The California Air Resources Board seems to be on everyone’s list of what not to do in state government. Charged with implementing AB 32, the California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, CARB is under increasing scrutiny for operating as a rogue agency, appearing to be accountable to no one.

All attempts to reel in the agency have failed, including another attempt to audit its operations and finances–thanks to Democratic legislators who clearly are getting marching orders from Assembly and Senate leaders.

A Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing on Wednesday brought CARB close to accountability with the threat of the six-month state audit. But the committee chairman, Assemblyman Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, surprised everyone when he nixed the plan after having made the pretense that he was on board.

CARB and AB 32

In 2006, the Legislature promised that AB 32 would help clean the environment while still protecting the economy. Supportive legislators promised that utility and gasoline costs would not increase with the implementation of the climate change law.

The opposite has happened, and businesses are now… Read More

Prior to joining the Legislature, I was a lawyer for over 13 years, with a primary emphasis in business disputes. I still work as a lawyer since I left the Legislature for the last six years. Of course, while in the Legislature, I served on the Senate and Assembly Judiciary Committees, given my experience in the law and litigation.

Why is that important? Because during my time as a lawyer, I had more than one client weave conspiracy theories about what was going on in their cases. My response always was: What is the evidence? What can we prove? What documents or witnesses do you have? Of course, there are two types of evidence admissible in a court action, direct evidence and circumstantial. Both are of equal weight in a court action. Direct evidence can best be described as Jack sees John shoot Ted. Jack’s testimony about what he saw is direct evidence. Circumstantial evidence is Jack hears a gunshot, runs into the room, and see John standing over a dead Ted, holding a smoking gun. It is this type of circumstantial evidence that always leads people to look “for the smoking gun” in any conspiracy type claims. It also leads those who… Read More

One of the biggest problem with our tax system in America, and here in California, is that it is overly complex and is filled with all kinds of special treatment for one group or another. It is filled with subsidies, credits and exemptions — each of which, when it comes down to it, is a result of the politicians in Washington, D.C., or in Sacramento picking winners and losers. Long has there been a movement to establish a “flat tax” system, where there is one tax rate paid by everyone, and no longer would those in political favor get preferential treatment in the tax code, nor would the tax code be used as a tool to manipulate the behavior of the people to the liking of the political class. So while I appreciate that NASCAR gets a tax break, end it. And while those who make rum get favorable tax treatment, that should end. And if you want to make corn ethanol, that’s great — but you shouldn’t get a break on your taxes for it.

Of course, it takes a lot of commitment to truly support a flat tax — where the government treats everyone the same. It seems like there will always be temptation to want to use the power of government to… Read More

It’s not fair; it’s not constitutional, but thanks to Governor Jerry Brown and the Legislature, fire tax bills are coming all the same.

The State of California will begin mailing the first of more than 825,000 “Fire Prevention Fee” bills on Monday, August 13.

The tax, approved as a fee by a simple majority vote of the Legislature last year, charges residential property owners in rural areas $150 for each habitable structure located on their land. Property owners who pay for local fire protection will receive a $35 reduction.

To help inform California taxpayers, I’ve established a website, calfirefee.com, providing information about the new fire tax. Californians can visit this site to find out if they might soon receive a fire tax bill. You can also find details regarding the process, timeline and grounds for filing an appeal.

The bills will go out in alphabetical order by county between August and early December. The state has released the following partial mailing schedule:

ALAMEDA August 13th through… Read More

Yesterday the trial lawyers and radical environmental groups launched a campaign to dupe the California Republican Party delegates assembling this weekend to back their big government “genetically modified food” labeling initiative, Prop 37. Here is the warning I sent to delegates about this trial lawyers’ dream:

The trial lawyers and radical environmentalists are trying to fool CRP delegates about an upcoming proposition, and I wanted to bring it to your attention right away.

Let me explain.

During my four years as Chairman, once in a while the leftists would show up at convention trying to dupe the CRP into supporting their liberal, big government propositions when they thought they might get away with it.

Fortunately, we stopped them every time and the CRP has been very consistent in supporting good initiatives and opposing bad ones.

Well, now they’re back.

Earlier today you received a very misleading email from a “Tom Fendley” spinning why Proposition 37 is a great idea.

It is terrible public policy and we need to oppose it.

The trial lawyers and radical environmental… Read More

Last week, Board of Equalization Member Michelle Steel penned a column that appeared on the Fox & Hounds Daily website, where she well articulated why members of the State Legislature should reject a proposal from Governor Jerry Brown to create a point-of-sale lumber tax for Californians. Yes, you read that right, yet another tax being proposed by this Governor, which is definitely not what we need.

First and foremost, let me personally extend my sympathies to those California producers of lumber that… Read More

Mitt Romney will soon announce his choice to replace the hapless Joe Biden as the next Vice President of the United States. The announcement is a great opportunity to refocus attention on the clear choice Americans face in November, between more of the same from Obama-Biden and a new direction with “America’s Comeback Team.”

I’m in Washington, D.C. today and anticipation of the “veep” announcement here is approaching a fever pitch – it’s expected any day now.

The Republican Party is blessed with a long list of strong leaders who are well qualified to serve as Mitt Romney’s governing partner in the new Republican Administration: Gov. Chris Christie, Gov. Susana Martinez, Rep. Paul Ryan, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Sen. Rob Portman, and many more.

During his many visits with the California Republican Party I got to know Mitt Romney, and I’m 100%… Read More

Ultra-liberal Assemblywoman Julia Brownley is at it again — she has decided once again to try and prevail upon the state legislature and Governor that it is in the state’s interest to ban the use of 100% recyclable plastic grocery bags and charge (read: tax) people for other bags. This is not the first time she has attempted to do something like this — most recently in the 2010 legislative session, she authored AB 1998, also a statewide plastic bag ban. Faced with a strong wall of bipartisan opposition two years ago, AB 1998 failed to garner enough votes to pass the State Senate. I would urge state legislators to similarly reject Brownley’s latest effort.

… Read More