Let’s say you buy a bank-auctionedpiece of property in a slightly remote area with a junker of a house sitting on it, a fixer-upper at best. You put a significant amount of money and personal physical labor into it so as to make it your home, not simply a house. After the County Assessor shows up and completes a re-assessment of the property, your tax bill goes up significantly. You pay it.As time goes by, you pay all your property taxes as they progressively increase based on the limiting provisions of Prop. 13.

Years go by and you lose the home in a terrible fire. Through your long re-building process it becomes apparent the County Assessor failed all that time ago in adequately measuring the square footage of your then-house, thus under-assessing you in property taxes all those years.

A typical bureaucratic mess, resulting in a nightmare for you. Should you have known the professional county appraisers couldn’t handle a tape measure or do simple math? Would you have known such a thing? Your property tax bill doesn’t show your square footage.After all, the county did increase your assessment based on a physical inspection. They are… Read More

Let’s say you buy a bank-auctionedpiece of property in a slightly remote area with a junker of a house sitting on it, a fixer-upper at best. You put a significant amount of money and personal physical labor into it so as to make it your home, not simply a house. After the County Assessor shows up and completes a re-assessment of the property, your tax bill goes up significantly. You pay it.As time goes by, you pay all your property taxes as they progressively increase based on the limiting provisions of Prop. 13.

Years go by and you lose the home in a terrible fire. Through your long re-building process it becomes apparent the County Assessor failed all that time ago in adequately measuring the square footage of your then-house, thus under-assessing you in property taxes all those years.

A typical bureaucratic mess, resulting in a nightmare for you. Should you have known the professional county appraisers couldn’t handle a tape measure or do simple math? Would you have known such a thing? Your property tax bill doesn’t show your square footage.After all, the county did increase your assessment based on a physical inspection. They are… Read More

**Update 11am Sunday: Turns out that after I posted this via blackberry that I quickly discovered that the outgoing DA, Grover Trask, was not on hand — which probably also explains why DA-Elect Pacheco was also not there. I did have a nice chat, though, with the County Assessor…**

I won’t steal the thunder of FR’s Riverside County Correspondent, Barry Nestande, by giving away too many details…okay maybe I might…

But Barry and I are both at the Cabazon Resort just west of Palm Springs where Riverside County GOP Chairman Jeff Miller is presiding over an amazing "Liberty Dinner" event for the county GOP.

The list of elected Republican officeholders tonight for this event that is a tribute to retiring legislators Russ Bogh, Ray Haynes and retiring District Attorney Grover Trask.

Besides Haynes and Bogh, present here tonight are their successors Kevin Jeffries and Paul Cook (the incoming DA Rod Pacheco is noticably absent), Congresswoman Mary… Read More

Should only lawyers and judges vote on judges? That is exactly what LA’s legal newspaper the Metropolitan New-Enterprise editorialized yesterday. The paper is really mad at CRA for opposing Joyce Kennard and the GOP folks that filed the lawsuit challenging Jerry Brown’s status as a candidate for Attorney General. Eventually the editorial does criticize Democrats for "partisanship." This is their conclusion.

"All of this points to the need to revamp judicial elections in California, removing themfrompartisan political influences by restricting voting to those “admitted to practice”—that is, judges and lawyers."

Yes, that would solve the problem; The Bar Associations has never rated conservatives poorly because of a partisan bias. We should let lawyers control the laws of the land. The unlearned in law just aren’t bright enough to make such weighty decisions. Those that are practicing ambulance chasers are much more qualified to decide who should sit on… Read More

There is a situation brewing in the theme-park centered City of Anaheim that really deserves much more attention than it has been getting on the FlashReport. We’ll try to rectify that in the coming week, but let’s give FR readers the 30,000 foot view. Anaheim is one of Orange County’s largest cities, and is on the national map because it is the home to Walt Disney’s original theme part, Disneyland. It’s home to the Angels, the Mighty Ducks, and to former Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle, who is the city’s Republican Mayor — coasting to re-election next month. Trying to follow the politics of the Anaheim City Council isn’t too easy, and I am not really going to delve into that in this short summary. Suffice it to say that there is one candidate who is running for City Council that is being talked about not only in the coffee shops and around the water coolers of Anaheim — candidate Bill Dalati is quickly becoming a topic of conversation nationally. Why would local Anaheim politics make the national scene? Well, Bill Dalati is a controversial figure, it turns out. A local… Read More

There is a situation brewing in the theme-park centered City of Anaheim that really deserves much more attention than it has been getting on the FlashReport. We’ll try to rectify that in the coming week, but let’s give FR readers the 30,000 foot view. Anaheim is one of Orange County’s largest cities, and is on the national map because it is the home to Walt Disney’s original theme part, Disneyland. It’s home to the Angels, the Mighty Ducks, and to former Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle, who is the city’s Republican Mayor — coasting to re-election next month. Trying to follow the politics of the Anaheim City Council isn’t too easy, and I am not really going to delve into that in this short summary. Suffice it to say that there is one candidate who is running for City Council that is being talked about not only in the coffee shops and around the water coolers of Anaheim — candidate Bill Dalati is quickly becoming a topic of conversation nationally. … Read More

Much has been made about the strength of the GOP team of statewide candidates this year.

Arnold has the star power. Tom and Tony and Pooch bring out the base. Poizner and McPherson give us strength and balance.

But as these last days approach, I’ve come to believe that the rest of the team brings significant benefit to the ticket as well, but in an unusual way…

About a year ago now if you recall, businessman and Redistricting Reform advocate Bill Mundell was talking about putting his millions up against Senator Feinstein. Bill Simon too was talking about making a run for the Treasurer’s post.

Neither ultimately decided to run, and in some ways, it’s a blessing.

Instead of the popular Senator and the deep-pocketed AG adding to the clutter on the airwaves and giving Democrats actual reasons to go vote, both are opting to sit comfortably atop their warchests, secure in the knowledge that their races don’t require vast expenditures.

An unintended consequence of those decisions though is the removal of a competative race for either post that could possibly pull the Democrats out of the downward spiral of… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger stopped by the 2nd Assembly/4th Senate District with Senator Aanestad and myself on hand, as well as the City Council members of Colusa, 3 Colusa Supervisors, the Sheriff, andother local officials today to survey the progress on levee repairs. Back in April, he declared the emergency that set aside the usual red tape and years of surveys and studiesthat typically delay levee repairs and maintenance. Colusa County, along the Sacramento river about 50 miles northwest of Sacramento, contains 6 of the growing number [now at 103]of critical levee erosion sights that need immediate repair. This sight at Moon Bend [not known to be a hangout spotof your Democrat Attorney General nominee, JerryBrown] is nearing completion of its repairs, over 1/4 of a linear mile. [Here is local network television coverage… Read More