Last week I posted a link to a calculator at the Sacramento Bee website where you can calculate an estimate of how much more you will have to pay as a result of the tax increases signed by the Governor. http://www.sacbee.com/1098/story/1627728.html A reader alerted me to some possible flaws with the calculator so I asked our chief economist at the Board to look at the calculator’s sales tax component. The conclusion is the calculator is off in two ways with respect to sales tax, the net result is it likely understates the impact on individuals. I do not believe the flaws are intentional but based on an imperfect understanding of California’s economy. I very much appreciate the Sac Bee’s efforts to make clear the impact of the tax for individual Californians and I encourage them to continue doing so. The analysis of their calculator is below. “We now know the calculator does… Read More

I know that some of you would like me to talk more about issues other than fiscal/financial ones. And I will do that when bills move or issues come to the floor. However, I am a bean counter (CPA) by trade and I do sit on 3 of the 4 financial committees on which members of the House can sit (The only one I am not on is the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee). Numbers are kind of what I do. And of course, issue number 1, 2, and 3, both in the public’s mind and in DC, is the economy right now.

One of the services I hope to provide the readers of this blog is information about what is happening back here which will hopefully help you navigate the very treacherous economic waters ahead. To that end, all 3 of the committees on which I sit met last week. Here is a brief synopsis of what I learned from those hearings…..and some comments on other stuff you may want to know:

Budget Committee: Last week’s witness in this committee was Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner talking about the President’s budget. He vigorously defended the budget, which I would… Read More

Our friends with Americans for Prosperity, California, were participants in yesterday’s massive anti-tax rally in Fullerton, and they sent this over for your reading pleasure. Below are a few photos from the days event…

Americans for Prosperity joined KFI radio personalities John and Ken for "Tax Revolt Day" in California. Speaking to a crowd of 15,000 people, AFP California’s Statewide Chairman Peter Foy spoke of the recent outrage over the $45 billion tax increase recently levied on taxpayers by politicians in Sacramento. Peter Foy reminded the crowd that the recent tax increase from Sacramento is costing taxpayers $21 Million dollars per day, equivalent to 913,000 per hour, 24 hours per day.… Read More

From the “Wake up and don’t smell the tobacco” department… Thanks to the Federal Strategy Group for sending along the quote of the day:

“They’re telling you how to live and what to do, and they’re doing it right here in America.”

–Edith Frederickson, 72, a smoker in Belmont, California, where a strict antismoking law effectively outlaws lighting up in all apartment buildings (New York Times, 1/27/09) From the “It’s not only Republicans mad at some of their legislators” department… This excerpted from a recent San Diego Democratic Club email call-to-action, and starring Assemblyman Marty Block:

Last Monday … the California State Assembly voted on HR 5, Assemblymember Tom Ammiano’s resolution declaring that the Assembly believes that Proposition 8 was an improper "revision" of our California Constitution rather than an "amendment" that could be rightly placed before voters as the Proposition 8 proponents did last fall. In… Read More

This was sent out statewide to the members of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association after yesterday’s massive, successful anti-tax rally in Fullerton…

At least 10,000 angry taxpayers (one official estimate was over 15,000) participated in the 2009 Tax Revolt rally in Fullerton today. A big Thank You to all the HJTA members who joined the protest against higher taxes and Proposition 1A, the $16 billion tax increase scam placed on the May 19 special election ballot by the Legislature. We know that many HJTA members were not able to travel to Fullerton, but were with us in spirit. This event was just the kickoff of the campaign to defeat Proposition 1A that is being deceptively marketed by… Read More

I can imagine the assignment editors hanging out in the Los Angeles Times newsroom when the fax comes over from KFI’s John & Ken show informing them of a "tax revolt rally" taking place in Fullerton. Never mind that the Times’ Orange County coverage is becoming more and more sparse, given the attention lately on the quickly growing discontent amongst taxpaying Californian’s in the wake of the passage a few weeks ago of the largest tax increase in this history of this state (or any state, for that matter), you would think that they would have assigned a reporter to cover the event. Perhaps maybe they might have also sent a photographer to snap some "clicks" of the crowd.

Invariably, though, the editors, who were probably leaders in PETA or Greenpeace on their college campuses before turning to a life in journalism (following most of their campus-left activists), just scrunched up the fax and tossed it into the trash.

That is certainly one conclusion that you could come to as you turn the pages of the Los Angeles Times print edition this morning, as my mom and dad did — they live in LA. My mom confirmed for me… Read More

I can imagine the assignment editors hanging out in the Los Angeles Times newsroom when the fax comes over from KFI’s John & Ken show informing them of a "tax revolt rally" taking place in Fullerton. Never mind that the Times’ Orange County coverage is becoming more and more sparse, given the attention lately on the quickly growing discontent amongst taxpaying Californian’s in the wake of the passage a few weeks ago of the largest tax increase in this history of this state (or any state, for that matter), you would think that they would have assigned a reporter to cover the event. Perhaps maybe they might have also sent a photographer to snap some "clicks" of the crowd.

Invariably, though, the editors, who were probably leaders in PETA or Greenpeace on their college campuses before turning to a life in journalism (following most of their campus-left activists), just scrunched up the fax and tossed it into the trash.

That is certainly one conclusion that you could come to as you turn the pages of the Los Angeles Times print edition this morning, as my mom and dad did — they live in LA. My mom confirmed for me… Read More

… Read More