There’s been considerable confusion surrounding California’s new online sales tax law (AB 155), and Cyber Monday was no exception.

Some media reports have suggested that all online sellers must now collect California sales tax. That’s a gross overstatement that creates needless confusion for both taxpayers and consumers.

Even under this new law most major out-of-state online retailers, like L.L. Bean and Overstock.com, are not required to collect sales tax as long as they don’t have a presence in California.

The new law, which became effective September 15, requires out-of-state sellers to collect tax if they make more than $1 million in annual sales to California consumers and at least $10,000 of those sales come through referrals from California-based affiliates.

Earlier this year the Board of Equalization mailed letters to more than 200 out-of-state retailers notifying them of the new law. To date, only a handful have responded by beginning to collect sales tax.

When out-of-state retailers do not collect tax, California consumers are still required to… Read More

The Republican Party’s highest priority following the 2012 election must be the building of a governing majority that can successfully put Republican ideas into action to the benefit of all Americans.

Such a strategy can be summed up this way: Think Majority.

Thoughts precede action, and so to take actions necessary to become a majority first requires an internal commitment to build upon what we have accomplished, to reach people who are not yet with us, and to successfully persuade many of them to trust our party to lead.

It’s a tall order — most Latinos, Asians, and African-Americans, and young people today prefer our opponents.

Yet, we also know that politics is dynamic – not static. In governorships the Southeast has moved from solidly Democratic to Republican, and the reverse has taken place in the Northeast, just within my lifetime. Most of the west has moved to the right, while the Pacific coast and Hawaii have moved left. The dynamism of America’s political system is constantly creating new opportunities for candidates and political parties capable of taking advantage of them.

Our Latino and… Read More

Ferret lovers coveting Assemblyman-elect Brian Maienschein’s backing might be in for disappointment.

Evidently, LeagalizeFerrets.org founder Pat Wright fell to despair when two supportive candidates lost in the general election on November 6. Yet, he wrote in his recent newsletter this fuzzy note of love:

“There was one person elected who had some ferret knowledge. Brian Maienschein was elected in the 77th Assembly district and met Alice Kaiser and her ferrets.”

Not so, said Maienschein campaign manager Lance Witmondt who told the Sacramento Bee: “Brian has not ever met a ferret and he will not be sponsoring legislation to legalize ferret ownership.”

He’s never met a ferret? Maybe not. But in his profession, I’m sure he’s met a few of the ferret’s weaselly cousins.

Yesteryear’s 77th Assembly District seatholder City Attorney Jan Goldsmith infamously authored a bill decriminalizing ferret ownership. The… Read More

It seems that after every Presidential election, there’s some who predict the demise of the losing party. This year this often hopeful predication seems even moreprevalentthan usual. A little historical perspective is in order.

In 1964 the GOP ran a “radical” candidate, Barry Goldwater. He got shellacked, even though his libertarian-oriented platform seems rather bland by today’s standards — certainly more centrist than Ron Paul’s positions. Naturally the nation’s pundits often confidently predicted that this defeat spelled the end of the GOP.

Did the Grand Old Party fold up and disappear? Apparently not.

Let’s compare the Goldwater massacre with Obama’s election.

In 1964, incumbent President Lyndon Johnson trounced Republican Barry Goldwater, receiving a remarkable 61.1% of the national popular vote. Johnson beat Goldwater by an amazing 22.6% margin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1964

In 2012, incumbent President Barack Obama defeated Republican Mitt… Read More

RIDER COMMENT: California’s first AB32 “cap-and-trade” auction raised only a tiny fraction of the revenue Democrats projected that the auction would bring in for the state (see SAC BEE article below).

This story didn’t make any waves. It should have. The billions that CA Democrats hope to gain from cap-and-trade auctions are largely illusionary dollars.

This “disappointing” auction result is a classic demonstration of the law of supply and demand. Many businesses have little use for such CA “pollution” credits if they are leaving the state — or at least have no plans to further expand in the state.

On the supply side, doubtless a number of businesses will want to sell their existing CA pollution credits ASAP, as they will have zero use for such a pollution license if/when they leave the Golden State.

This market message concerning CA’s economic future should be setting off Sacramento alarm bells. It’s not.

Instead, Sacramento is already budgeting to spend the projected revenue on pet projects, even… Read More

As I drove home from the airport upon returning from a recent trip to Florida, I nearly cracked my wheel in a huge pothole on the freeway. Adding insult to injury, as I exited the freeway, I barely dodged another pothole.

The roads and highways in Florida were smooth, well maintained and safe. Florida obviously uses its transportation funds and taxes for its roads. Who knows where California’s transportation funds go. And for that matter, who knows where most of the taxpayers’ money goes in this new California.

The new California is like New Math — a failed experiment. We’ve become a state of potholes, pervasive unions, professional politicians and police.

Politics

The California Republican Party really started to fall apart after electing Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor in the historic 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis.

Many citizens go into… Read More

I want to start this note with a correction. In the last post I made, I said that the post Watergate Republican Party had less than two thirds in each house of the Legislature. I was wrong on that count. I was relying on anecdotal evidence I received from members who were there when it happened, and who simply misremembered. There were 56 Assembly Democrats in the 1974-76 Legislature, well over the two thirds necessary for a veto proof majority, however in the Senate, there were only 26 Democrats, one shy of the two thirds. So, there were more Democrats in the Legislature then than there are now, but that was because the Assembly had two more Democrats than this Legislature, even though the Senate had one less. There was one statewide Republican officeholder (the Attorney General), Evelle Younger.

They recovered, and helped elect Ronald Reagan president six years later, with the help of Proposition 13 and a tough on crime stance that then Governor Jerry Brown helped with his pro-tax, soft on crime Governorship.

The Republicans then had several things going for them. The post Watergate vote was a one time reaction to the alleged crimes of the Nixon… Read More

In my previous post, I discussed how Republicans were guaranteed a majority of the Walnut Creek City Council by virtue of having four candidates, three Republicans and one decline-to-stater, running for three seats on the council. Two of these Republicans, Justin Wedel and Loella Haskew, were elected along with Mayor Bob Simmons. Wedel and Haskew join current Republican councilmember Cindy Silva to form a 3-2 council majority. Also notable is that Barry Grove, the Republican candidate with the closest ties to public employee unions, was not elected.

The Walnut Creek election was not the only one in Contra Costa in which our party’s candidates were successful. We also elected all three of our endorsed candidates to the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District—Paul H. Causey, Tad J. Pilecki, and James A. Nejedly—to the three seats being contested, and Tom Cleveland, CPA, to the Contra Costa Community College District, along with numerous other Republicans to many city and town councils throughout the county. Along with our successes electing our candidates, we were also successful in defeating the two countywide tax measures on the ballot: Measure A, a… Read More