The Senate Budget and Fiscal Committee hearing on Feb 6 about using cap and trade funds to fund High-Speed Rail was a lesson in bad government economics.

Roll over Milton Friedman.

Friedman, anAmerican economist, statistician, and writer who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades,once said that there is no such thing as different schools of economics; there is only good economics and bad economics.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2014-15budget proposes to spend $850 million from cap-and-trade auction revenue on various projects — including $250 million on the state’s high-speed rail project. However, this would defy the very purpose of cap-and-trade.

Under AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act… Read More

Every election is an opportunity for voters to choose a new vision, and new leadership, for California.

With sky-high unemployment, the nation’s highest poverty rate, too many failing schools, and the nation’s worst business climate for jobs, rarely have we been given a better opportunity to offer new leadership for the Golden State.

That’s why I’ve taken the first steps to become the Republican Party’s candidate for Lt. Governor this year.

More than any other elected office in state government, the Lt. Governor’s office is what the holder makes of it. The incumbent, Gavin Newsom (D-San Francisco), has his vision for the office, which strongly resembles that of a taxpayer funded gubernatorial exploratory committee for 2018. I have a different vision: to transform the office into a platform to develop and advocate for the major reforms California needs to restore its competitiveness, including tax reform, regulatory reform, education reform, and reining in the frivolous lawsuits that are costing California jobs every day.

Free of the day to day grind of legislative sausage-making, the Lt. Governor’s office should be an incubator for… Read More

“You can’t build a society on artificially inflated asset values, because that accelerates the class division.Immigrants know that even if they work in a low-paying job in a hotel in Houston the chances they can save and buy a house are infinitely better than in California. If you want to have an asset based economy then accept we’re going to have feudalism because the price of entry is just too high.” – Joel Kotkin,CPPC Interview, January 4, 2014

What Kotkin is referring to is the result of decades of increasing legislative restrictions on cost-effective land and energy development, combined with Federal Reserve policies designed to minimize the cost of borrowing. In the first case, prices for land and energy, the building blocks of a healthy economy, are artificially inflated through constraints on supply. In the second, the supply of borrowed money is artificially increased via ultra-low interest rates.

This so-called “asset economy” might also be called a “bubble economy,” because it cannot be sustained indefinitely. For… Read More

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In his State of the Union speech, Barack Obama made a renewed push for his Preschool for All plan, which would increase federal funding for government preschool programs. With congressional Democrats pushing legislation to implement the plan, the liberal media has dubbed universal government preschool as the new “in” thing in education, despite ample evidence showing it doesn’t work.

After the president’s speech, The New York Times decided that more government preschool is where it’s at. In a column entitled “How Preschool Got Hot,” Times columnist Gail Collins gushed: “All of a sudden, early childhood education is really, really popular. Everybody’s favorite. If early childhood education were an actor, it would be Tom Hanks or Meryl Streep. If it were a video game, it would be Candy Crush or Angry Birds, minus the spyware.”

Collins’ fellow Times columnist Nicholas Kristof penned a piece where he declared, “Against all odds, prekindergarten is gaining ground” and sought to discredit skeptics who oppose the new liberal cause du jour. In addition, the Times ran a lengthy “news” story that attempted to show widespread bipartisan support… Read More

A statewide survey commissioned by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association shows Californians continue to support Proposition 13 and the two-thirds vote requirement to boost taxes on property owners. By nearly two to one, voters agree that reducing the two-thirds vote to 55% to pass local bonds would place an unfair burden on owners of property.

Tone-deaf legislators have introduced a number of bills in Sacramento that would lower the vote required to pass new special taxes, per parcel… Read More

By now most have heard about the remarkable court ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, declaring that the right of “self defense” is a sufficient reason to issue concealed weapon permits in San Diego County (assuming a person is otherwise eligible).

Yes, the ruling could still be overturned (I’m not optimistic the ruling will stand), but it DOES have the saving grace that it supports (and is supported by) the U.S. Constitution. The repercussions if it stands would be statewide — indeed, nationwide.

Perhaps that 2nd Amendment thingy might be considered in any further court deliberations. Hope springs eternal!.

But today’s U-T story on the ruling is annoyingly incomplete, if not outright inaccurate. Many think the U-T is a conservative paper. It is, on the EDITORIAL pages. Not so much in the news department. Look at their story on this court ruling today. It quotes several sources on how this decision (if upheld) will lead to a more dangerous California. … Read More

At our next meeting, the Board of Equalization will consider and vote on a staff proposal to reduce the gas tax by 3.5 cents per gallon for the 2014-15 fiscal year.

This proposed gas tax cut will give Californians a much-deserved tax break and help lower travel costs this summer. It has my full support.

Although I’m pleased the tax will go down this year, it’s unfortunate that California will continue to have one of the highest gas tax rates in the nation.

California has a confusing and complicated gas tax scheme that was imposed by the Governor and Legislature in 2010 over my objections. The BOE did not create this tax scheme.

Taxes are hard enough to accept, but when they can’t be simply explained, it erodes public confidence. This tax scheme is so complicated even expert tax professionals have a hard time understanding it.

Taxpayers deserve a simple and straightforward tax system that they can easily understand and won’t take them by surprise. They have the right to know how much they’re paying and where those dollars are going.… Read More

The governor’s 2014-15 budget proposes to spend $850 million from cap-and-trade auction revenue on various projects — including the state’s high-speed rail project. However, this would defy the very purpose of cap-and-trade.

Under AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, cap and trade takes money from business owners and manufacturers who produce products, but are deemed “polluters” by the state.

It’s like being taxed for being a business that emits any greenhouse gas emissions.

That money is taken out of the economy, and given to the government to decide how it will be spent.

California business owners only know it is money they… Read More