Not wanting to be contrarian to all the recent voices for the Governor to call a fiscalemergency special session to deal with California’s critical budget crisis – but if he does – nothing will happen.

Sure – a "Fiscal Emergency Special Session" sounds great, and it would be great if Prop 58 (which created this authority) had any teeth in it. But Prop 58 was written as window dressing for Prop 57(the $15 Billion Deficit Bond) that the governor and the Democrats really, really wanted to bail us out of the Gray Davis deficit crisis.

Prop 57’s basic concept was for California to go into more long-term debt to pay off itsshort-termdeficit – which without Prop 58 to make it look like "real reform" would never ever have made it past the voters. (consumer warning: don’t attempt this at home – you will go bankrupt)

**There is more – click the link**

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Not wanting to be contrarian to all the recent voices for the Governor to call a fiscalemergency special session to deal with California’s critical budget crisis – but if he does – nothing will happen.

Sure – a "Fiscal Emergency Special Session" sounds great, and it would be great if Prop 58 (which created this authority) had any teeth in it. But Prop 58 was written as window dressing for Prop 57 (the $15 Billion Deficit Bond) that the governor and the Democrats really, really wanted to bail us out of the Gray Davis deficit crisis.(update: please see Steve Maviglio’s comment below – I had orginally misnumbered the Props and he was kind enough to point that out – in his heartfelt way) Prop 57’s basic concept was for California to go into more long-term debt to pay off itsshort-termdeficit – which without Prop 58 to make it look like "real reform" would never ever have made it past the voters. (consumer warning: don’t attempt this at home – you will go bankrupt)

Prop 58 is rife with loopholes. It sounds awesome… Read More

When we pulled together the main page this morning, we missed this outstanding commentary from our own FR State Capitol Correspondent — Senator Jim Battin.

The editorial below ran in the Riverside Press-Enterprise today.

Budget Denial

As deficits ramp up, Democrats need to quit ducking touch choices By SENATOR JIM BATTIN

I know in polite society we aren’t supposed to say "I told you so," but listening to the latest budget news out of Sacramento, I couldn’t help but think it.

The state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst, Elizabeth Hill, announced this month that California’s budget situation has "deteriorated" by almost $6 billion since the budget was signed in late August. As a result, next year’s budget deficit is conservatively estimated at $10 billion, up from about $3 billion this year. I say conservatively because state revenues are in… Read More

The editorial below ran in the Riverside Press-Enterprise today.

Budget Denial

As deficits ramp up, Democrats need to quit ducking touch choices By SENATOR JIM BATTIN

I know in polite society we aren’t supposed to say "I told you so," but listening to the latest budget news out of Sacramento, I couldn’t help but think it.

The state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst, Elizabeth Hill, announced this month that California’s budget situation has "deteriorated" by almost $6 billion since the budget was signed in late August. As a result, next year’s budget deficit is conservatively estimated at $10 billion, up from about $3 billion this year. I say conservatively because state revenues are in a tailspin and the deficit could easily be billions of dollars more.

If this sounds like a broken record, here’s why:… Read More

As a Yolo County Supervisor one of the worst possibilities that I could see coming out of the 2008 election is that Sam Wakim from Yreka would end up representing part of my county. It would have put me in a real bind as I would not have endorsed him in the general election.

Wakim has announced that he is dropping out of the race and moving out of state.

You can read a post from the Record Searchlight on the issue here. The only thing that Ross had wrong is that we now have three candidates in the race. Former Senator Jim Nielsen, Marine Corps Lt. Col Charlie Schaupp, and retired Air Force Colonel Frank Stiglich are all still in the Republican primary.

This race saw Jason Larabee exit a few months ago and lateral his support to Nielsen. Larabee is a great guy. I hope he will run for office in the future.

Someday soon I hope to make a similar post with Wyman instead of Wakim in the title. That would be a great day but we all know my post on Wyman will be about him running for the Assembly or Senate attempting to get 2 more years on his pension so he… Read More

The FlashReport usually frowns upon the posting of press releases, but this one is a bit ofa novelty…

HUNTER TO HILLARY CLINTON DEBATE PLANT: "THANKS, SEND MORE!" San Diego, CA – – – GOP Presidential candidate Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) today sent the following response to Senator Hillary Clinton who planted a member of her campaign staff in the audience to ask a question at the Republican debate last evening in Florida. The retired military general, who announced during his question that he was gay, asked the candidates about their position on the Pentagon’s "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy regarding homosexuals serving in the military.

November 29, 2007 Dear Senator Clinton, Regarding the "plant", retired Brig. Gen. Keith H. Kerr, that you sent to ask me the question at the CNN-YouTube debate last night in Florida … Send more!!!

Merry Christmas, Duncan Hunter… Read More

I told you so.

Yeah, I know, that is rude, but now that I am no longer in the Legislature, there are very few people who will relate the tale.

I voted for the 2004-05 budget, the Governor’s first budget, because I thought it was a responsible budget that dealt appropriately with the fallout from the Davis spending spree from 1999-2001. In those budgets, Gray Davis and the Democrats (with way too many willing Republicans), increased spending from $58 billion (general fund) to $79 billion (general fund). The next three budgets, 2001-04 moved spending from about $79 billion to $78 billion, and created a $13 billion debt, while revenue went from $66 to $76 billion over those same years. The voters passed the $15 billion bond to cover the Davis mistakes.

Governor Schwarzenegger, with the able help of his then Finance Director, Donna Arduin, brought spending under control in his first budget, increasing spending by only $100 million (as proposed in the May revise and passed by the Legislature). It was the right thing to do. Arduin then left, the Governor began his initiative campaigns, and, in the next six months, the wheels fell off the fiscal… Read More

In the weeks leading up to the well-advertised CNN/YouTube GOP Presidential Debate, I was actually getting pretty excited. What a great way to merge modern technology and politics, and get lots of people, especially younger ones, engaged in the process. Recently I gave a keynote address at a Junior Statesmen of America conference, and they had a room set up so that high school students could record debate questions, and I must have seen a hundred e-mails cross my desk referencing the debate, and people sending around their video taped questions for others to see. There was a great deal of buzz, and, for me, a hightened level of expectation.

As it turns out, this debate was totally hijacked by the MSM — and I don’t know whether to blame CNN exclusively, or apply some of the bad credit to the folks at YouTube. That is because I am not sure who was responsible for sifting through the thousands of video clips of questions, and choosing which ones would be asked of… Read More