The State of California is currently sitting on billions of dollars of uncollected debt that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars on private debt markets. Rather than raise taxes on the hardworking people of California, state leaders should sell off debt to raise the cash we need—just like private businesses do.

Selling aging debt is a common practice in the private sector and has also been used successfully by many local governments. Selling debt makes a lot more sense than selling buildings you have to turn around and lease back.

The sale of these assets could provide much-needed one-time cash. Combined with rising revenues, these dollars could help protect priority programs and eliminate the perceived need to impose higher taxes on struggling Californians.

Today I called upon the Governor and legislative leaders urging them to consider such a sale in their ongoing budget negotiations.

Below is the text of my letter.

—-

June 6, 2011

Dear Governor Brown and Legislative Leaders:

I am writing to suggest monetizing a portion of the billions of dollars in debt owed the State of California as a possible… Read More

– Governor Jerry Brown is 100% correct. OK, I had better qualify that. On the issue of actually abolishing redevelopment agencies in California, the Governor and I agree. RDAs aren’t in need of reform, they are poor public policy by their very nature. Clearing aside the plethora of examples of abuse that are rampant with RDAs, at their core they represent a gross manipulation of the free market, and put local politicians in position of choosing winners and losers.

– The starting gun is officially fired in the race for Mayor of San Diego. Up to this point, people have talked about it, but San Diego City Elections Code prohibits fundraising for the office until one year out – which was yesterday. Of course the normal campaign finance reporting period ends at the end of the month — which creates a fun-to-watch (and expensive if you are a donor) fundraising-palooza for June. San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio made his bid official yesterday, and Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher announces his candidacy today.

– Does it seem odd to you that an… Read More

[Yesterday, Republican San Diego City Councilmember Carl DeMaio, whom we have highlighted many times on this page for his leadership in fighting for real, meaningful public employee pension reform, officially declared his candidacy for Mayor… Below is a column is has penned for FlashReport readers on his candidacy… – Flash]

The Reform Movement in San Diego and My Campaign for Mayor by Carl DeMaio

In many ways, the City of San Diego is a lot like the State of California as a whole – both face a massive financial crisis, Party registration and socio-economic demographics are virtually identical, and both have been controlled by a strong Democrat-majority in the legislature backed by special interest lobbyists and organized labor.

But there is one key difference: In San Diego, there is a clear and specific reform movement underway that is producing solid results. We are also poised to make significant gains in the 2012 election – meaning even more reforms are on the way.

Last November I released the Roadmap to Recovery, an 80-page,… Read More

The time to vote on the budget is coming up, and the drumbeat for Republicans to vote for taxes is getting louder. We cannot, Republicans are told, balance this budget without a “balanced” approach (a euphemism for increasing taxes). I find the word “balanced” somewhat amusing, because when revenues were pouring in, there was not balance between spending increases and tax rate reductions. Nope, it is just spend and spend, and then when we run out of money, it’s “oops, now we need tax rate increases.” That, of course, is the Democrats concept of “balance.”

That being said, lest any Republicans be tempted to take the tax rate increase road, let me tell a story. If there is any problem with term limits, it is that these stories get lost in the perennial turnover of personnel, and history gets revised by the ruling class, while the lessons of the past are lost in the memories of legislators long gone from the political scene.

My first year in the Legislature was an interesting one. We were the first class to get elected knowing we were subject to term limits, and there were a number of legislative… Read More

There is a saying, “politics makes for strange bedfellows.”

No where is that saying more appropriate than in reference to a floor speech that conservative icon and United States Congressman Tom McClintock, earlier in the week delivered to the House of Representatives. It was a speech in support of a resolution authored by hard-line leftist Dennis Kucinich regarding President Obama’s Libya policy, and the blatant violation of the War Powers Act and the Constitution as the President did not seek prior approval from Congress before a de facto declaration of war on Libya, and the commitment of significant United States resources towards military action in that country.

There is another saying, that if left goes left, and right goes right, there is a circle and eventually you meet on the other side of it… McClintock’s American Conservate Union rating is a perfect 100, while Kucinich scores a perfect 0.

Here are Tom McClintock’s remarks, that I believe are 100% on the mark…… Read More

The liberal Campaign Legal Center says former Democrat Vice-Presidential nominee and former U.S. Senator John Edward’s indictment on corruption charges “paints a troubling picture,” that raises the “specter of political influence peddling in the form of ‘gifts’ to candidates in high stakes campaigns.” Edward’s friends helped pay-off the mother of his secret out-of-wedlock love child while he was running in the presidential primaries, and federal prosecutors see that as secret and excessive and therefore illegal contributions to his failed campaign for President. There are other related claims of criminality. But even then the Campaign center complains of delays in prosecution, a feeble FEC enforcement posture, and urges broader actions including against former U.S. Senator John Ensign of Nevada, who is alleged to have arranged employment in exchange for silence in connection with a sex scandal.

Reports in the New York press and from Europe suggest that friends of the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the “champagne socialist” who was on his way to what might… Read More

Things are not so good out there. The unemployment rate, already stubbornly high, climbed even higher in May. Economists are revising economic growth predictions downward. Housing prices continue to drop, thereby further reducing household wealth. Real returns on bank deposits and Treasury Bills are negative. The dollar is dropping. Gas prices are up, inflation is up. There are some bright spots, certainly, but the overall picture is that of stagnation. Unfortunately, none of this is a great surprise given what the government has been doing of late. We are printing money and artificially holding down interest rates to try and spur recovery. But, this is creating those negative real (after inflation) interest rates, which are distorting capital flows. Most of the country’s tax policies expire in 18 months, so no one can do any long-term investment planning about taxes with any certainty. The government is retarding the development of almost all forms of economical energy (oil, gas, coal, nuclear), while subsidizing expensive wind and solar. We continue to run record deficits, which divert capital from other more productive uses and create the massive public debt overhang… Read More

A new PPIC poll confirms what many of us have suspected all along – Democrats don’t want to gather signatures for a special election to extend taxes because the idea is terribly unpopular in overtaxed California.

It is far easier to falsely accuse the GOP of being obstructionist (for simply disagreeing with Democrats) than it is to actually face voters and explain why an ineffective, dysfunctional government needs stable funding to do a lousy job.

PPIC confirms it. Democrats want to simply find and use weak Republicans to walk the plank – again, so that the blame for high taxes can be bipartisan. So far the GOP isn’t being stupid – which is a first for us since 2000.… Read More