Yesterday I blogged in response to the Governor’s throwing rocks at Republican legislators over their resolute stand against rewarding the chronic overspending with tax increases. The Governor’s office responded here. I figured that I should, in turn, respond to the Governor… So read on… Numbers can be manipulated all you want to make the Governor seem like he is a fiscal champion, but the fact remains that spending has increased by over 30 percent under Schwarzenegger, from $78.6 billion when the Governor took office to $103.3 billion today. (See the Legislative Analyst’s Historical Expenditure Chart here.)

We know that… Read More

SEIU’s Plan for Belt-tightening (For You, Not SEIU)

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Earlier today Governor Schwarzenegger held a press conference, blasting state legislators for not resolving the budget crisis. We’re on our way to "fiscal armageddon" he said, announcing that the state’s fiscal hole is getting deeper by about $40 million each and every day that goes by without a resolution. Yeah, we get that.

But the Governor is living in a very simplistic world if he thinks that, from his first floor conference room, he can blast away indiscriminately at "the legislature" and expect that this is going to resolve the substantial differences that divide Democrats who want to raise taxes, and Republicans who — don’t, and won’t.

Frankly, I don’t see where the Governor is really accomplishing much of anything. He was clearly elected with a mandate from the voters to oppose new taxes, and yet has thrown that to the wind as he has developed some sort of "Solomon like" simplistic view of resolving the state’s fiscal woes — "let’s figure out the level of the program and cut half of it,… Read More

This came in from the Governor’s office in response to my blog post below:

I serve on the Yolo Solano Air Quality Management District. In fact, in January I am scheduled to be the Chair of the district. This morning I lost on a 10-2 vote regarding some proposed amendments to the "Motor Vehicle and Mobile Equipment Coating Operations".

The vote was everyone on the Board against myself and my fellow Yolo County Supervisor Duane Chamberlain. I tend to lose quite a few votes either 3-2 or 4-1 so that is not what had me thiking about this one vote all day.

The agenda and staff report are here. I draw your attention to point 6 of the rule requirements in the staff report.

As someone that believes in limited govenrment and truly desires smaller more efficient government I am often faced with trying to help make government programs run efficiently that I don’t necessarily believe in. That is not the case with the air district. The staff is exceptional and the results that have been acheived in terms of air quality are clear.

That part that bugs me is that we set up a regulation that prohibits people from… Read More

History. That is the secret to the budget solution in this case. It is a real simple solution. A difficult one politically, but simple in its explanation.

This is how it is done. First, get a reasonable estimate of the revenue. Second, find the last budget year in which that amount of revenue was received by the state. Next, find the budget from that year, and go through it line item by line item. Finally, set the budget amounts of each line item this year at that year’s level. That is the solution. There can be variations on that theme. The money from line items that are eliminated or reduced because those items are not that important can be added to other items so that the hit on those items is not as great, but the baseline can be that year.

Here is the good news. I haven’t done the research, but I can just about guarantee that the year in which the baseline can be set will be one of the last three years. Look at budget year 2005-06, or 06-07, or even 07-08, the year is one of those three. Wind back the hands of time. The world didn’t collapse because of spending levels in those years, people could understand and… Read More

Yesterday at a rare, joint meeting of the California State Senate and Assembly, lawmakers were treated to a admonishment by state finance officials about the dire circumstances facing the State of California. It’s a bad situation, made worse for every day that action isn’t taken. The question is whether the Democrats who dominate the legislature now truly understand the gravity of the situation and are ready to take a reasoned approach to making significant cuts in state government – we’re talking about ideas like eliminating functions of state government Last night, the San Diego County Republican Party unanimously endorsed my candidacy for re-election as Vice-Chairman, South, of the California Republican Party. The Southern Region includes Orange, Riverside, San Diego and Imperial Counties, and contains about 1/5 of the state’s 1500 or so State Central Committee Members. Last month I was unanimously endorsed by the Orange County Republican Party. Recently I announced my re-election campaign, and listed my prominent GOP … Read More

The recent story about the boy who was held for a year against his will in Tracy and physically abused should make our state leaders reflect on the success of our child welfare system and how serious the courts deal with child abuse.

The facts around this case are horrifying. The boy was sent to live with his “aunt” Caren Ramirez (although authorities now say that there is no relation) after his being removed from his father’s care because of abuse. It’s unclear from press account how he was placed with Ramirez, but after Ramirez daughter called authorities to report the abuse, the boy was sent to a foster care home and Ramirez was jailed. Eighteen months later, the boy ran away from the home in Tracy where Ramirez and two other adults had been brutally abusing him.

Just last September, the Bay Area was rattled by the death of a 15-year-old foster child in her aunt’s care.… Read More