Today legislative Democrats will apparently bring forward their budget amendment plans in a series of votes today. Republican legislators should prepare to vote no – no, no, no, no…

Here are a few key reasons why this plan, being put forward by Democrats, should be rejected in its entirety.

No Transparency Or Notice: No one is really sure what is actually being voted on today. In principle, GOPers (and frankly, Democrats, too) should reject any legislative proposals being put up for a vote that have not been in print for 72 hours and all of the legislators have had time to read the actual language, and get input from whatever sources they deem helpful. See the note from Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries below, on this particular topic. Billions In New Taxes: Despite numerous and repeated statements from Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass that the rejection of 1A would lead to an “all cuts” process of squaring the state’s finances, that is not what we have … Read More

At a time that common-sense legislators and a philosophy of full accountability are calling for opening up the budget process to the eyes of the public, the powers that be still can’t even find a way to open it up to those being asked to vote.

If you haven’t read Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries’ press release about the lack of openness, it pretty much provides a dose of reality on the subject (see Jon’s commentary this morning, four posts below, for the Jeffries release).

An update from Jeffries’ office this morning:

"Assembly just got the information on the 2009-10 State Budget at 10:25 am; almost an hour and a half after floor session started."

It would be comical, if it weren’t so typically status-quo.… Read More

It has been some time since we here at the FlashReport have bestowed the infamous “Golden Trashcan” award. As long time readers know, it takes a particularly onerous piece of legislation, or in this case a regulation, to “get the can” – but the dubious honor goes to the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) proposal to ban big screen televisions.

If you are like me, you may have heard a rumor about this, and dismissed it as being nonsensical. That’s what I did after I read a brief item written about this by Orange County Register editorial writer Steven Greenhut back in March. In his posting, Greenhut cited a statistic that under the proposal, as many as 25% of big screen televisions today would no longer… Read More

California Businesses Continue To Shed Jobs – 68,000 More Jobs Lost In May

“The state lost 68,900 jobs in May as unemployment rose from a revised 11.1% in April and 6.8% in May 2008. This is the highest rate since the national record-keeping system began in 1976. Out of every four jobs lost nationwide since the recession began in December 2007, three have been lost by men.” (Marc Lifsher and Alana Semuels, “California Unemployment Rises To Record 11.5% In May,” Los Angeles Times, 6/20/09)

“Job losses slowed across much of the country last month – but not in California. In May, the state’s payrolls shrank at the fastest rate since February, wiping out 68,700 jobs, including more than 14,000 in the public sector, according to figures released Friday. Employment fell across all major sectors of the economy except health care, pushing the jobless rate to a modern record of 11.5 percent. Economists ticked off a familiar list of causes, from the housing bust and the contraction of the financial sector to a state budget crisis that’s soaking up federal… Read More

UPDATE: Congresswoman Mary Bono’s strict overlaps with much of the districts of Senator Benoit and Assemblyman Nestande. She has been a leader in the Whitman Campaign for some time now. We asked her for comment on this latest news… "I applaud the decision by Sen. John Benoit and Assemblyman Brian Nestande to endorse Meg Whitman for Governor. Their endorsements show that support for Meg Whitman is coalescing from all segments of our party, and that her ideas to return California to its rightful place as a land of opportunity and prosperity resonate with voters and members of our party across our great state."… Read More

Today’s LA Times has a story on study being released today that places blame for the loss of almost 80,000 California-based manufacturing jobs on our regulatory and tax structure. Recently, a group of us joined Assemblyman Dan Logue on a fact-finding trip to Nevada. We had a hearing with companies that have left California and heard stories firsthand just like the ones you can read about in this column. With rising unemployment, the state should be taking action to help create jobs…

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I missed the original report last week but was a little surprised that Mark Jacoby, who ran a business that focused on increasing Republican voter registration, plead guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced for filing a "false" voter affidavit in Los Angeles when he actually lived elsewhere. The two concepts of "domicile" and "residence" that appear in the California Elections Code have always had a little fuzzy correlation, allowing some wiggle room, but with the heat on ACORN and other liberal groups for vote related fraud issues across the country, last fall in the closing weeks of the 2008 general election, Jacoby became sort of a "fall guy" for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office and Secretary of State Debra Bowen. The back story is officials employed a fleet of local police squad cars to arrest this fellow at a temporary residence in the Inland Empire,creatinga prosecutorial media event in late October. And the irony was that amid national claims againstliberal groups for fudging the election for Obama, that California was prosecuting a Republican on seemingly similarclaims.

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Rep. John Campbell penned an excellent op-ed last Friday for the Investors Business Daily, in which he discussed the comparative chances entrepreneurism vs. Obama-Pelosi statism for reviving the American auto industry. Campbell, naturally, comes down on the side of liberty and common sense — which unsurpor5isiingly dove-tail with his 25 of experience in that industry:

INCYMI: Entrepreneurs Will Reinvent GM’s Castoffs

By Rep. John Campbell

Before I lost my mind and entered politics, I was in the car dealership business for 25 years. In fact, I was the first Saturn retailer chosen back in 1988, and served on the Franchise Operations Team. I opened one of the first 25 stores in 1990 and eventually owned and operated five Saturn Facilities in Orange County, Calif.

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