I understand that Dave Cogdill thinks he has gotten "the best budget deal" he could. Since I have recently be criticized by Debra Saunders for "being against compromise," I thought I would recite what bad "compromise" has gotten us.

You see, I haven’t always been against compromise in the state budget. I even voted for Governor Schwarzenegger’s first budget because I thought it was a good one. On many occasions, I believed that Republicans actually got something in the budget, so while I may have voted against the budget, I didn’t criticize those who voted for the compromise. In other cases, we were told "this was the best budget we will get" and therefore Republicans had to vote for it. Whenever you hear those words, you know there is a lot left on the table, and that the Republican leader has capitulated, as happened here.

Let’s take a look at the past

1998-99 – Republicans get the car tax cut. I supported the compromise because the deal actually advanced a Republican cause, that is, the cause of tax cuts. The tax cut was not perfect, it was to be implemented through a… Read More

It’s only a matter of time before Senator Abel Maldonado breaks caucus ranks and goes up on the budget, providing the third needed GOP vote. In his words, there are "no sweeteners," as of yet, but that is presently being worked out. Ain’t politics grand?

My prediction: It will be over tonight.

Once the respective party leaders realized there was no longer any hope for an aye vote out of Senator Dave Cox, the focus turned to Maldonado. Sometime after the Senate recessed late this morning, emissaries went to his office to grab him for discussions. Unlike the Assembly in lockdown on the Floor, the Senate was in an honor system situation, but Maldonado couldn’t be located and his office was locked with the lights out. The knocking on the office door went to no avail.

What’s more, a search of the Capitol garage indicated his car was gone. The buzz quickly spread that the shrewd Maldo was hiding out, knowing the longer no one could find him, the more he could up the ante with "sweeteners."

Yet, sometimes all the conspiracy theories in the world amount to nothing. The Senator had not left the… Read More

In the so-far-unsuccessful quest to find enough Republican votes to pass the budget monstrosity, the focus has been on termed-out legislators. One would assume that the reasoning for this is that these members won’t be seeking re-election in two or four years and therefore voting to raise constituents’ taxes won’t come up in a campaign. But what about any future campaigns for higher office? Are these lawmakers the rare breed that has no ambition for higher offices?

Even if they’re satisfied with their “service” thus far, maybe these members should be worried about even finishing the current term. When word leaked that Senator Abel Maldonado might be caving on the budget vote, a web site was purchased with the address RecallMaldonado.com. Considering the success of past recalls for mismanaging the state government, Senator Maldonado might want to reconsider voting for this particular tax-increasing budget. As of this post, RecallAshburn.com was still available…

Registrant: MAPA Strategies

5235 Mission Oaks Blvd Suite 1000 Camarillo,… Read More

Word is Senator Maldonado has cut a deal, and the Senate Republicans are being briefed on it momentarily… Read More

Today the Republican Party here in California is at a crossroads.

We watched from here in the Golden State while the GOP’s brand name was severely damaged by a Republican President and Senate and House majorities earlier this decade, when with GOP control, our party “presided” over growth in the size and scope of the federal government. Credibility is now an issue for our party, because our rhetoric did not match our actions.

Today, on a holiday weekend, on Valentine’s Day no less, at night, the State Legislature will gather in the State Capitol to vote on a state budget deal that is really, really bad news for California taxpayers and their families – the center point of this place is $14.8 billion in new taxes (more like $70 billion in new taxes over five years if all of the taxpayer-pain envisioned in this plan comes to fruition). I won’t spend time in this column blasting away at the poor policy reasons to oppose this plan, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, Jon Coupal with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and John Kabateck with the National… Read More

In response to Cap Weekly’s mention of possible GOP leadership rumblings over the current budget deal, Jon Fleischman notes in a post below that he typically refrains "from commenting on legislative caucus politics."

Fair enough. However, the rumors of rumblings does evoke some memories of the last Assembly GOP rumble. Then-Republican Minority Leader George Plescia was ousted a bit over two years ago — and replaced with Mike Villines — ostensibly for the crime of being too accommodating of legislative Democrats and Governor Schwarzenegger, meaning not standing firm enough in representing GOP Caucus interests and ideals when it came to budget negotiations.

Fast forward. Today we have an Assembly Republican Caucus, a clearcut majority of its members sharing the conservative, no taxes stance of the 2006 version. Just last November, the GOP leadership in both houses excoriated the Governor for proposing tax increases. Yet, the budget deal to be considered tonight, as negotiated by leaders of both parties and… Read More

Dan Schnur points out the need for an alternative budget below. This is something that I have been considering for several weeks now.,

In 1993 a member from each party did come together to attempt to "solve" the budget crisis. Republican Senator Frank Hill and Democratic Assemblyman Phil Isenberg actually started to write their own budget document. The budget delay then was 63 days but few would doubt that their efforts helped determine the eventual outcome.

Personally, I support term limits for members of the Legislature but one of the obvious reasons we don’t have alternative budgets is because of the imposition of term limits. It is hard to write a budget that makes sense. It takes experience with government and an understanding of the process.

Many of you will attempt to point to the fact the Hill later served time in prison as a reason this was a bad system. The reality is that he and Isenberg are both very bright men that understood the system and had the staff support to make this happen. His other issues have nothing to do with this.

Right now in Sacramento how many members of the Legislature truly understand… Read More

Ben Zycher responds to Genest in Round IV.

I will jump in here to say, again, that with all of these VERY REAL concerns about the cap being expressed by a noted conservative economist, isn’t it time to put on the breaks? Genest is a great guy, but it doesn’t change the fact that his office is under strong pressure to pass this "Big Five Big Taxes" budget deal… Zycher’s responses (he is responded to Genest’ points here): 1. Mr. Genest continues to insist that there would be no transfers from (or reduced transfers to) the BSF after 2010-11, unless the governor decides that there is a need to "cover a current services budget." Therefore, there will be such transfers from the BSF to the general fund as long as the governor decides that there is a "need." And "population plus inflation," as I noted earlier, is far more elastic that Mr. Genest is willing to admit, so that the current services baseline in reality will… Read More