Let’s be clear here. A mega-billion dollar rail bond is a bad deal for California taxpayers. Not only because of the principle that an eneavor such as this should be financed via user fees, not on the backs of tens of millions of taxpayers (not counting the ones not yet born) — but California is already over-loaded with debt.

This “fix” legislatuon that appears to be up for a vote in the Assembly today has as a major purpose making this boondoggle more palatable to voters.

Conservatives should be committed to defeating this bond measure. This includes voting against legislation designed, in essence, to help it pass.

The FlashReport joins with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and others in strongly urging a NO on the bill.… Read More

The Sacramento Bee is reporting that Senate President Pro-Tem Don Perata has announced that Senate Democrats have negotiated a budget deal…with the Governor (not with Senate Republicans).

Before I go on, let me share that it is embarassing to me, as a Republican, that the Governor of my party would attempt to emasculate GOP legislators by not insisting that his party’s legislators be included in any negotiations.

That said, I suppose my expectations of Governor “Post Partisan” leave me disappointed, but not surprised.

The good news is that Republican legislative votes are still needed to pass a budget.

So… Now I say, what is this “deal” that has been reached? I call on the Governor and Senator Perata to unveil all of the details for scrutiny. Is there a tax increase? What kind? Are there spending cuts? What and where?

In short, I have little faith that without GOP legislative input, the interests of taxpayers are reflected in this “deal” — and look forward to hearing reaction from our Republican legislators about the deal-points and specifics. Once someone… Read More

You have to love politics. Perata tells the Bee he has a budget deal with the Governor (see the post below). The response from the Governor’s office is that there is no deal.

We’ll see how this plays out. It could be an “almost deal” to keep the details hidden from scrutiny, for now…

Sigh.… Read More

I got off of the phone a little while ago. The termed-out Assemblymember assured me that she is “No! No! No!” in any tax increases, “temporary” or not.… Read More

In our quest to get termed-out legislators on the record against any tax increases, whether so-called temporary or not, we got this statement from Senator Dick Ackerman:

“Temporary or not, I do not support the use of taxes to balance the state’s budget. This includes an exchange of higher taxes today for a promise of lower taxes and fiscal responsibility in the future. This latest proposal misleads California taxpayers and does not deserve support.”

Oh, and I got a shout-out from Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, who agrees completely.… Read More

The file item that contained the state budget bill, AB 1781, was passed over this morning. Republicans made a motion to at least have a vote on the current bill, as reported out of the budget Conference Committee. That motion was defeated, so we still don’t know what the ‘temperature’ of both caucuses is on the current document or how far away the Assembly is from achieving 54 votes to pass any form of budget.There are47 Democrat members in regular attendence in our floor sessions. It is widely assumed, if a vote was taken today,that there are less than 47 likely ‘aye’ votes as of right now for this budget document…but who really knows? … Read More

The following op-ed ran in my local paper today – The Desert Sun —

Union bossTyrone Freeman has stolen a lot of money from low wage union members. According to the the Los Angeles Times (link) in a Pulitzer-worth piece, reporter Paul Pringle will not be invited to the next SEIU Christmas Party. This SEIU local, 6424 United Long-Term Care Workers, is controlled by its organizer Freeman. It has some 190,000 workers paying each month into his local. Local 6424 sees itself as the "poor helping the poor" union. Like many such unexamined unions, this one became Freeman’s personal bank. … Read More