Note: Thanks to a phone call from Senator Bob Dutton, I stand corrected on my initial posting of this item which claimed the entire San Bernardino County legislative delegation supported raiding local gas tax (road maintenance and repair) dollars.Actually, it was the entire ASSEMBLY delegation from San Bernardino County that voted that way.Only one Senator, Gloria Negrete-McLeod (D-San Bernardino), voted for it. My apologies to Senators Dutton, Runner, Ashburn and Huff.

As of Friday, the state’s attempt to raid the local gasoline tax money cities and counties use for street and road maintenance and repairswas continuing.That’s $288 million in Prop. 42 "deferments", withan outrighttaking of $1.7 billion in HUTA local-share gas tax still on the table.

Let’s review what this would mean if it gains final approval:We would give up our local streets and roads maintenance so they can pay off some state bond debt, prop-up the state’s cash flow and credit ratings, and… Read More

UPDATED: Governor Schwarzenegger just put out this statement… "I will veto any majority vote tax increase bill that punishes taxpayers for Sacramento’s failure to live within its means," the governor said in a prepared statement. "The Legislature will have a difficult time explaining to Californians why they are running floor drills the day before our budget deadline. We do not have time for any more floor drills or partial solutions. It’s time for the Legislature to send me a budget that solves our entire deficit without raising taxes." ORIGINAL POST:

Last night watching the CalChannel on my laptop was like watching an episode of the Twilight Zone where in some horrible, alternative California, it deosn’t take a 2/3 vote of the legislature to enact tax increases. By a majority… Read More

For those who weren’t watching the CalChannel for last night’s Assembly Session (where the Democrats pushed through billions in illegal majority-vote taxes), which we hope is most of you, you certainly will not want to have missed the best floor speech of the night — a two minute oration from Assemblywoman Audra Strickland. Her remarks incensed the Democrats causing many of them to take to their microphones in protest… Audra’s speech really highlighted how these Democrats have made a priority of growing state government itself, doing no favors for those at-risk people who would benefit from a less costly way of delivering services. Good job, Audra! (h/t to Eric with killmedia.tv for the footage) … Read More

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has launched a statewide radio buy blasting Democrats for wanting to raise taxes. Echoing the theme of Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, Jon Coupal, HJTA’s President blasts Democrats for wanting to raise taxes to finance highly paid union workers — "They say more money is required to help the needy, but what they really want is more money for government employees."

You can listen to the ad right here.… Read More

As a follow-up to my earlier post below, it looks like Shari Barman had a prior run-in with law enforcement…

May 24,1977 AP Story Rosie Beats Foe to Punch

Tennis star Rosie Casals was arrested on an assualt charge after a minor automobile accident at San Francisco International Airport. San Mateo sherriff Richard Platt said that Casals, 28, and companion Sheri Barman, also 28, were taken into custody after Friday’s incident. Miss Casals was released on her own recognicance. Miss Barman was released after posting $1,000 bail. According to Platt, the two women had parked at the airport parking lot in front of a car driven by Glen Wolff, 30, of San Francisco. Wolff’s car alledgedly brushed the fender of Miss Casals’ car, according to Platt. Miss Casals jumped out of her car, pulled Mr. Wolff out of his car, and began punching him and scratching his face, Platt said. An airport security officer, Bernard Sullivan, tried to break up the altercation and Miss… Read More

The inimitable Mike Spence blogged on RedCounty.com that Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth and former Sen. Ray Haynes as strong primary challengers to Rep.Mary Bon-Mack:

Fellow Red County Contributor has clearly articulated the need for a GOP Primary challenge to Mary Bono-Mack.

His suggestions of former legislators Bonnie Garcia and Jim Battin make sense. Battin definitely would be a great candidate. I submit that Senator Dennis Hollingsworth and former legislator Ray Haynes be approached as well.

This Congressional District 45 is not just a Palm Springs district. It stretches down to Murrieta and Temecula through wonderful place like Hemet and Moreno Valley. Both Hollingsworth and Haynes do live in the Congressional District.

You can read the rest of Mike’s post here.… Read More

Congressman Jim Costa (D), Fresno voted against the Democrats cap and trade bill on the House floor last night but don’t be fooled – he’s no moderate. Although personally likeable and knowledgable about many issues, he’s been AWOL on the water debate here in the Central Valley. I had a journalist from the Fresno Bee tell me a couple of months ago that "Costa had no clout with Pelosi" because he’s a "Blue Dog" moderate without a voice in the capitol, so he couldn’t "get anything done" on the water issue.

I did some research on this and here is what I found. According to the Washington Post, Jim Costa voted with his Party leadership 94% of the time in 2008, and 97.9% in 2009 year to date.

It’s not hard to see the writing on the wall here. I blasted an email out about this to the Westside farmers in Costa’s District last week, and many of them wrote me back stunned and angry that we have another Pelosi Democrat masquerading as a moderate here in the Valley.

Sources in the capitol tell me that once it became apparent that cap and trade was going to pass, Costa got a… Read More

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed what is being referred to as the "Cap and Tax" plan or "National Energy Tax" bill by House Republicans — legislation pushed by President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Congressman Waxman and other liberals. No matter how you slice it, this legislation represents a massive expansion of federal government regulation, and the costs associated with the enactment it is are enormous for taxpayers. The Democrats referred to it as a "Cap and Trade" bill.

Only eight Republicans in the House voted for this legislation, and of the eight, only on is a Californian — Mary Bono Mack. Rather than trying to attempt to characterize for the Congresswoman why she voted for this bill, I reached out to her for a statement that I could share directly with FR readers. That statement is below.

I will be writing more on this vote by Congressman Mack next week, but I wanted to get her statement out as soon as possible. Suffice it to say for now that I am deeply troubled by Mack’s support of this legislation for a number of critical reasons.

The fact that the Democrats lost over 40… Read More