If you were to look up "dysfunctional legislature" in the dictionary, you’d a photograph of the California State Capitol. We’re now a couple of weeks into the fiscal year without a state budget, and outgoing Senate President Don Perata has apparently dismissed Senators from Sacramento, advising them to be "on call" to come back and vote on a budget on short notice. Last I checked, we are paying every single member of the State Senate, and also the State Assembly for that matter, a full-time wage. If there is no state budget, the last thing that I want to have happen is for all of the legislators to go back to their districts, and leave budget nogotiations to small group of legislative leaders, to primary take place in a back room. Frankly, every legislator has a responsibility to be in Sacramento, at the Capitol, and working together to try and solve this overspending crisis.

State government is huge, and complex, and the negotiations surrounding an income and spending plan should be broadly approached by our legislators. Democrat and Republican State Legislators should be rolling up their sleeves, taking portions… Read More

According to the Pew Research Center, the public’s top story last week was the rising price of filling up their gas tank. Not a shocker.

If you haven’t done so, you should take 5 minutes to view the ‘PickensPlan’. Put forward by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, he calls for a massive expansion of wind generation in the Central United States and then shifting the country’s natural gas resources from energy to fueling cars.

I spent some time researching (I guess googling a few keywords counts as research now days) what natural gas cars cost — pretty affordable really and into fueling stations there are quite a few around the Sacramento region. But you can also fill up at home with this adapter that allows you to use your existing natural gas… Read More

Language amending abill to delay Prop 1 from the November 2008 ballot until the November 2010 ballot was accepted on the Assembly Floor today. SB 298 will contain language that will be referred to the proper committees for consideration. I was the floor manager for the amendments, which received a 54-9 vote, with only Dems voting "no" and a bunch not voting, to send the proposal to committee. Delaying a $10 Billion railbond vote during this fiscal mess makes sense to me. We’ll see what happens in the committee process as there isn’t much deadline time left to pull items off of the ballot that the legislature placed there.… Read More

The Party’s sails were slack. Voters saw it as "callous, bigoted, and sleazy". In ‘blind tastings’ voters who liked the Party’s ideas withdrew approval when they heard which party supported them. In short, the brand was toxic. As politicians and the Party faithful started to lose seats their first strategy was to double down on the issues and message which had done so well, for so long. It didn’t work, and things got worse, much worse, for a long time…

So, with thanks to ten years of The Economist throughout this writing, the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom since Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was in trouble. Since the late 1990’s the Conservatives stumbled through the wilderness in British politics, snagging their coats on every briar along the way. They lost three straight general elections and there was some thought by otherwise reasonable people that the Conservative Party may have outlived itself.

Todaythe generic ballot is 45 Conservative 25 Labor.

Of course, one of thereasons for the re-animation of the Conservative Partyis that, usually, the party in power exhausts itself and… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

The Discreet Charm of Carly Fiorina

The McCain Administration is shedding officials fast, starting with future Treasury Secretary Phil Gramm. But one who’s hanging in there is former Hewlett Packard Chief Carly Fiorina, ubiquitous as a McCain advisor and advocate on cable TV and the campaign trail. Ms. Fiorina, unlike Mr. Gramm, is always, painfully "on message:" "There are many, many people who would be honored to serve in President McCain’s cabinet and, depending on the opportunity, I would be as well," she explained to reporters last week when questioned about her possible selection as veep.

The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank calls Ms. Fiorina a "risky running… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

The Squirminator

My, what changes a few years can make. In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger ousted an indecisive governor in California’s recall election by pledging to be a different kind of leader — firm and principled. He told Cigar Aficionado magazine he liked President Bush because he was decisive. "The mood of the people changes all the time. The polls change all the time," he said. "But Bush is staying the course. Even though that pisses some people off, and then the polls go down, he stays on course. In the end that pays off, because people say, well, at least one thing we know: That guy is steady."

… Read More

There has been a lot of press recently about the upcoming November ballot big-bucks bond measure to establish public financing for a high-speed train service between Northern and Southern California.

Having a train that can wisk you up and down throught the state in just a few hours may, or may not be a good idea. But saddling ALL of California’s residence with bond debt for a service that with benefit relatively few of our state’s residents is wrong, and unfair.

If there is enough of a market for rail travel, then private companies that want to make a go of it can take their future-earnings studies to investors, and get financing to build the train routes and buy the trains.

I am getting sick and tired of people trying to raise taxes or sell bonds to get things paid for that should not be paid for with public moneys. Don’t get me going on public subsidies for sporting arenas.

The High Speed Rail Bonds are Proposition 1 on the ballot this November – be sure to vote no. And be sure that if you see a commercial in support of it, you’ll be able to trace the dollars that paid for the spot directly to those who will… Read More

The commentary below was penned exclusively for the FlashReport by State Senator Bob Dutton, the Vice Chairman of the State Senate Budget Committee…

Democrats Tax Plan Is A Tax On Job Creation And Economic Opportunity By Senator Bob Dutton

I try to be optimistic. I have always believed it is better to look at the positive side of things. Better to look at the glass as half full instead of half empty. But I never thought anyone would seriously suggest $10 billion dollars in tax increases when Californians are paying record high gas prices and home prices are in free fall. California also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country because good paying jobs are leaving this state.… Read More