SACRAMENTO — After sitting through several recent marathon sessions in the Assembly, it was shocking to witness the powerful California environmental lobby lose its attempt to ban oil and gas hydraulic fracturing.

For this, Californians can be thankful.

That got me thinking. What if California’s powerful environmental lobby had been as powerful during the 1849 Gold Rush as it is today? Back then, they would have harassed gold pioneer James Marshall so much he would have quit. California never would have become the Golden State.

Hydrolic fracking for oil and gas has the potential to become the next Gold Rush — this time of black gold, Texas tea. But will the environmentalists stop it? Not yet — but maybe in the future.

A University of Southern California study, “Powering California: The Monterey Shale & California’s Economic Future,” looked at the development of the vast energy resource beneath the San Joaquin Valley known as the Monterey Shale. It found that hydraulic fracturing could create 512,000 to 2.8 million new jobs, personal income growth of $40.6 billion to $222.3… Read More

I hate to write columns like this because I am an optimist to my core. But the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on Proposition 8 has destroyed the last vestige of hope for Republicans in the state of California. If you felt we were in the hinterlands before then you would have to conclude we are now on the dark side of the moon.

First, let me say I am not commenting here on fact that gay marriage has become the law of California by this ruling. I am also not pointing fingers at the U. S. Supreme Court for taking the position that the plaintiffs in the case did not have standing to make the argument, though I am surprised they took the case in the first place if they felt the plaintiffs had no right to argue the case. I will also state that I am exceedingly unhappy that the vote of the people on something that you have to contrive to conceive as an equal rights matter was overturned. If the people in support of gay marriage wanted to overturn the will of the people on this matter, they should have taken it back to them and pled their case. Once again a few people who think they know better than the average resident of California have told us how to live our… Read More

The United States Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case of Proposition 8 could lead to the effective dismantling of the initiative power vested in the people of California. The decision will encourage state officials to abstain from defending ballot measures they don’t like.

The state’s initiative and referendum process was established in California in 1911 to enable the people to act as the lawmakers of last resort when their representatives proved to be indolent, incompetent or corrupt. For those interested in history, the reform was a direct response to the overwhelming special interest power being exercised in Sacramento by the Southern Pacific Railroad.

If not for the people’s initiative power, we would never have had such important – and diverse – reforms such as Proposition 13, the Political Reform Act, several environmental laws, the death penalty and medical marijuana. Regardless of one’s personal views on these issues, these are matters on which voters, responding to inaction by elected representatives, have had the final say.

Last week’s refusal by the United States Supreme Court to hear the Proposition 8 case,… Read More

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Before yesterday’s stunning announcement that popular conservative Congressman John Campbell would be retiring from the House of Representatives at the end of his term, 2014 was already shaping up to be the most tumultuous political year that I can remember in the history of Orange County. Without any notice, Congressman Campbell sent out an announcement that he was calling it quits, saying in an email: “At the end of this term, I will have spent 14 years serving in full-time, elected politics. I am not nor did I ever intend to be a career politician. I am ready to begin a new chapter in my life.”

Let me first say that I wish the Congressman the best in his future endeavors. He has not only been my Representative, but he is also a personal friend. I will look forward to seeing more of him here in Orange County, but his strong voice as a Constitutional conservative will be missed on Capitol Hill.

Campbell’s announcement has quickly led to speculation, announcements, and cascading effects. Who will run in the heavily-GOP 45th Congressional District? Here’s a… Read More

A 3.5 cent per gallon increase in California’s excise tax on gasoline takes effect July 1. As a result Californians will be forced to begin paying the highest gas taxes in the nation.

You have a right to be angry and demand explanation from your elected officials.

I too am upset and frustrated by this tax increase, which stems from a complicated law known as the ‘fuel tax swap.’

The goal of the fuel tax swap wasn’t good tax policy. Instead, its sole purpose was to allow the Legislature to move more than a billion dollars in gas tax revenues into the state’s General Fund.

I voted against the fuel tax swap. I also voted against the 3.5 cent per gallon rate increase that takes effect July 1.

Although the Board of Equalization must implement the law as written, a certain amount of discretion comes into play. Most of the July 1 increase is based on uncertain projections of future gas prices.

I don’t think we should be in the business of raising taxes based on guesswork.

A video of Runner questioning… Read More

RINO rookie CA Assemblyman Rocky Chavez justifies his latest proposed giveaway because “it’s for the children.” How’s THAT for pandering!? Particularly so, considering that all the college age “children” he is “protecting” are adults under law — he wants to protect these vulnerable waifs until age 23 or later. Perhaps MUCH later.

Assemblyman Chavez continues to initiate new subsidies he can provide to groups — proposing bills that will be popular with Democrats so that he can prove he’s an effective legislator. Personally, I’d settle for a little less Chavez effectiveness and a little more concern for taxpayers.

Now he wants to freeze student tuition in the CSU system for SIX years from date of entry into school. No indication how cost increases are going to be paid for, but I think we can figure that part out for ourselves. See his fundraising email below.He SHOULD be going after California’s SPENDING problems, but it’s much easier and politically popular to just increase subsidies to one special interest group after another — at the considerable expense of … Read More

The appetite for more and more tax revenue by politicians in Sacramento is voracious. If you stand still while reading this column, there is a decent chance that some legislation will be drafted targeting your wallet or purse for a State Capitol “cashectomy” — so I would suggest you kind of move around while you read this.

In Governor Jerry Brown’s May Revision to his state budget, he proposed pretty much sticking a fork into the state’s nearly thirty year embrace of what are referred to as Enterprise Zones, or EZ’s for short, in what appears to me to be a back door de facto tax increase. What is an EZ? Mark Lifsher over at the Los Angeles Times succinctly describes them this way: “The 27-year-old enterprise zone program currently provides mainly large corporations but also small businesses with about $700 million a year in credits they can use to reduce the taxes they pay the state. The idea behind the 40 local enterprise zones is to create jobs in poor urban and rural areas by providing incentives to employers to hire local workers.”

In other words, EZ’s are an embrace of the idea… Read More

There is an old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Several years ago, voters in Poway agreed to let local officials borrow $100 million to complete modernization of aging schools. It sounded like a sweet deal because they were promised this would be done without a tax increase.

As it turns out, this was the sort of deal one would usually expect to be offered by a loan shark accompanied by “associates” who favor forty-five caliber automatics.

Normally, when local governments and school districts use bonds to borrow money, the repayment with interest amounts to approximately double the face value of the bond. Borrow $100 million and expect to repay $200 million dollars over 20 to 30 years. But when Poway school officials cut a deal with a financial institution to issue what is called a Capital Appreciation Bond (CAB), payments were not scheduled to begin for 20 years with the total to be repaid in 40 years. The cost to local taxpayers? $1,000,000,000! That’s right, one billion dollars, ten times the amount borrowed.

What would possess officials to make such a deal? Stupidity? Incompetence? Or… Read More