A few weeks ago, I sent a letter to Cal Fire urging them to stop the collection of state “Fire Prevention Fee” from victims of the Clover Fire in Shasta County and the Rim Fire in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties.

Last week, I finally heard back from Cal Fire.

In his response to my letter Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott stated, “the Fire Prevention Fee statute, as written, provides no authority for Cal Fire to waive fees due to the loss of structures from natural disasters of any kind, nor authority to provide refunds for victims under these circumstances.”

I am disappointed Cal Fire declined my request to halt billing to fire victims. That’s why I have asked local legislators to introduce urgency legislation to waive fees and provide refunds for fire victims who have lost their homes.

I also sent a letter to my constituents affected by the recent wildfires letting them know about my plan.

I hope the Legislature… Read More

Government Shutdown Day 14: The status of the “negotiations” or of any resolution of this Government Shutdown/Debt Limit debate is as clear as mud. But, it is becoming crystal clear what each side is really fighting over.

It’s not really about any one bill or any one policy. It is about the things that have separated Democrats and Republicans ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall – taxes, spending, deficits and government control of our lives.

As Democrats have been “feeling their oats” in the last few days due to favorable polling data, you have seen them push for the things they really want. They want the “Sequester” to go away. The “Sequester” is the one thing that has reduced spending in recent years, and they want to see spending go back up. The president said in a meeting with Republicans that he wants more tax increases. This demand has been echoed by a number of his surrogate talking heads over the last few days. And, if you listen carefully when the left acknowledges the problems with ObamaCare, you’ll notice that they say its failings are not because the government has been given too much… Read More

Almost twenty years ago, Money Magazine sponsored a debate and panel discussion at UCLA on Proposition 13. When one of the panelists, with ties to the public sector, began to assert vigorously that the tax cutting measure was unfair, he was challenged by Craig Stubblebine, Professor of Political Economy at Claremont McKenna College. Stubblebine said he would be happy to discuss fairness, but charged that the critic’s true motivation was simply the desire for more revenue. The Proposition 13 critic sheepishly conceded the point.

I thought of this last week when we of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association caucused with about a hundred Southern California taxpayer advocates and activists to discuss attacks on Proposition 13. After the event, a longtime homeowner approached me and told me that he had had words with a new neighbor over the fact that he was paying less in property taxes and the recent homebuyer thought this was unfair.

While Professor Stubblebine’s opponent refused to continue the fairness debate, knowledgeable taxpayers are always glad to address the issue.

Because Proposition 13 uses acquisition value (usually the purchase price) as a… Read More

Republicans warned Obamacare would be a disaster. And we are right.

One of the biggest problems posed by the current government shutdown is that it obscures how bad Obamacare really is. News media attention is focused on closed parks and memorials instead of Obamacare’s serious faults, and just how badly Democrats misled the American people in pushing for its passage.

First, President Obama promised that “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” This turns out to have been a lie. Many Americans are being told their current health insurance plan doesn’t meet with the approval of the nannystate, and therefore will be cancelled. I should know – I received such a letter from Kaiser Permanente. I doubt any Democrat reading this post will actually ask to see a copy of it, since it’s now become common knowledge that many plans are being scrapped due to new Obamacare regulations. Apparently Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi know what kind of health insurance I and other Californians need better than we do.

Second, President Obama promised that insurance rates would drop under his plan, and that an average family of four would see… Read More

What’s the point of having a constitution if the government punishes The People for exercising their rights guaranteed in it?

Article XI, Section 3 of the California Constitution gives the state’s 121 charter cities the authority to govern their own municipal affairs. In recent years, city councils have proposed charters and voters have approved charters in order to circumvent costly and unnecessary state mandates imposed by the California State Legislature on local governments. Many of these mandates are pushed into state law by union lobbyists.

In 2012 the California Supreme Court upheld a right practiced by dozens of charter cities. The court ruled that charter cities could establish their own policies concerning government-mandated wage rates (so-called “prevailing wages”) for public projects funded exclusively with city funds and private projects getting city financial assistance.

To stifle this little local rebellion, State Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Republican Senator Anthony Cannella introduced a bill in 2013 sponsored by the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California. Senate Bill 7 cuts off… Read More

by Richard Rider The Chargers (via the media that usually profits from having professional sports teams in town) are blitzing San Diego, trying to get a new stadium largely at taxpayer expense. Naturally I oppose such a subsidy for millionaires (players) and billionaires (owners).

There are many arguments against such subsidies, and I’ve voiced them over the years. For instance, we taxpayers foot much of the bill, and the owners and players pocket 100% of the increases gross profits and team resale profit.

Inaddition,most of the ticket revenue is from people within the county, resulting in the “substitution effect.” Charger revenue is money that otherwise would have been spent on some other recreational or entertainment activity… Read More

Shutdown Day 12 and 13: I did not write you yesterday. Not because I have lost any affection for you, but because the “negotiations” in the House and the Senate were moving so fast that I feared that anything I wrote you would be obsolete before you had time to read it. There is still a risk of that on this gloomy and wet Sunday morning in Washington, DC.

I also wanted to put down my rhetorical sword in the hopes that real discussions to perhaps get a win-win solution here were ongoing. It seems that whenever I give this administration and their allies the benefit of the doubt, it leads to disappointment. And it did so again this weekend.

Here is where we stand as I see it. I put the word “negotiations” in quotes because it is quite clear now that the president was disingenuous in his agreement to enter negotiations. House Republicans made a good faith offer to begin resolution of this dispute. The offer was one that I and others didn’t think was very good from our perspective, but it was made. The White House took a day to pretend as though they were negotiating, because they are clearly sensitive to that criticism,… Read More

Government Shutdown Day 11: This will be a short update today. Negotiations are ongoing between Speaker Boehner and his staff and President Obama and his staff. Also, over in the Senate, there is a sizable group of Republicans and Democrats also working on an agreement. Apparently, only Harry Reid is still holding out to not negotiate and is not involved in any of this or may be trying to mess it up.

At this point, I have no idea what has been put on the table and what has not. I don’t know if the negotiations are going well or poorly. I don’t know if this is still two separate negotiations or if there is some collaboration with the Senate. I don’t know if a deal will be reached, and if so if I will like and support that deal or dislike it and oppose it.

But after 11 days, we are finally doing what should have happened 3 weeks ago. Both sides of divided government are talking, negotiating and compromising. That is as it should be. That is how it has to be.

I’ll give you another update when some proverbial smoke comes out of the chimney signaling some agreement.

Until then, drive fast and live free.… Read More