Efforts to increase taxes on business property put homeowners in peril; here’s why.

Sacramento can never get enough tax money to satisfy the political class. Although California has the highest state sales tax, highest marginal income tax rates, and highest gas tax in all 50 states, we rank only 14th highest in per capital property taxes. The politicians, government employee unions, and the special interest pleaders see this as an area of potential revenue growth — higher taxes, that is.

Several years ago, Senate leader Darrell Steinberg outlined a plan to incrementally diminish taxpayer protections to allow for the ratcheting up of taxes. The first step was be to eliminate the two-thirds vote to pass a state budget – a law that dated back to 1933 – and then move on to targeting Proposition 13’s two-thirds vote requirement for increases in state taxes as well as for the passage of local per-parcel property taxes on homeowners. Steinberg’s step one was accomplished in 2010, with the passage of Proposition 25.

In addition to their efforts to destroy Proposition 13’s two-thirds vote protections for taxpayers, tax raisers have opened up a… Read More

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Pearce onCadiz, water and theburied treasure in the Mojave Desert.

One would think that if a huge underground lake existed less than 100 miles from Southern California water users who live continually on the edge of a water supply crisis, there would be a rush to get that water into Southern California’s water system. One would also think, since this is California, that an extraordinarily challenging level of environmental review would be required before a single drop of that water could head toward users, and that a round of lawsuits would challenge the environmental review’s conclusions.

As it turns out, there is an aquifer holding as much water as Lake Mead, America’s largest reservoir, at Cadiz in the Mojave Desert, about 100 miles from Southern California’s population centers. There also has been a rigorous environmental review of Cadiz, Inc.’s proposal to move 50,000 acre feet of that water (enough for 100,000 families) each year to water users from Ventura County to Imperial County. And, of course, there are lawsuits aplenty that ultimately should verify the thoroughness and correctness… Read More

People who frequent this website know that it is our general rule (with occasional exception) to only support attributed blogging and commenting. I can think of a handful of times over the years when we have featured, or linked to, anonymous content.

That having been said, anonymous speech certainly has its place in politics, and here in America its foundations are rooted in our beginnings. The federalist papers, as they were drafted, first appeared in pamphlets around the colonies under the pseudonym Publius — and Benjamin Franklin himself wrote on more than one occasion under the pen name of… Read More

SACRAMENTO — With the Republican Party at such a low ebb, the supermajority Democratic Party is advancing connections everywhere.

In particular, there’s cross-pollination between groups pushing for overtime for domestic workers — and groups receiving Obamacare money. In some cases, they’re the same groups.

Assembly Bill 241is by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco. It mandates overtime must be paid to domestic workers, including nannies, babysitters (not teenagers) and in-home workers taking care of the disabled and elderly. Gov. Jerry Brown just signed it into law.

Many of the groups who pushed Gov. Jerry Brown to sign AB241 are direct recipients of grants from… Read More

I came across the 2002 estimated cost of the [San Diego]“Mid–Coast Corridor Transit Project” — the so-called light rail line from Old Town to points north. It was $30 million per mile.

Doubtless because of “galloping inflation” (geezers will recall that term — used by President Richard Nixon to describe the 4.7% inflation in the early 70’s that caused him to impose Draconian wage and price controls), naturally this project’s cost today is estimated to be higher. How much higher? Somewhere north of $160 million per mile. Now THAT’s inflation!!

Well, actually, it’s S.O.P. — low-ball the costs to get the project approval, get the project rolling, and only later reveal the true costs. Liar, liar, trolley wheels on fire.

I hate “I told ya so” moments.

Gov. Jerry Brown just signed SB 743, “easing environmental regulations for developments in California cities, including a new basketball arena in downtown Sacramento,” the Los Angeles Times said.

In March I predicted Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento would jam legislation through exempting the Sacramento Kings new arena plan from the restrictions of the California Environmental Quality Act, in order to meet a dubious deadline imposed by the NBA.

March 30, after Steinberg’s office told me he did not plan on authoring legislation to streamline or bypass the required environmental process for the proposed Sacramento NBA arena, I predicted they weren’t being straight with me.

Steinberg’s office denied any plan to do this. But the reason I wrote the story and asked about this was I knew this was the next step in scamming the public with the publicly subsidized arena.

The need to bypass California’s absurdly strict environmental guidelines and restrictions prevent most large scale projects from ever taking place without legislative intervention. And Sacramento officials shoved the… Read More

President Obama: I am no fan of the president. That will not come as a surprise to any of you “laptop report” readers. But, just a couple hours ago (I am writing this on Friday evening from Washington, DC) the president gave a news conference that reached a new low for any politician in my memory – let alone a president.

He started the press conference describing how he had a phone call on which he was negotiating with the president of Iran. He extolled the virtues of “diplomacy” and “negotiation” in his engagement with Iran.

Last Friday, President Obama made another call. This one was to Speaker John Boehner. As has been widely reported, he told the speaker that he would absolutely not negotiate on the debt limit. His press secretary yesterday likened Republicans to terrorists saying, in reference to Republicans, “…we’re not negotiating with people who have a bomb strapped to their chest.”

So, let’s get this straight: The president has no problem negotiating with a leader of a country whose government has called for the extermination of all Jews, has directly sponsored terrorism… Read More

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[Publisher’s Note: As part of an ongoing effort to bring original, thoughtful commentary to you here at the FlashReport, I am pleased to present this column from longtime FlashReport friend and reader Roger Covalt. Biographical and contact information for Mr. Covalt can be found beneath his column.]

There is a difference between private and public sector salaries.

Regarding public/government sector salaries, it always sickens me to see the salaries of what some top government bureaucrats and coaches make. It seems that the people that allowed such salaries have forgotten that the taxpayer, for the most part, pay for these salaries. These salaries, for the most part, come with a defined retirement benefit.

Because these positions are government positions, their salaries should be limited to whatever the salary is for the Chief… Read More