Governor Schwarzenegger has unveiled a tough new 60 second television commercial in which he looks straight into the camera and makes it clear to Californians that the Governor is committed to rejecting any budget that includes tax increases, that does not curb waste fraud or abuse, or that "kicks the can" into the future. It’s a great commercial, and in sixty seconds provides and much stronger message to the public than the weak California Teachers Association ads that ran last week. You can see the Governor’s new commercial below.

I want to take the opportunity to thanks and commend Governor… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger has unveiled a tough new 60 second television commercial in which he looks straight into the camera and makes it clear to Californians that the Governor is committed to rejecting any budget that includes tax increases, that does not curb waste fraud or abuse, or that "kicks the can" into the future. It’s a great commercial, and in sixty seconds provides and much stronger message to the public than the weak California Teachers Association ads that ran last week. You can see the Governor’s new commercial below.

I want to take the opportunity to thanks and commend Governor… Read More

The California Republican Party today released a new web ad entitled "Get Serious." The web ad highlights the status of the state budget crisis and displays Democrat leaders Karen Bass, Darrell Steinberg, Noreen Evans, Lori Saldana, and Isadore Hall, in their own words demonstrating their out-of-touch and insincere approach to the state’s budget problem.

Democrat leaders in Sacramento have shown a startling lack of accountability and flippant attitude regarding the tough decisions lawmakers must make. Conversely, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Republican lawmakers have stood up for California by pressing for a comprehensive solution to the budget crisis, that does not increase the economic burden on our already struggling California families.

… Read More

As a freshman legislator, it’s astounding to me how many times I’ve already come across scenarios in which common sense has failed to prevail. The latest is so aggravating, that I feel compelled to share.

AB35XXX was just put on “Suspense” by a vote of 7-5, with every Democrat voting for the Suspense motion, and every Republican voting against. The bill would have saved taxpayer dollars while minimizing the impact in the summer-break of the kids and parents who are being punished for a minor mistake made by Chino Valley Unified. The district miscalculated a few minutes in their bell schedule, forcing a few schools to extend their school year by 34 extra days…which in turn forced students and parents to cancel summer plans, vacations, camps, etc. This bill would have minimized the impact of that error.

The fact that the bill was put on the Senate Appropriations’ “Suspense File” only surprises me a little bit; after all this is not the first time that a common sense piece of legislation has been… Read More

Speaker Bass has to go!

California’s budget crisis cannot be solved until those responsible are removed from leadership. Last February the “big five’ leaders from both parties in both houses plus the Governor, rammed down billions in new taxes and put to vote more billions on the May 19th ballot. That didn’t work.

Everyone knows the new taxes didn’t resolve the budget gap and the voters in a 2-1 vote scuttled the new new tax increases.

**There is more – click the link**

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Last we checked, Monday is a "work day" for full-time legislators. Also, last we checked, the state is still dealing with a massive budget short-fall that is only going to be fixed by legislative action — which is needed, like, yesterday.

If you looked around the building today for a meeting of the Fab Five (OK, that’s "Big 5" in Capitol parlance) — you won’t find one.

The Governor’s around. The Senate Republican Leader is around. The Assembly Speaker is around. The Assembly Republican Leader is around.

But someone is missing…

Who could it be?

Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg has DISAPPEARED. Rumor has it that he isn’t even in California.

WHERE’S DARRELL?… Read More

The BoE has released its 2007-08 Annual Report that breaks down the $53.1 billion in revenue collected by the BoE in year ending June 30, 2008. The BOE collected approximately $700 million less than the previous fiscal year, a decrease of 1.3 percent.

It is clear the economy was getting softer in the first half of last year and that retail sales were declining even more than other revenue categories. In light of this, February’s decision to raise the sales tax by one percent was a punitive and destructive decision. The Governor and legislators that signed off on it claimed raising the sales tax would bring in $6 billion more in revenue, despite the dynamic revenue analysis of the BoE’s chief economist showing that a … Read More

Question: What is significant about this amount of money? $15,000,000.00. Answer: According to the British Government, that is the cost of one of Queen Elizabeth’s two Golden Jubilee Bentley state limousines.

Second Answer: According to a campaign release, that is the amount of money that former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has added to her campaign coffers today in the form of one large campaign contribution.

Whitman had already dropped a cool $4 million into her own campaign, bringing the total of self-funding to a staggering $19 million. Add to this her impressive haul of $6.7 million from donations and that makes for a lot of green stuff.

Whitman’s wealthy primary opponent, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, has put over $4 million of his own into his campaign account, and raised another $1.2 on top of that.

Before you let these numbers glaze your eyes — based on the net worth of the candidates, and how badly each wants to be Governor of California… Read More