Not unlike it’s behemoth statewide counterparts, CalPERS and CalSTRS, the Orange County Public Employee Retirement System (OCERS) is facing an unfunded pension liability that is epic in size (for Orange County it’s approaching $6 billion, for the statewide groups its exponentially larger). In fact a study out of Stanford University pegs the aggregate unfunded liability statewide at just shy of half a trillion dollars. To illustrate the difficulty of trying to bring down these numbers, you need look no further than the very modest so-called Public Employees Pension Reform Act (PEPRA) which contained limited reforms championed in the 2012 legislative session by Governor Brown and legislative Democrats. For all of the hoopla and declarations of “meaningful pension reform” that new law addressed significantly less than… Read More

[Publisher’s Note – We are pleased to offer this column from GOP congressional candidatePat Maciariello, who argues the best way to help the poor is to grow the pie.- Flash]

We have heard a lot from the Obama administration about the growing gap between the rich and poor among us. Less discussed by the Left however, is how middle-income families have done under this administration. What is their record? The fact is that median household income has fallen by 7% since 2007, with most of the decline coming on President Obama’s watch. Liberals are quick to find villains on Wall Street and in “Benedict Arnold” corporations while ignoring how their anti-growth policies and rhetoric are making the problem worse for those struggling to reach the middle class.

The U.S. economy is not a “fixed pie” entrusted to Washington elites to slice up in the way they see fit, but is instead a dynamic and adaptive system, the likes of which the world has never seen. It is a system capable of growing quickly and lifting the prospects of all in it, if we don’t screw it up. Yet nobody in this… Read More

[Publisher’s Note – We are pleased to offer this column from Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, who explains why she has filed a lawsuit against State Senator Mark Wyland.- Flash]

Are there bounds of decency in which campaigns should be run? I think so.

Before joining the Assembly, I built a very successful 30-year career in finance. My husband of 30 years, Dan, also built his businesses, but did so independent of my career interests.

When the real estate downturn came, one of Dan’s investment firms took a hit. Many investors, who were forewarned about the risks of investing, saw their portfolios shrink as a result of the economic crisis. That’s not unusual.

A handful of investors filed suit, even though they knew the risks of investing. Unfortunately forCaliforniabusinesses, that’s not unusual either.

What is unusual is that one of my political opponents for the Board of Equalization, Mark Wyland, has taken an active interest in the plight of these plaintiffs. Why would a State… Read More

There are three ways legislators can attempt to prevent a law from taking effect – and they vary in terms of transparency to the public. The first, most obvious way is that they can vote against it, and hope to persuade enough colleagues on board to vote with them. But once passed into law, a legislator can attempt to defund the measure. This can be done in a public fashion, as we are witnessing in the current Obamacare debates in Washington.

But it is the third way that should concern us all as Californians: the use of budget trailer bills that quietly have tucked within them the poison pills intended to kill particular programs. What is so insidious about this last strategy as that these bills rarely carry titles that would indicate their intended targets, and are often so complex that a few lines of text defunding a mandated program squirreled into 400-500 page trailers can easily pass the notice of even the most exacting observer, at least until it’s too late.

Well, if it happened once, it would be an event, and two times a trend. But do three instances of this practice constitute a strategy for the Legislative Democrats and Governor Brown in using budget… Read More

“Just as the overseer of Detroit lied to the public about Detroit’s unfunded pension liability, these extremists are likewise lying to the taxpayers of Orange County, and they’re following his playbook.” – Jennifer Muir, Communications Director, Orange County Employees Association

We’re not lying, Jennifer. We’re not even stretching the truth.

What government union spokesperson Muir is referring to is an analysis released last week by the California Public Policy Center entitled “Are Annual Contributions Into Orange County’s Employee Pension Plan Adequate?”

They aren’t adequate. They aren’t even close to adequate. No lie.

The problem with pensions, unfortunately, as Teri Sforza aptly put it in her coverage of the CPPC study on September 10th in the Orange County Register, is“the nature of America’s public pension systems is to peer 20 to 30 years into the future – and the crystal ball can get a bit… Read More

Criminals don’t register their guns with authorities. Despite this indisputable fact, the California Legislature recently passed 14 gun control bills, taking aim at citizens who legally own guns.

California lawmakers are ignoring the historic recall last week of two Colorado state legislators who backed new gun restrictions. And they are ignoring the Bill of Rights. Second Amendment

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” says the Second Amendment within the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.

The gun control debate waged during the last eight months in the California Legislature has been an attack on the Second Amendment. Democratic lawmakers claim the… Read More

As first reported by San Diego Rostra on Saturday and covered by John Hrabe on FlashReport today, Assemblywoman Diane Harkey is suing fellow Republican and Senator Mark Wyland in response to comments he is said to have made in July (the links provide the details; a copy of the lawsuit is reposted here).

As readers may know, Harkey and Wyland are vying to follow Michelle Steel on the State Board of Equalization when she terms out next year.

The number of times I’ve heard candidates say they’re going to sue an opponent? Probably during just about every campaign in which I’ve been involved. Dozens of times, at least. In the heat of the campaign, at some point the reaction to a mail piece, or a commercial, or an opponent’s public statement of some kind, inevitably includes, “I’m going to sue that (fill in the… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: Below is a commentary from Kirk Jorgensen, who is running against Carl DeMaio for Congress.– Flash]

Through the prism of the civil war in Syria, history is asking this generation of Americans to decide what level of violence we find acceptable.

Chemical weapons were used in Syria, resulting in the deaths of 1,400 civilians, including 400 children.

Chemical weapons are taboo to those of us who’ve served on the battlefield. They are simply barbaric, and innocent civilians are usually the victims of these weapons of mass destruction.

As a U.S. Marine, I spent years living in the Middle East and in other countries where chaos and violence were often the norm. The more time I spent away from home, the more I realized America is a special place. And, we as Americans have a special responsibility in the world.

Before the September 11th attacks, I worked with a unique group of men and women from our U.S. Intelligence Community who served in clandestine operations across Europe. We identified and apprehended those accused of war crimes and… Read More