Last Tuesday’s election results are still being pondered, analyzed and examined by the pundits trying to make sense of it all. But few of these prognosticators attempt to read the tea leaves with a view toward answering this question: What did last week’s election mean for taxpayers?

As virtually all those who pay more into government than they receive are aware, California remains exceptionally hostile to taxpayers. So in judging whether statewide election results are “good”… Read More

Inone of the most significant labor relations fights in the country,California farm workers have made history again. But this fight is about trying to get their votes from a November election counted, in order to boot the farm labor union out of their place of business.

The Agricultural Labor Relations Board has steadfastly refused to count the ballots from the Nov. decertification vote.

Ironically, this same group of people – Hispanic farm laborers – are the very demographic the Democratic Party is so eager to register to… Read More

Proposition 209 – the California ballot initiative to prohibit discrimination and preferential treatment on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin – has been a source of controversy in California since its passage in 1996. The primary opponent of 209 is an aptly named organization – the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). Yes, that is the true name!

BAMN has protested, demonstrated and filed a seemingly endless series of lawsuits, all with the objective of overturning Proposition 209 or Proposal 2 in Michigan, the subject of the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court. This case, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, involved the question of whether it is constitutional for a white majority electorate to approve a ballot initiative to prohibit race preferences. Schuette was decided 6-2 with one justice, Elena Kagan, not voting because of her association with the case in her prior position with the Obama administration.

The Schuette case represents, quite likely, the last legal challenge to be brought against… Read More

These days, it’s hard to talk about Sacramento without bringing up the ethics challenges confronting the State Senate. Criminal charges that include everything from perjury to bribery to influence peddling have been leveled against three Democratic members of this body. Faced with those facts, facts that have triggered their indefinite suspensions, legislators on both sides are busy figuring out what steps to take in response.

Throughout all of this, however, one thing has been crystal clear: it is not enough… Read More

On June 6th, many across the globe will be remembering the sacrifices made by thousands of American, British and Canadian young men who hit the beaches at Normandy to free Europe from Nazi tyranny. Californians will also be celebrating this date because it marks the 36th birthday of the landmark tax limiting measure, Proposition 13.

Howard Jarvis, Paul Gann and the tens of thousands of volunteers who made Proposition 13 possible would be proud to see that Proposition 13’s protections… Read More

“California is definitely back,” Governor Jerry Brown recently trumpeted. Brown then proclaimed the state a “job creation engine.” But the magical California job creation engine has shifted from a healthy manufacturing economy, to a service economy – from high-paying jobs with benefits and growth potential, to low-wage, nowhere minimum wage jobs.

Rather than creating policies to make California a healthy business state once again to incentivize businesses, politicians are instead focused on these low-paying jobs, and treating the symptoms instead of curing the disease.

The winter of our discontent

The growing discontent between politics, politicians, and the hard-working electorate could turn into anguish, misery and rebellion with the latest minimum wage increase proposal.

Before the last… Read More

The results are almost all in – and the 2014 primary results are exactly why I fought against Prop 14 when I was Chairman of the California Republican Party. The new format pits just the Top 2 finishers in each race on the Fall ballot. As a result, voters will have less choices and hear less discussion because of the Top 2 format – with no discernable gain.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and then Senator Abel Maldonado sold Prop 14 to the California voters. They claimed it was an answer to gridlock in Sacramento that would produce more moderate candidates. In practice, that is not true. Instead, Prop 14 means that only 2 people will be on the Fall ballot… Read More

Spokespersons for California’s government employee unions perpetuate a myth of staggering absurdity and tragic consequences – that they are protecting working Californians from wealthy corporations and wealthy individuals.

The reality is that government employee unions are focused on one thing: Expanding government employee pay, benefits and privileges. This requires expanding government, and that priority comes in front of everything else, including the cost to society at large.Expansive environmentalist regulations have made prices in California for housing and utilities the highest in the nation.Expansive compensation packages for unionized government workers have resulted in chronic deficits and accumulating state and local government debt that by some measures already exceeds $1.0 trillion. Expansive taxes and regulation have made California consistently rank as the most inhospitable place in the nation to run a small business.

Exactly how does any of this protect the poor from the wealthy?

It doesn’t, of course. But the deeper story is how government employee unions are not only failing to “protect” California’s… Read More