One of the many liberal talking points against Prop 13 is that it “gutted” public education. Supposedly Prop 13, which passed in 1978, is the main reason our CA schools are so underfunded today — ruining whatprogressivesnowclaim was once the best K-12 public school system in the nation. But were the CA public schools really that great before they were “gutted”? Indeed, was school funding gutted at ALL?

Short answer to the second question:“Au contraire.”

Below is a chart showing the history of CA public school spending since 1968. It’s PER STUDENT, and it’s adjusted for inflation. As the chart demonstrates, since 1968 the resulting spending has essentially DOUBLED. And I say again, this growth in spending is adjusted for both the number of students and inflation.

I should add that this chart is outdated (pre Prop 30). In the last two years CA public education spending hassoared. Yet the Democrats want to raise several taxes to further increase funding “for the children,” — not to mention “reform” Prop 13. Well, actually these tax increase are… Read More

A Sacramento Superior Court judge has put a halt to the City of Sacramento’s plan for a mass-deletion of millions of e-mails deemed “non-public record,” following two California Public Records Act requests — one of which was mine.

The California Public Records Actrequires judges to balance the publics’ right to access records with the public interests in not accessing records.City officials said that the email being deleted does not qualify as public record and is mostly “transitory in nature.”

I filed my PRA request June 25, 2015 specifically in response to the recent public statements by City Officials, including City Attorney James Sanchez, that the City will be destroying all emails in its possession, two years or older on July 1, 2015. My requests are, among other things, to obtain copies of those electronic messages prior to their deletion by the City.

Richard Stevenson, a grass roots community… Read More

Here’s a fact that may surprise you: In the past four years, Democratic US Senate candidate and Attorney General Kamala Harris has accepted $6,000 from Donald Trump.

Don’t be fooled by the Donald’s latest branding gimmick. He’s not a conservative, rather he’s exploiting the Republican Party in his latest PR gambit. In reality, Donald Trump is a big government authoritarian who backs liberal Democrats like Kamala Harris.

In the past four years, Harris’s campaign has accepted a total of $6,000 in… Read More

Below is a valuable chart, comparing how much a $100 buys in each state. It’s no surprise that California is one of the worst. Only NY, NJ and HI offer less bang for the buck. Through a remarkable coincidence, all four states are controlled by Democrats. Odd, isn’t it? CAUTION: It’s worse than the graphic indicates. Most viewers of this data will misinterpret this graph — it’s worse in these four states than the charts indicate. The hypothetical $100 is AFTER TAX dollars — a fact that is mentioned only in passing. In other words, not included is the state income tax. These four worst states all have high state income taxes. Indeed, HI, NJ and NY income tax rates rise faster than CA, though in the top brackets, CA is considerably higher. Well, except for nut-ball NYC, that tacks on its own local income tax. So when you compare the value of $100 in, say, CA and TX, remember which state “lets” you pay a state income tax, and which state does not.

… Read More

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but something is rotten with road funding in California.

Sacramento is flush with billions in unanticipated revenue. Yet a record $115 billion budget spending plan signed by Gov. Jerry Brown shortchanges the state’s transportation and infrastructure needs. The only real funding boost goes to high-speed rail.

Budgets reflect priorities, and this shows that fixing roads is not a priority to Democratic legislators. Instead of fixing deteriorating freeways, some liberal lawmakers still hope Californians will give up their cars and ride mass transit.

But tax-and-spend politicians sense an opportunity. By starving road maintenance budgets, they hope to create public pressure for tax increases. Rather than curb wasteful spending, they want to have their cake and eat it, too.

Call it the “pothole strategy.” It’s similar to when the federal government closes the Washington Monument or school districts force teachers to buy their supplies. These highly visible actions appeal to people’s emotions and can generate public support for higher taxes.

I hope Californians will not fall for this trick.

The… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: As part of an ongoing effort to bring original, thoughtful commentary to you here at the FlashReport, we are pleased to present this column from Senator Jeff Stone.]

Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for? – Robert Browning

Reaching out with a promise of benefits that can’t be delivered is no way to run good government. However that’s exactly what’s happening in Sacramento right now. Some 12 ½ million people, roughly one in three Californians, now rely upon it for their medical coverage. Today many of those newly enrolled in Medi-Cal can’t even find a doctor for treatment.

Despite this, the just-passed state budget actually increases Medi-Cal coverage to hundreds of thousands of children. When so many can’t grasp treatment now, why would we increase our reach even more?

There’s much more to providing health care than simply signing up people to get coverage. People also need access to real health care services. And the primary reason so many Californians covered by Medi-Cal can’t get medical services is because health… Read More

In a democracy, the assumption is that civilians exercise the ultimate authority over their government. The citizens elect representatives who will act in the public interest. But what happens when government agencies are disbursed over thousands of jurisdictions, and the people who run these local agencies are virtually unknown?

Evencitizenswho follow politics and vote diligently are challenged to make an informed selection when considering the many candidates vying for obscure boards and commissions and special district elected positions. In some cases they will know about a particular obscure race, but in most cases they will not. So they either don’t select a candidate, or select a candidate almost randomly based on the brief ballot description, “small business owner,” “retired teacher,” whatever.

Only one group of voters consistently makes informed choices in these elections to supposedly minor elected positions. The people who these elected officials are going to manage and negotiate with over pay, benefits, and work rules.

The problem with dismissing these bottom-of-the-ballot elections as inconsequential, of course, is that these… Read More

Can California really reduce petroleum-based fuels by 50 percent and still have any sort of economy? Most of California’s businesses and residents rely on oil and gas for day-to-day transportation needs. But a bill currently in the legislative committee process, SB 350, would compromise the availability of transportation fuels.

TheRenewable Portfolio Standard, passed in 2011, called for 33 percent of electricity retail sales be served by renewable energy resources by the year 2020.

However, the President of the California State Senate, Kevin de Leon, no student of economics, is pushing a bill through the… Read More