If public attention is being drawn to national politics and the presidential race, there is a group of local officials who are thrilled. They have plans for the contents of taxpayers’ wallets and they would prefer to fly under the radar. The less voters pay attention, the greater the chance they will be able to pass local school bonds, which raise property taxes. Voters need to be alert. If past general elections are any indication, we will be facing several hundred local school bonds and additional tax measures in November.

August 12, is the deadline for officials to approve local measures for the November ballot. Consultants — usually paid by firms that expect to do business with the school district once a new bond is approved — advise local education officials not to publicize the bond election to the entire community, but to target only their supporters. This means running a stealth campaign, communicating only with administrators, the local teachers union, the PTA, and parents who have children in school. Part of this strategy is waiting until the last possible minute to approve the new bond measure, giving potential opponents less time to… Read More

When it comes to gathering sufficient property taxes, Prop 13 is no problem at all–except for profligate spenders. Look at the history of my San Diego County–a history which pretty much reflects the history of property taxes in theurban/suburbancounties that hold over 80% of California’s population.

According to San Diego County, in 1977–the year BEFORE Prop 13 took effect (when everything was working great, according to Prop 13 critics)–our countywide property tax revenue was about $639 million. In the 2015-2016 fiscal year, our county reports property tax revenues of $5.684 BILLION. Hence for every property taxdollarcollected in 1977, the county in 2015-16 collected$8.90. And BTW, according to the County Assessor, since Prop 13 passed, 97% of the pre-Prop 13 county owner-occupied homes have changed hands (and been reassessed) at least once.

During that time frame, our county population has grown about 95%, and inflation has gone up about 270%. Henceproperty tax revenues today are… Read More

The 2016 election is so crucial to America’s future, it appears Democratic Party operatives are willing to break every election rule and law in order to win.

California’s June 7 Primary election was tainted by rigged voting machines, forced party affiliation changes of long-time voters, and voter purges of newly registered voters.

Since June, the reported cases of election fraud are on the rise, but are ignored by the mainstream media. In California, the crucial state for both Bernie… Read More

In the wake of tragic and deadly attacks on police officers, those of us who have never wavered in our support for the members of law enforcement, but have questioned the role of police unions and have debated issues of policy surrounding law enforcement have an obligation to restate our position. Civil libertarians and fiscal conservatives have disagreements with police unions which were summed up quite well recently byguest columnist Steve Greenhut, writing in the Orange County Register. Here are some of the principal concerns:

Police unionization protects bad officers and stifles reform. Lack of transparency into investigations of police misconductaids and abets the worst actors. Police unions often support laws designed to extract increased revenue from citizens in the form of excessive fines. The “war on drugs” andmilitarization of law enforcement can further increase the tension between police and the populations they serve. And, of course, police unions fight relentlessly for increases to compensation and benefits, especially straining the budgets of… Read More

The California Teachers Association has just dropped $10 million into its campaign to extend the “temporary” income tax hike voters approved when they passed Proposition 30 in 2012. Proposition 55, which will appear on this November’s ballot, would extend the highest income tax rates in all 50 states for another dozen years.

Four years ago, the muscular union, called by many in Sacramento the “Fourth Branch of Government,” spent over $11 million to convince voters to increase sales and income taxes. The campaign, paid for by government employee unions and led by Gov. Jerry Brown, repeatedly promised voters the higher taxes would last only a few years and then go away.

These ultra-high tax rates are scheduled to end in 2018 and union leaders are panicking. If the tax increase ends, there may be less money to fund increases in member pay and benefits.

To read the entire column click here http://www.hjta.org/california-commentary/teachers-union-hits-taxpayers-with-money-club-again/… Read More

“California is definitely back,” Governor Jerry Brown boasted in 2014. Brown then proclaimed the state a “job creation engine,” proving he was still living in the 1960’s. However, Brown has shown little stomach for sensible tax and regulatory cuts, and instead pays lip service to the media about how fiscally prudent he is….everything he touches turns Brown.

For a state $130 Billion upside down in budget debt, and another $750 Billion of long term unfunded public employee pension debt, the estrangement between what the Democrats in charge say and do, and what Californians know and live daily, continues to grow.

Things are not rosy in California, despite what… Read More

Back in the early days of Saturday Night Live, Paul Simon showed up as the host, dressed in a turkey suit, and started the show singing “Still Crazy After All These Years”. Midway through the song, he stopped saying “this is not working. I told them it wasn’t going to work. Then they said to me, What? Do you want to be Mr. Alienation all your life? (for those of you who are Paul Simon fans you know his songs, like “Sounds of Silence,” “I am a Rock,” “American Tune,” and “Slip, Sliding Away” were songs of hopelessness and alienation).” So Simon continues “Well, I didn’t want to be Mr. Alienation…” so there he was, in a turkey suit, on national television.

Some of my friends have told me my blogs on the Flash Report are too doom and gloom. Well, to paraphrase Paul Simon, I don’t want to be Mr. Doom and Gloom, so I give you something completely different than my usual blog. Please forgive the cross cultural references from my younger days (Monty Python and Saturday Night Live), but I think you will enjoy this, and it will only take a minute of your time. From… Read More

Earlier this month the California Policy Center released astudythat provided additional evidence that the U.S. stock indexes are overvalued by approximately 50%, along with calculations showing the impact of a major downward correction on the solvency of California’s state and local government pension systems. Stocks are now at unsustainable bubble valuations.

Not covered in this study, but equally overvalued, are bonds, which pension systems misleadingly categorize as “fixed income” investments in their portfolio disclosures. CalPERS even went so far as to trumpet their success in earning a 9.29% return on “fixed income” investments in theirmost recent press release– a healthy return that offset losses elsewhere and allowed them to earn a marginally positive return of 0.61% last year. But “fixed income” investments usually refers to bonds, and bonds are also at unsustainable bubble valuations.

Here’s why bonds are… Read More