On April 30 Californians can finally celebrate Tax Freedom Day, a full six days later than last year.

Tax Freedom Day, calculated annually by the Tax Foundation, is the day Americans have earned enough money to pay their annual tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels. This year’s national Tax Freedom Day arrived on April 21. According to the Tax Foundation, Americans total tax bill comes to $4.5 trillion in 2014.

Compared to other states, California’s Tax Freedom Day is the fourth latest in the nation. Only Connecticut, New Jersey and New York have later dates.

Unfortunately, Californians must work 120 days this year to pay their full tax bill. California’s burdensome tax climate continues to stifle its citizens, creating a difficult economic environment in which to live and work.

Learn more about Tax Freedom Day at www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday.… Read More

Any Californian who says “I can’t find a good job (or ANY job)” is thinking small. They need to broaden their job search. There ARE good job openings in the right fields, and/or in the right states. And not just in the oil fracking industry/states. Here’s the latest rankings of unemployment by state:… Read More

*BREAKING NEWS*

This morning the FlashReport has the exclusive scoop on the fact that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has announced his endorsement of Neel Kashkari in his bid for Governor of California.

In endorsing Kashkari, Governor Jeb Bush had this to say…

“Today, I’m proud to endorse Neel Kashkari, a bold conservative Republican leader, as California’s next governor … From his time in the private sector to his time in public service, Neel has demonstrated a unique ability to bring people together to achieve success in challenging circumstances. He is a principled man of action – not someone… Read More

It’s no secret that the existing rules for assigning teachers to public school classrooms in California are harming our students. The “Last In, First Out” (LIFO) policy is a quality-blind approach to classroom staffing that prioritizes teachers’ dates of hire over everything else, including their ability to teach. These LIFO policies literally block schools from making sure every classroom has the best teacher possible. Research shows that the students who live in our poorest inner city neighborhoods are the students who suffer the most.

It’s not just our existing classrooms that are getting hurt. LIFO policies… Read More

California’s uncompetitive environment for business and jobs was spotlighted in dramatic fashion on Monday as Toyota announced it would move its U.S. corporate headquarters out of Torrance in Los Angeles County, draining another 3,000 good jobs out of the state’s economy.

Where will these jobs go? You guessed – Texas. Plano, Texas.

Where is Plano? It’s just north of Dallas. Now, I like Texas – it’s big, it’s conservative, it’s pro-growth and individual liberty. But Plano, Texas can’t hold a candle to Los Angeles, with its coastline, beaches, culture and lack of punishing humidity. For a business to move from beautiful Los Angeles to Texas, there must be a serious reason.

Jim Lentz, Toyota’s CEO for North America, says the cost of doing business in California versus Texas wasn’t a factor. Maybe. The company says it wants to move its headquarters to be closer to its main manufacturing plants, which are, you guessed it, not in… Read More

Until I started working closely with small business owners, I had no idea how many things could cause a business to close. Sure, I knew that an economic downturn, natural disaster, or lack of customers could cause businesses to close their doors. But the one thing I never anticipated was that a lawsuit would force the doors of a business to close. Many business owners don’t see these lawsuits coming, especially “shakedown” lawsuits alleging Proposition 65 violations. These are one of the most dangerous lawsuits a business can face. Luckily, there is a bill pending in the Legislature that will help stop these lawsuits.

Proposition 65, passed by the voters in 1986, requires businesses in California to warn consumers if any chemicals that may cause cancer or reproductive harm are present in their business or products. At first glance, this seems reasonable, but here’s the catch: the law is enforced by private lawyers, who make outrageous profits off of these… Read More

Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown delivered the keynote address at a sustainability summit hosted by the Los Angeles Business Council. While the summit focused on California’s environmental, energy and water policy, we have to wonder whether the governor will exert the same effort in support of fiscal sustainability now that he has called a special session to deal with California’s spending limit.

While a rainy day fund measure has been slated for every ballot since 2010, it has been repeatedly moved back by the majority in the Legislature who fear it would prevent them from spending every last nickel when revenue to state government expands. Brown wants to tinker with the language, and to his credit, move forward to allow the voters to have the final say.

Unfortunately, most of those who push for tax and budget reform are big government advocates focused exclusively on the sustainability of government, its workforce and the vast array of special interests that thrive off taxpayers’ dollars. Those on the government team tend to look to reforms that would stabilize and even expand revenue in tough economic times, meaning they would continue to suck vast amounts… Read More

There actually are worse things than profligate government spending. One is profligate government spending paired with abuse of private property rights. Unfortunately, a new proposition is circulating that both increases property rights abuse and adds new profligate spending by Sacramento and California local governments.

The California Jobs and Education Development Initiative Act (the “JEDI” for short), has been likened by some as a return of the Empire. However, any signature gatherer that approaches you with a petition to ballot qualify this initiative should be resisted with all a Jedi’s powers of Force lightening.

For decades, Californian’s suffered property rights abuse when 425 redevelopment agencies roamed free to use eminent domain powers to take private property. It gave elected officials tremendous power to affect real estate development by pursuing “land assembly”,… Read More