There isn’t much point in my expending a lot of time this morning chastising Senate and Assembly Democrats for their plans, this morning, to try to stick Californians with billions of dollars in new taxes, using some scheme where they brazenly attempt to navigate around the State Constitution’s requirement for a 2/3 vote to raise taxes. Through sleight of hand and bizarre terminology, Democrats are planning to hike the state’s income, gas, and car taxes (and that’s not all) — and do it with a majority vote (Republican legislators have appropriately and boldly said NO to any tax increases to solve a chronic overspending problem).

It seems to me that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is the one in the spotlight here. The Governor has already called for the legislature to increase taxes by billions of dollars as part of a package that he put forward designed to close the overspending gap not only with spending cuts but also with new taxes. Yeah, we get that. It’s disappointing, but we get it.

But this Proposition 13 end-run that is being quarterbacked by Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass… Read More

There isn’t much point in my expending a lot of time this morning chastising Senate and Assembly Democrats for their plans, this morning, to try to stick Californians with billions of dollars in new taxes, using some scheme where they brazenly attempt to navigate around the State Constitution’s requirement for a 2/3 vote to raise taxes. Through sleight of hand and bizarre terminology, Democrats are planning to hike the state’s income, gas, and car taxes (and that’s not all) — and do it with a majority vote (Republican legislators have appropriately and boldly said NO to any tax increases to solve a chronic overspending problem).

It seems to me that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is the one in the spotlight here. The Governor has already called for the legislature to increase taxes by billions of dollars as part of a package that he put forward designed to close the overspending gap not only with spending cuts but also with new taxes. Yeah, we get that. It’s disappointing, but we get it.

But this Proposition 13 end-run that is being quarterbacked by Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass… Read More

Amidst the chaos of overspending crisis in Sacramento, I wanted to highlight an announcement from the Poizner for Governor campaign. They have released an impressive list of eighteen current County Republican Party Chairmen from all around the Golden State who are early endorsers of his bid.

"Who are they?"

Glad you asked, they are: Karna Boyer, Sutter County; Joan Clendenin, Stanislaus County; Joseph Day, Tuolumne County; Margaret Dominici, Shasta County; Prudence Eiland, Kings County; Howard Epstein, San Francisco County; Dale Fritchen, San Joaquin County; Tom Hudson, Placer County; Morgan Kelly, Marin County; Karen King, San Mateo County; Janet Kirtlink, Napa County; Brian Leach, Glenn County; Bob Richmond, Riverside County; Jim Rooney, Amador County; Ken Say, Tehama County; John Steizmiller, El Dorado County; Thaddeus Taylor, Inyo County; Steve Thompson, Butte County; and Bob Vile, Calaveras County.

Poizner also announced the endorsement of Linda Boyd, who was the long time Chairman of the Los Angeles County Republican Central Committee.

The list is most impressive as it has Chairmen who I would characterize as strong… Read More

There is already talk about the quick legal challenge to passing billions of dollars of tax increases with a 2/3rds vote of the legislature. But chew on this — undoubtedly a referendum will also be filed on these bills if signed into law. From my basic understanding of how that process works, just the start of the qualification process of a referendum halts the implementation of the laws for months… Chew on that! Anyone have the forms I need to submit to start the ball rolling? I think I just need to send in a letter a $200 check…… Read More

Today I am pleased to offer this guest editorial from longtime FR friend State Senator Jeff Denham…

So California can’t sell its bonds because the outside world has no confidence in our leadership’s ability to manage the state’s finances. And now public works projects are shutting down—projects that the public approved at the governor’s urging. If only he had shown as much leadership throughout his tenure in fighting for budget reform. Instead, when that issue wasn’t an easy win and didn’t come with accolades from the Democrats and the media, he shifted his attention to global warming. For once, a politician’s chickens are coming to roost when he is still in office. I’m glad that the Schwarzenegger is having to deal with this mess. He could have avoided it—or at least the deficit wouldn’t be this big and his options would be better—if he had stayed true to his word when he first ran for office and shepherded through real budget reform early on.

… Read More

Today I am pleased to offer this guest editorial from longtime FR friend State Senator Jeff Denham…

One important step in solving the state’s budget crisis is to eliminate wasteful resources and look for potential opportunities to create new revenue without raising taxes.

One significant opportunity is to sell the 432 acres of pristine California land that houses San Quentin State Prison. This state property sits on a prime bay front section of Marin County and has the potential to provide the state with substantial revenue.

**There is more –… Read More

A reminder that once a year, the elves here at the FlashReport take our annual vacation. Every year, the FlashReport publishes daily through the Friday before Christmas, and we restart our daily routine on January 2. For those looking at a calendar, that means that this Friday will be the last time our main page is updated for the year. This is traditionally a very slow time for political news.

That said, this particular year, because of the chaos caused by the chronic overspending of legislative Democrats, and the resulting budget mess, we will be keeping the FR blog open through the holidays, and will encourage our readers to check in regularly (normally we would shut that down, too!).

When we come back after the holidays, look for one new major feature on the site, and we’ll also be revamping our blogger row, with some new, awesome contributors joining our blog team.

As always, if you have any thoughts or suggestions about how we can improve FR, please share them with us. You can e-mail me here.… Read More