The California Taxpayers’ Association recently reported the Commission on the 21st Century Economy is proposing an 18 cent tax increase on gasoline and diesel fuel to “encourage energy conservation.”

This is bad news for California families and small businesses that already pay some of the highest taxes in the nation.

The new tax would be in addition to the existing state gas tax of 18 cents per gallon, the federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon, and the sales tax that is assessed after gas taxes are added to the price. California consumers also ultimately pay the costs of the state’s high taxes and regulatory costs on businesses that produce and sell gasoline, said Cal Taxpayers.… Read More

Most politicos don’t usually socialize with terror apologists. Generally, theyare cautious to a fault. Which is whya politicalevent today in Sacramento raisesserious questions of what were they thinking. The extremist group CAIR (Committee for American-Islamic Relations)recently issued a press releaseannouncing its6th Annual Ramadan Iftar inside the Capitol Rotunda (see the release with a full list of legislative co-hosts attached to the bottom of this post).… Read More

Yesterday a furor erupted over a pretty extensive blog post by former MSM reporter turned blogger Greg Lucas, on his California’s Capitol site entitled, Schwarzenegger Administration Floats 25-cent Fee on Single-Use Plastic and Paper Bags. Lucas is viewed as being a pretty credible writer on the goings-on of California politics.

Well, if there was a trial balloon being floated, consider it popped. We just got off of the phone with the Gov’s peeps — who confirm that the Governor has not, does not, and will not sign into law a tax on plastic grocery bags.… Read More

Most politicos don’t usually socialize with terror apologists. Generally, theyare cautious to a fault. Which is whya politicalevent today in Sacramento raisesserious questions of what were they thinking. The extremist group CAIR (Committee for American-Islamic Relations)recently issued a press releaseannouncing its6th Annual Ramadan Iftar inside the Capitol Rotunda (see the release with a full list of legislative co-hosts attached to the bottom of this post).… Read More

I am not quite sure how to react to the information, given to me by Aaron McLear (the Governor's Press Secretary) that his boss flat out opposes taxing grocery bags — but that he would support a complete ban on plastic shopping bags.

I guess I am half-pleased and half-not. That the Governor is maintaining his anti-tax stance is awesome.

But… Banning plastic bags? That seems to me to be a big over-reach by state government. There is no doubt that limiting the selection of available options to stores for choice of bag options will end up being costly for consumers.… Read More

Although the intentional use of fire to keep brush down is no longer as viable because of air quality regulations, we should learn from the Indians’ custom of actively controlling the land for the benefit of wildlife, and safety. The notion that the Indians preserved nature as if locked in amber is now being called "The Pristine Myth". The lesson we need to accept — that the Indians understood — is when nature is left to its own it may be bad for the environment. Too many snow geese can ruin wetlands, protected forests eventually rot and fall down, or burn (releasing way more carbon than new forests), and in California the environment is not clearly benefitting from the 20-30 foot high chaparral that has grown up in the hills surrounding Los Angeles — at least not as much as would grass and small shrubs animals could eat easily. We need a more dynamic approach to these public lands, perhaps cattle, goats or just clearing it by hand if necessary.

In Charles Mann’s book: "1491", his collaborative research argues the Indians dominated the hemisphere — humongous farms and cities in the Yucatan and South America,… Read More

Freshman Republican Assemblyman Tom McClintock has outpaced every other member of the California Congressional Delegation for the last period, bringing in a total of $635,914. H/T to Dan Smith at the SacBee’s Capitol Alert blog for pointing out McClintock’s fundraising prowess.

Not mentioned in Smith’s take were two very important points. The first is that McClintock is very notably one of only a few House members to pledge not to carry or support Congressional earmarks (the Club for Growth keeps track here). Also extremely significant and refreshing is that unlike almost every other member of the California delegation, McClintock raised almost all of his funds from individual… Read More

This morning I wrote about efforts to pass Speaker Karen Bass’ AB 1422, and why Republicans should not support it. The bill seeks to restore some of the welfare cuts that came out of the June budget revision by going after, as some would characterize it, "free money" — referring to grabbing federal tax dollars (hardly "free" to the taxpayers). Through slight of hand, the bills INCREASES STATE TAXES in order to qualify for federal money. Then uses some of that money to "make whole" those stuck with the higher taxes. The remainder is — "free money" courtesy of Uncle Sam, right?

Better yet still, those to be taxed (and reimbursed) WANT this, as they will profit when the "free money" is spent.

So it’s all good, right?

WRONG.

This devilish arrangement is bad in many ways, both on a policy level as well as politically.

I make the policy argument in my commentary, but to reiterate — the so-named Healthy Families program is sick. It doesn’t work well, and is in need of an overhaul of the sort that liberal ideologues are not in a hurry to do.

It is also… Read More