There is a report today in the Sacramento Bee that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has dished out some pretty hefty raises for the New Year for key members of his staff.

I noted deep in the story that one of these raises went to his Deputy Chief of Staff and spokesman Steve Maviglio. I wanted to congratulate Steve on his raise, and come to its defense. Clearly, as a fiscal conservative, I believe it is important to be prudent with taxpayer funds. At the same time, however, I also understand that if you are going to hire and retain capable, qualified staff members — you have to be willing to pay them a competitive wage. I seldom agree with Steve’s politics. As a matter of fact, I am not sure that I ever have or ever will. But I respect Steve’s talent, ability, moxie and work ethic. While I can’t say that I agree with Steve’s dedication to raising taxes, increasing regulations and generally trying to increase the size and scope of state government, I will say that he is very… Read More

Today it was announced by the Americans for Tax Reform that Assemblywoman Mimi Walters has been tapped to succeed retired Assemblyman (and now FR State Capitol Correspondent) Ray Haynes as the head of the Taxpayer Protection Caucus in the California State Assembly. What does this mean? The Americans for Tax Reform are the champions of the No New Taxes Pledge for federal and state legislators. The pledge is simple: I, ____________, pledge to the taxpayers of the _____ district of the State of _________ and to all the people of this state, that I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.

The Taxpayer Protection Caucus is made up of the 27 Assemblymembers who have signed this pledge (the other 53 who have not can… Read More

The Wall Street Journal’s Political Diary e-mail is subscribed to by political and policy leaders all around the country – and the world. The lead item in the e-mail today is on Governor Schwarzenegger and his healthcare proposal:

Schwarzenegger’s Bolivarian Revolution

The reaction of leaders of California’s political parties neatly sums up the ideological direction of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new plan to provide health insurance to all Californians by mandating that employers provide it or pay a fee of 4% of their payroll into a government pool.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunes was thrilled that a GOP governor had moved so far in his direction: "This is a plan Assembly Democrats could… Read More

Unfortunately, one can’t access the full online articles from The San Diego Daily Transcript without a paid subscription, but today retired State Senator Larry Stirling weighs in on its pages with a gem on how the San Diego City Council is addressing a growing crime problem.

After relating a littany of recent crimes as just an example of that faced by the city, Larry wraps up with this:

The government’s No. 1 priority is protecting the lives and property of its citizens. This moral imperative is even higher, given the fact that our government has chosen to abridge our fundamental right to protect ourselves by prohibiting us from carrying firearms in self-defense.

The government is in an absurd and indefensible posture when it neglects to protect us and then will not let us protect ourselves. That is unacceptable.

So, what exactly has the City Council done to address this fundamental moral imperative?

Well, on Dec. 6, the San Diego City Council’s committee on Natural Resources and Culture held a hearing to address and then rip out the root cause of both… Read More

Bill Leonard represents taxpayers on the BOE from LA County to the far north of California. In his Leonard Letter he has a couple paragraphs on the new buzz word "Hidden taxes." Here it is. ***Hidden Taxes***

The new buzz words in political debate are “hidden taxes.” In almost every case, this does not refer to secret payments to the government. The more accurate definition of the phrase would be “cost shifting.” Because lots of people use health care services without paying for those services, hospitals and doctors are forced to charge the rest of us more to cover their expenses. But cost shifting goes on everywhere. We all pay more for products to cover the extra costs businesses have due to shoplifting or other expenses.

So, if it is true that this hidden tax is a bad thing, then what is the solution? Apparently the solution is a not-so-hidden-tax. Instead of paying extra to health care to providers, I will pay more in taxes and then the government will give some subsidy to these providers to pay for the people who do not pay.… Read More

I was not a Steve Poizer’s swearing in yesterday, but I am hearing from folks who were there that it felt almost akin to a Schwarzenegger event—Poizer seemed to be dismissive of the GOP and immediately called to make his office non-partisan (after accepting loads of help from the GOP to get elected). Jon Fleishman writes today that he feels like a chump for believing Schwarzenegger’s promise not to raise taxes. The entire GOP, including GOP chair Duf Sundheim, should feel like chumps for pouring our time and money into Schwarzenegger’s and Poizer’s campaigns, only to have them reject our party immediately after gaining office.… Read More

I feel like a chump. This entire past year, Arnold Schwarzenegger had as a central theme to his campaign for re-election the fact that he would oppose any increase in taxes. I think it would be fair to say that this was a central theme to his campaign. As a matter of fact, in a candidacy that often times stressed issues that were not very appealing to core Republican voters, it was his focused contrasting of Phil Angelides’ "The Tax Man" against his own rhetoric of opposing new taxes that helped to mollify, and excite the GOP base to support his candidacy. Yet, the very first business day following his inauguration to a second term, the Governor rolls out a new massive government incursion that is straight from the playbooks of the Democrat Party, with a centerpiece being tax increases. I don’t get it. This Governor understands that what makes this country great is the idea of individual liberty and individual responsibility. Yet, he has thrown out the notion of individual responsibility, trading it in for this new "shared responsibility" rhetoric which is no more than a justification for a massive… Read More

All the commentators have commented on the Governor’s inauguration speech. Most focused on the "dynamic centrism" of which the Governor spoke. The key line was:

"Some said that the Democratic legislature, by working with me to increase the minimum wage or reform prescription drug costs, abandoned the Democratic nominee for governor. This is the kind of partisan thinking that frustrates the voters and diminishes our democracy. The people are disgusted with a mindset that would rather get nothing done than accomplish something through compromise."

The Governor missed the key problem of politics in both his premise and his conclusion. People did not vote for him because he enacted the Democrats’ agenda, they voted for him because he was not Phil Angelides. People, in addition, are not disgusted with a government that does nothing, they are disgusted with rulers who promise to make their lives better if people would just entrust them with power, and then those rulers use that power to line the pockets of their political supporters. People would be happy if they believed that the status quo was… Read More