2 for 2. June’s school tax elections in Los Angeles County continues. Palos Verdes Peninsula’s Parcel tax passed with 68% of the vote. Los AngelesCounty voters love passing bonds and taxes for localschools. Only one of the four scheduled for June may fail. Locals feel they get value eventhough they reject taxes at the state level.… Read More

This photo, taken by one of FR’s state legislator friends in the Capitol, clearly shows a sign for a committee meeting that was canceled by the Democrats. The lost words make the sign VERY appropriate indeed, and more correct. If you don’t think that liberal policies coming out of Sacramento are "canceling jobs, economic development and the economy" — click here.… Read More

Yesterday was a pretty good day. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a charter amendment I wrotefor the City of Newport Beach in a unanimous decision. The charter amendment locates the future City Hall building on city-owned property adjacent to the Newport Beach Central Library at Fashion Island.

Initiative proponents William Ficker, Jack Croul and Marian Bergeson were responsible for qualifying the initiative for the ballot in February, 2008, but were opposed in the campaign by a majority of the City Council, who had other ideas about where the City Hall should be.STA Campaignsmanaged the effort for the proponents. After a spirited campaign, the voters decided by a 53% to 47% vote to pass the initiative. Opponent Allan Beek, an "open space" advocate,waged the campaign against the measure, and filed pre-election and post-election Superior Court challenges, losing on all counts. He then took his appeal, and now the decision of the three-judge panel at the Court of Appeals willmost likelyclose this chapter in Newport Beach history.

The Court’s memorandum on the decision has some… Read More

I’m watching the Senate and Assembly Floor sessions at www.calchannel.com. Assemblyman Jim Nielsen just delivered a powerful speech on the Assembly Floor highlighting the flawed process that has the legislature considering a major policy proposal that no one has been able to even read. Over on the Senate side, Republican Bob Dutton is dicing up the content of the proposal — noting at this moment the gimmick financing of sliding the state’s June 30 payroll by one day, into the new fiscal year, in order to paper-over well over a billion of the shortfall.… Read More

This morning the Democrats implemented their budget drill — and I am happy to report that all of the Republicans in the State Capitol, whether in the Senate or the Assembly, voted against it (well, with what we call the "Maldonado Exception" — which means he doesn’t play well in the sandbox with fellow Republicans so he was on the Senate Floor, but abstained. The held the bill "open" so I suppose he can drop in a vote later. Unfortunately we don’t have an FR psychiatrist to help us understand the inner-workings of that guy).

Senate President Darrell Steinberg has challenged Republicans, saying that we don’t have a plan. To this, I would say, as I have said before, let’s put Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed fixes up for a vote. Of course there are some items in there that I don’t like — but on balance, it is vastly better than what the Democrats put forward today. Put up Arnold’s proposal, and let’s have a vote!… Read More

As you read this, the State Legislature is gearing up to attempt its first raid on local government. The urgency of this warning can’t be overstated; If they achieve this smash-and-grab by taking (not even borrowing) the Highway Users Tax Account gasoline tax, cities and counties will see their ability to maintain their streets and roads crippled.

San Bernardino County currently relies on these gas tax dollars for potholes, rehabilitation and resurfacing of 2,700 miles of paved roads in the unincorporated areas alone. If the County were to lose just the HUTA dollars alone (about $32 million), an estimated 200 essential public works personnel would lose their jobs immediately.

Among budget proposals that will likely be voted on are billions in additional raids of transportation dollars, including deferring the first two quarterly payments of the local (city and county) share of Proposition 42 state sales tax on gas, equal to approximately $300 million, which would further hinder local road safety projects, maintenance and repairs.

These raids would disproportionately impact transportation funding, especially when the industry is facing 20%+ unemployment.… Read More

I am quite fond of former State Senator Chuck Poochigian. He’s a great guy — and a good conservative. Frankly, though, he should have turned down the offer when it was proposed to name a stretch of California highway in his name (read it here).

Frankly, it is troubling enough when we name public works for politicians who have passed on, let alone those that are with us. Frankly, every taxpayers whose money was used to fund that highway have just as much legitimate right to have their name it.

This kind of thing glorifies the role of the politician who successful spends other people’s money.

By no means is Poochigian the only living politician with something named "in their honor" — there are thousands of examples of this kind of glorification of elected officials (such… Read More

On the Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert website, they have an entry Sparks Begin To Fly Over Dems’ Budget Plan where it is made clear that Republicans will not support any additional tax increases. But Senate President Darrell Steinberg suggests that Republicans will support the non-taxes portion of their package.

"Why isn’t it better to solve $21 billion instead of zero?" says Steinberg in the piece. Even if you ignore, for the sake of discussion, that some of the "non-tax" solutions in that $21 billion figure involve shameful gimmickry like paying state employees perpetually on July 1 instead of June 30, thus perennially… Read More