The City of Salinas passed a sales tax increase in November (Measure V) that was supposed fix the revenue shortage for vital city services. The message of their campaign is that the increase would be the be-all, end-all solution to fund the city including, most famously, the public library system which had been all but closed. An article in this morning’s Monterey Herald stated that the increase will only give the City of Salinas $489 to spend per resident compared to $625 in Watsonville, $692 in Gilroy, and $1,454 in Monterey.

Last year, over $15 million worth of cuts were made to the city budget. Because Measure V funds only amount to approximately $10 million, this means the city can only selectively restore services. Hearings are being held throughout the city by the Measure V Citizen’s Oversight Committee to determine which services are a priority for residents.

Although the tax increase is helping to increase the per resident, baseline funding for the City of S… Read More

At the direction of the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee, and following in the footsteps of the Santa Cruz City Council, the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors is poised to pass a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. Read the Matier-Ross column on this here or read the resolution for yourself by clicking here (Item #44).

Left-wing supervisor Chris Daly cheerfully told the Chronicle that he was “just being a good Democrat” by introducing the resolution. Look for other liberal cities to follow suit (the city council of … Read More

Yes, that’sright the Governor has appointed another Republican to the Los Angeles Superior Court. He also appointed a deputy DA who is decline to state. See the press relese here.Some newer readers may wonder why this is such a news item. These appointments makethe unofficialscore for judges 17 Dems, 9 Republicans and two decline to state types. See my previous post here.I suppose this is considered progress, but why do Republicans have to beg a Republican Governor to appoint Republicans?… Read More

There has been speculation on various websites, and in huddled water-cooler conversation about whether Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy will be running for Congress this year, and if he does run, who would replace him, presuming that it wouldn’t be practical to campaign for Congress and toil statewide for Assembly Republicans. I haven’t spoken with Kevin about this yet (he’s hosting a retreat for his colleagues, so I’ll call him on this when that is over). But I think he has made it clear that he has an interest in running for Congress. So this debate is less centered around what will Kevin do, and is more about what will Bill Thomas do? Thomas, who has been representing the Kern County area in Congress for decades, is now 65 and was rumored to be strongly considering retirement this year. Thomas is the Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee (a position he used last year to earmark a massive amount of money for his district last year,… Read More

There has been speculation on various websites, and in huddled water-cooler conversation about whether Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy will be running for Congress this year, and if he does run, who would replace him, presuming that it wouldn’t be practical to campaign for Congress and toil statewide for Assembly Republicans. I haven’t spoken with Kevin about this yet (he’s hosting a retreat for his colleagues, so I’ll call him on this when that is over). But I think he has made it clear that he has an interest in running for Congress. So this debate is less centered around what will Kevin do, and is more about what will Bill Thomas do? Thomas, who has been representing the Kern County area in Congress for decades, is now 65 and was rumored to be strongly considering retirement this year. Thomas is the Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee (a position he used last year to earmark a massive amount of money for his district last year,… Read More

In a runoff election for the mayor’s office in San Bernardino County’s seat of government and largest city, voters yesterday overwhelmingly chose Superior Court Judge Pat Morris, a Democrat, to replace Democrat Mayor Judith Valles, who opted not to stand for a third term,tolead the troubled City of San Bernardino for the next four years. Morris (pictured left) beat his opponent, elected City Attorney Jim Penman, an Independent, by a 63- to 37-percent margin in an election that saw only 21 percent of voters casting ballots.

Mayor-elect Morris will inherit the mayor’s office as the City of San Bernardino continues to grapple with a crime rate that far exceeds those of surrounding communities. During the weekend of February 4-5, violence claimed three lives in a six-hour period. Morris topped the five-candidate field November 8 in the first round of balloting with 43.7 percent of the vote in the non-partisan contest. Runner-up City Attorney Penman claimed 27 percent. Councilman Chas Kelley, though… Read More

Orange County is a hothouses of political races this year, and at the behest of my publisher, I’ll post a series of overviews.

Today, the 4th Supervisor District.

Incumbent Chris Norby is running for re-election to a second term. The libertarian Republican was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in Orange County’s biggest political upset in a generation, defeating Supervisor Cynthia Coad (unnecessary full disclosure: the Coads are old family friends, and her husband was my dentist). Prior to that, Norby had served on the Fullerton City Council since 1984.

Norby has quickly become Orange County conservatives’ favorite supervisor. He is a state leader in redevelopment reform and the bane of the public employee unions. His re-election campaign is being run by former Sen. John Lewis and Matt Holder, who ran his first supervisor campaign and are fresh from running the resoundingly successful No on Measure D campaign (full disclosure: I served as Lewis’ press secretary from 1991-94, and mentored Holder when… Read More

It didn’t make any of our local media, but Governor Schwarzenegger paid a quiet visit to the proposed alignment for 241 tollway completion this past Saturday. Governor "I Say Build It!" toured the San Mateo Campground and Trestles Beach. No word on whether the surfers yelled "locals only!" at him.

The Governor was accompanied by the TCA’s chief engineer James Brown, local parks superintendent Rich Rozelle and Director of State Parks Ruth Coleman. Coleman is a die-hard opponent of completing the 241 — or building any road on any state park land — period. Lobbying by Coleman and the Governor’s brother-in-law Bobby Shriver are the proximate cause of the Administration request that TCA’s wait another 30 days before approving the project EIR.

The Governator blah-blahed some comments about building more roads to strengthen our economy, but didn’t say one way or another whether he’ll support or oppose the 241 completion.

A few columns ago, I called upon the Governor to visit the site and see for himself if this iffy overflow campground, nearly-always-dry creekbed, and popular surfing spot… Read More