poorly funded social programs. Explaining to these diverse groups that public sector unions are a threat to civil liberties, impel authoritarian government, and preclude investment in infrastructure and social programs – and that by and large, private sector unions do not – is the key to successful public sector union reform.

While reformers who are immersed in the topic may consider this obvious, the fact that public sector unions are fundamentally different from private sector unions is still a relatively new concept to the general public. Some of these differences might be summarized as follows:

(1) Public unions elect their own bosses, private unions have minimal role in selecting their management.

(2) Unlike private… Read More