I am always fascinated by what is described as a "compromise" in politics. Is it a compromise when the Democrats demand a bad policy, and they get some of it? It’s still bad, and saying no to bad policy is not being "unreasonable." More important, saying yes to a bad policy is not being "reasonable." A bad policy is a bad policy, and a leader says no to a bad policy, no matter what the political consequences

Second, did the Democrats sign an "I promise to be a Spendthrift" Pledge? I mean, they increase spending every year, and they claim that any reduction in that increase is a "cut." The budget in 2002-03 was $77.4 billion, $78.3 billion in 03-04, $79.8 billion in 04-05 (the last three years of the last budget crisis) and $91.6 billion in 05-06, $101.4 billion in 06-07, and $103.4 billion last year. Yet in each of those years, Democrats screamed about "cuts" in spending. More important, if you look at special fund spending during that same time, it has grown from $20.5 billion in 01-02 to $41.9 billion in 06-07. After the Sinclair Paint decision, state bureaucrats have been shifting… Read More

Most FlashReport readers don’t realize it, but out website development and hosting team, Cloudspace, is actually located in Orlando, Florida. I’ve been emailing and talking to members of the team out there as we are working on some major (such as the soon to be release FlashReport Mobile site for easy use with your PDA) and some minor changes (now photos appear of bloggers next to the title of their posts).

Well Hurricane/Tropical storm… Read More

As the state budget continues to unfold I am struck at how the only ways that we have to deal with the problem is to take power away from our elected leaders.

Speaker Nunez previously argued (Prop 93) that we don’t allow Legislators enough time in Sacramento to be able to figure things out. Many of us often talk about how elected leaders need more discretion. Despite this, when they are given discretion it is abused.

In an ideal world I would oppose spending limits because I want to allow elected leaders to make good choices. Yet time and time again that has not happened.

Revenues to the state have rocketed up over the past eight years or so. If we were looking for a cushion to be able to set the ship straight that opportunity has passed.

The spending limits being advocated in this budget solution move us to "State Budgeting for Dummies". In this case it will not even be taken by the voters through… Read More

The current occupant of the Capitol’s smallest legislative office welcomes Assemblywoman Parra to "the doghouse" (which is the nickname for the smallest office in the building).… Read More

Most of you that read this may know that Plumas or Yolo County exist — but you just know that they are "up there". We do exist and we often have to deal with the policies that have been advocated for by people that live in and represent the more urban areas of the state.

Please take look at this recent article from the Plumas County News. It is an indication of things to come.

The Board of Supervisors there is dealing with forestry practices that are rarely proposed by the people that have to deal with the consequences.

When some of the rural parts of California burn in catastrophic wildfires the people of Plumas County are often put into dangerous situations.

Surely many of you have different views about climate change policy. However, this may provide the silver bullet for people that have been unable to remove the fuel for catastrophic wildfires. Getting rid of the fuel may reduce the amount of carbon released into the air during a fire.

Plumas County is exactly right in challenging federal forestry practices.… Read More

Veteran FlashReport leaders are quite familiar with the writings of Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Weintraub. I have actually known Dan for almost two decades, going back to when he actually worked for the Orange County Register. Dan’s insightful and inciteful columns are always great reading and we almost always provide FR readers to links to his regular columns in the Bee on our main page daily news links. In addition to being a recognized columnist who has an important impact on policy and politics in the Golden State, Dan (pictured) was truly a pioneer in launching his Insider blog on the Sacramento Bee website years ago — serving as an inspiration to many of us who followed him.

In June, I had a chance to sit down with Dan in Sacramento, and he enthusiastically shared with me that he would be spearheading a new endeavor for the Sacramento Bee called The Conversation. At the time, I told him that once it was up and… Read More

Come Hell or High-water Ron George likes getting his way. Whether it isre-defining marriage to his liking, ignoring previous decisions to get the parental consent result he wanted, violating private property rights or religious rights, Ron George and the Imperial Court he runs gets his way.

Now, George through the Judicial Council is poised to get his way with courthouses and a 10 billion dollar revenue bond through SB 1407.

SB 1407 raises fees on all kinds of court filings including parking tickets, family court filings, traffic violations and attending traffic school in order to get 5 billion dollars worth of money for courthouse construction.

Whats wrong with that? Lots of reasons.

Why are courthouses getting special budgetary treatment over other budgetary items? Shouldn’t the General fund make them a priority?Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association thinks so, they oppose the bill.

Maybe we could re- allocate a mere $500 million a year and not pay billions in interest. It takes 10 billion in fees to get 5 billion in buildings.

This is an end run around the people of California that rejected courthouse bonds in the past. An end… Read More

Veteran FlashReport leaders are quite familiar with the writings of Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Weintraub. I have actually known Dan for almost two decades, going back to when he actually worked for the Orange County Register. Dan’s insightful and inciteful columns are always great reading and we almost always provide FR readers to links to his regular columns in the Bee on our main page daily news links. In addition to being a recognized columnist who has an important impact on policy and politics in the Golden State, Dan (pictured) was truly a pioneer in launching his Insider blog on the Sacramento Bee website years ago — serving as an inspiration to many of us who followed him.

In June, I had a chance to sit down with Dan in Sacramento, and he enthusiastically shared with me that he would be spearheading a new endeavor for the Sacramento Bee called The Conversation. At the time, I told him that once it was up and… Read More