[Publisher’s Note: We are pleased to offer this original commentary penned by Assembly GOP Leader Connie Conway. We hope you enjoy it – Flash]

When I am asked to speak to community groups in my district, I often describe the State Capitol as the Disneyland of Northern California. Too many of my colleagues in the majority party are living in a Fantasyland where they think can spend as if there is no tomorrow.

We saw this on full display last week as the Legislature considered literally hundreds of measures before a key deadline. Between May 20 and 31, the Legislature collectively passed 393 bills. To be sure, Sacramento liberals pushed through some very bad legislation that will collectively increase state spending, impose costly new burdens on employers and expand the reach of government into more aspects of our lives.

But as I’ve often said, Republicans are the last line of defense for California taxpayers. By standing together, Republicans were able to prevent some of the worst of the worst measures from passing – legislation that would hurt the economy and wallets of hard-working… Read More

Internal Revenue Service Czarina of Tax Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner was not only targeting religious and conservative organizations, she was also shielding liberal groups from undergoing the exact same scrutiny. This latest disclosure in the spreading IRS scandal comes from Missouri Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, who in May, 2010 brought his constituents’ complaints against Humane Society abuses directly to the attention of Czarina Lerner.

While the conservative organizations targeted by Lerner were seeking 501c4 tax exempt status (which permits political activity), it turns out the overtly political Humane Society was receiving tax-deductible contributions as a 501c3 organization, a classification that includes foundations and which must strictly limit any political action.

As a result of Luetkemeyer’s diligent pursuit of the matter, Fox News jumped on the case, reporting that not only had Lerner stonewalled Congressional calls for an investigation, but that Lerner was an active supporter of the Humane Society. Fox also discovered that, despite the impression left by the Humane Society’s polished television ads depicting adorable pets for… Read More

One of the most basic responsibilities of government is to maintain law and order. This is especially true for a legislative panel that calls itself the Assembly “Public Safety” Committee. Unfortunately, it seems more concerned about prisoners than the peace and safety of law-abiding Californians.

Recently, I presented two common-sense bills – at least I thought they were common-sense – to the committee for its consideration. But the committee killed them faster than a repeat sex offender is released from prison.

The first bill, Assembly Bill 63, would send parolees who cut off their electronic monitoring device back to state prison. I introduced AB 63 in response to a paroled sex offender accused of raping a Fresno State student, a story that generated much outrage in our community. This criminal had been arrested 23 times over a 22-year period and cut off his monitoring device eight days before he attacked the student.

He cut off his device perhaps knowing he would not face serious consequences. It is an open secret among parolees that cutting or tampering with their tracking devices result in little to no punishment. Governor Brown’s… Read More

You don’t need another example of how the Legislature wastes time and taxpayer dollars, but here’s a great one: AB 667.

This bill is nothing new. A version of it is introduced almost every session. Last go-‘round it was SB 469 by Juan Vargas, and it’s such a bad bill that even Governor Brown vetoed it, saying that “plenty of laws are already on the books” that throw hurdles and roadblocks in front of large retail stores before they can be approved and built. Before that, Schwarzenegger vetoed the same bill, and Governor Davis vetoed it before him.

The bill would make it harder to open a larger retail store — over 90,000 square feet — that also sells groceries.

… Read More

Last week the California Public Policy Center released a compilation ofpublic employee compensation databases. Apart from the CPPC’s own studies that disclose and evaluate compensation for city workers inSan Jose,Anaheim,Costa Mesa, andIrvine, of May 2013, they found nine additional sources of information on California’s state and local government employee compensation, incorporating eleven databases. Here they are:

State Controller,employees of all California Cities and Counties Sacramento Bee,California State workers… Read More

SACRAMENTO — As I left the Capitol today, I noticed several official vehicles double parked around the Capitol. Then I heard that Sen. Ron Calderon’s Capitol office had been raided by the FBI. Calderon, is a Democrat from Montebello, CA.

Additionally, I was contacted by legislative staff and told that the FBI raided the Latino Caucus offices in the Legislative Office building across the street from the Capitol.

“Three cars from the Dept. of Justice and one from the FBI, parked on N Street in front of the legislative office building about 3:30 pm,” I was told by a legislative staffer. “It looked as if there were seven people who entered the building with collapsed boxes.”

Scott Lay, publisher of Around the Capitol, reported more:

The U.S. Attorney in Sacramento (Eastern District of California) has confirmed that it has executed… Read More

Below is a fine example of how to use carefully selected statistics – (im)properly presented — to make a point at odds with reality. The graphic below originated in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, so that media outfit bears ultimate responsibility for this flawed analysis.

But some local CA booster organizations are using this same misrepresentation to claim that California is doing better than Texas – a ludicrous assertion. More on that later. Here’s the original graphic that’s now being circulated, along with a link to the short accompanying article. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-06/californias-job-growth-outpaces-texass … Read More

The constitutional deadline is just two weeks away and the Governor and Legislature are busy negotiating the state’s next budget. With Democrats now holding enough seats in the Legislature to pass the budget without Republican input, we can expect a budget that reflects their priorities and grows the size of the government. Fortunately for them, budget revenues this year are exceeding expectations and multi-billion budget deficits appear to be a thing of the past—at least for now.

As you can see in the graph,… Read More