State Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard, a longtime FR friend, sent the following letter over to the President of the California Taxpayers’ Association, upon hearing that they had endorsed the Governor’s budget proposal that includes a massive, multi-billion dollar sales tax increase…

State Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard, a longtime FR friend, sent the following letter over to the President of the California Taxpayers’ Association, upon hearing that they had endorsed the Governor’s budget proposal that includes a massive, multi-billion dollar sales tax increase…

Dear Teresa,

I am sorry that I was unable to reach you this morning, but I did want to let you know as soon as possible that I oppose the decision of your organization to support general tax increases. If this position does not violate the charter of your organization, it should.… Read More

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer is turning down any per diem payments related to budget sessions. So are two others. Maybe more will join in!… Read More

Should we really believe the qualification ratings of the State Bar Association?

Radical lawyers continue to use the bar to push their agenda. Now they State Bar may consider taking a position on Proposition 8. Of course it would be to oppose overturning Ron George and the judicial activists that don’t care what the people think about marriage.

Guess what? Ron George will be speaking at the upcoming meeting. Balancing him out will be Tom Daschle

It is dangerous to allow organizations with political agendas like the State Bar to pretend to be unbiased keepers of the law. The State Bar has politicized itself and should not be part of the judicial selection process… Read More

We caught up with Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Q: Jon, what do you think about reports that the California Correctional Peace Officers Association is going to try and qualify a recall of Governor Schwarzenegger? Coupal’s Answer "This is a stupid distraction. That is the only way to describe the latest effort by the prison guards union to recall Governor Schwarzenegger.

Make no mistake, we have our issues with the Governor based on legitimate policy disputes. He believes that tax increases will help California and we don’t. But what is needed is grownups dealing with the many crises facing California like grownups.… Read More

The Governor may as well have been humming the U.C.L.A. Bruin fight song while going to a meeting of the U.S.C. Trojans. My sources tell me that that is a good analogy for what happened today when the Governor went into a closed-door meeting with Assembly Republicans. Once again, he has earnestly asked GOP legislators to sign off on a budget deal that punishes California taxpayers for the overspending of politicians (something Arnold actually promised he would never do), asking Republicans to sign off on his so-called "temporary" tax increase. You know, the one that socks it to Californians through a tax increase the next few years, and "promises" to then lower the tax rate a few years out… Right.

Well, Assembly Republicans made it clear to the Governor that a tax increase is not going to happen.

After the meeting, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, a leading critic of the Governor’s broken "I will not raise your taxes" pledge, has this to say:

As a follow-up to yesterday’s FR mainpage link to the SFChron Matier & Ross story, here’s today’s announcement as noted by California Special Districts Association….

Correctional Officers Announce Effort to Recall Schwarzenegger

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) announced today that they will begin the process to recall Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"It’s about leadership," said CCPOA spokesman Lance Corcoran. "Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is the worst governor in the history of worst governors …" The union is collecting the 65 necessary valid signatures to serve the governor a… Read More

As the hijinks of the legislative and budget process lurches along, the "day-counts" are becoming a kind of interesting subplot…to me anyway. Now, with all the conventions over and the bill deadline over, it now can become time for the media to focus on why the Republicans should give in to a tax increase. Hey, everyone else is. What I mean by the day-countsis that today is the 70th day since the June 30 fiscal year or "working deadline" came and went. The latest budget ever was signed Sep. 5 so we have that record going for us,70 and counting.

Then, counting down, for us legislators termed out this year, we have79 days until wehave to get our stuff outof our state offices, November 26 at 5 PM, the Wednesday beforeThanksgiving. They want a couple days for the incoming crop to have their offices switched over, ready on the day of their swearing in Monday, Dec 1 at noon.

Our termsare technically until November 30 at midnight [83 days]so I guess my constituents will have tocall me or our staff by cell or at home for case work issues those last 4 days. Or maybe they find a way to do without their… Read More