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Jon Fleischman

Constructive Input To State Employees

Apparently there is a crowd of state employees holding a rally at the State Capitol, unhappy with the impending action by Governor Terminator to axe 20,000 positions and take 200,000 other state employees down to the federal minimum wage (with full repayment of missed income after the budget is passed).

I would like to direct all of these folks here, where you can get lots of ideas on how to streamline and reduce the size of California government, back to a level sustainable by revenues. This will faciliate a speedy end to the budget stalement that we have right now.

Remind the politicians in the Capitol that state spending is up like 40% over the past few years, and that it is outrageous that they have outstripped growth in state revenues by that much.

As for me, I’ll call up my State Senator this afternoon. I would think we should eliminate non-vital components of state government, and I will suggest one to him. Perhaps placing before voters an end to the Coastal Commission. That’s a great place to start!

In the meantime, you should ask your union (who takes money out of each of your paychecks)… Read More

Ray Haynes

Today’s Commentary: When Words Don’t Mean What We Think They Mean

Jon asked me to comment on the debate over the "water" bond currently being proposed in the Legislature. Since there really is no water bond being proposed, the debate is a false one. We are already in a water crisis it is true. Democrats have done nothing to alleviate that crisis since sometime in Jerry Brown administration in the 70’s, that is true as well. About 6 bonds have passed since 1996 claiming to be water bonds, and they got Republican votes to get on the ballot because somewhere in the language of the bond, someone wrote the word water. Not one ounce of new water was created by any of those bonds, and not ounce of water will be created by the currently proposed bond. Simply calling a bond a "water" bond does not make it so. California needs new water, California needs it now, and nothing is being done about it, not by the administration, not by the Democrats, and not by those Republicans who insist that we have a "water" bond that doesn’t create an ounce of water.

Let’s start with a critical premise. A water bond that has above ground storage can be a revenue bond (which does not require a vote… Read More

Jon Fleischman

AppointmentWatch: Arnold Taps 30 New Judges – 16 of them Democrats

This Governor is in the habit of rolling out Judicial appointments in big batches. Until this week, his last batch of new Judges was announced back in May — twenty of them. I have made no bones about that fact that it is galling to me that the Governor, who was elected with all of the support of the Republican Party, loves to appoint registrants of the party of Barack Obama to the bench. In that May batch, it was 9 Republicans and 8 Democrats. It is a very sad situation for GOP donors and activists that we have to settle with a bare majority of Judicial appointments from our Republican Governor. It truly makes you scratch your head..

Well, actually, we have now set a new low for GOP appointments — less than 50%. Monday the Governor announced 30 new appointees to Judicial posts around Californian. You can see all of them here.

We think that it is fair to assume that someone’s party registration is a good way to generalize their beliefs about the proper… Read More

Jon Fleischman

Today’s Commentary: AppointmentWatch: Arnold Taps 30 New Judges – 16 of them Democrats

This Governor is in the habit of rolling out Judicial appointments in big batches. Until this week, his last batch of new Judges was announced back in May — twenty of them. I have made no bones about that fact that it is galling to me that the Governor, who was elected with all of the support of the Republican Party, loves to appoint registrants of the party of Barack Obama to the bench. In that May batch, it was 9 Republicans and 8 Democrats. It is a very sad situation for GOP donors and activists that we have to settle with a bare majority of Judicial appointments from our Republican Governor. It truly makes you scratch your head..

Well, actually, we have now set a new low for GOP appointments — less than 50%. Monday the Governor announced 30 new appointees to Judicial posts around Californian. You can see all of them here.

**There is more – click the link**Read More

Jon Fleischman

Roll Call: The Farm Team: Dominoes Fall When Schwarzenegger, DiFi Leave

The following article appeared in Roll Call ($$) yesterday. Since I had a quote in the piece, I’ve highlighted it below.

The Farm Team: Dominoes Fall When Schwarzenegger, DiFi Leave By David M. Drucker Roll Call Staff First in a three-part series Conservative Republicans need not apply. If ever someone was going to write a help-wanted ad seeking Republicans with a realistic chance of winning a Senate race in California, that sentence would most certainly deserve top billing.Read More

Jon Fleischman

Bob Huff Explains His Vote For The Container Fee/Tax Bill

There was quite a bit of chatter going on in the State Capitol when conservative Assemblyman Bob Huff put up the lone GOP vote for SB 974. This legislation would require those shipping goods into California’s ports in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland to pay an estimated $400 million a year into government coffers to pay for infrastructure investment around those ports.

Since this vote was controversial, we reached out to Assemblyman Huff to ask him why he voted for this bill, that was rejected by his Republican colleagues. In response to our inquiry, Assemblyman Huff penned this piece to explain his position, and his vote…

We’re placing a link to Huff’s piece here on the FR blog in case those reading it would like to publicly comment.… Read More

Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt

Local Gov’t On Illegal Immigration – Right Way vs. Wrong Way

When it comes to dealing with the impacts of illegal immigrants on cities and counties, there’s a right way and a wrong way. In San Francisco we see both a wrong-way city and a wrong-way county.

By way of example, San Bernardino County has discovered that San Francisco, a self-designated “sanctuary city”, was until recently dumping illegal-alien juvenile criminals into group homes in San Bernardino County. Read about it here.

Illegal immigrants are by definition law-breakers, but a significant number of them also break other laws of the United States. These offenders often find themselves in our jails.

Of course Congress hasn’t summoned the courage to lead on this issue – or at least lead in the right direction. So starting with the aftermath of the 2005 controversy over the McCain-Kennedy bill, the idea of local governments taking control of their own public safety relative to illegal-immigrant criminals began to resonate. Since the federal and state governments won’t send the right message – that illegal immigration (especially when committed by people who commit other crimes as well)… Read More

Jon Fleischman

Governor Holding The Line On Budget Reform

The Governor continues to stand firm on his demand that any budget must include real spending reform. That is outstanding.

While these days we need to take the Governor’s resolve on a day by day basis, it is heartening to see him continuing to advocate this needed reform of state government, to prevent future overspending.… Read More

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