The swearing-in of new legislators is usually a party atmosphere. Lawmakers feel celebratory after long campaigns. Yesterday’s swearing-in was not a disappointment however, along with the celebratory mood, there was an air of fantasy and fairy tale.

This is the largest freshman class, with 39 newly elected lawmakers, since 1966.

Perhaps the party mood was because of the new Democratic supermajority. While Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg insists that Democrats will not go hog wild with their unobstructed power, not everyone believes that. “I just don’t think we should come hurtling out of the gates talking about a bunch of new taxes,” Steinberg told media Monday.

“It’s in their DNA,” one Capitol staffer told me, but asked to remain anonymous. “It would go completely against everything they stand for. They can’t help themselves.”

Fractured fairy tales

When it came time to nominate the Assembly Speaker, the Capitol sergeants should have handed out airsick bags.

Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Humbolt, nominated current Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles. Chesbro said Perez… Read More

Californians okayed Governor Brown (and the labor unions’) plea for 30% higher taxes on the rich — making the “Golden State” BY FAR the highest income tax state in the nation. Perhaps voters should have first looked “across the pond” at England’s similar “soak the rich measure” recently put in place.

Britain raised its income tax rate on the wealthy from 40% to 50%. According to the WALL ST JOURNAL editorial below, the following year the number of millionaire tax returns dropped more than 60%. Just a coincidence, I suppose.

Some of the wealthy left the country, others rearranged their finances to avoid the new 10% tax increase — which resulted in less of the OLD 40% tax being collected.

The year before the tax passed, millionaires paid“about £13.4 billion to the public coffers, or just under 9% of the total tax liability of all taxpayers that year. At the 50% rate, the shrunken pool yielded £6.5 billion, or about 4.4%.”

The 10% tax increase wassupposedto raise an additional£2.5 billion. Yeah, THAT went well!

California’s experience… Read More

It’s a somber day for Republicans, and a foreboding one for California taxpayers. Today is the official swearing-in day for the California legislature. When the final counts were all done, Democrats now have a whopping 29 members of the California State Senate — while only ten Republicans will occupy the upper chamber, with reinforcements on the way when one more Republican wins a runoff in a special election. Let’s call this a super-duper majority for Democrats. In the Assembly, Democrats will control more than two-thirds of the chamber with 55 members, leaving the GOP with only 25 members. With the backdrop of a pretty lousy day nationally for Republicans including the loss of the White House, and a pretty dismal showing in U.S. Senate races, it’s not good. (Republicans did keep the House, though half of the GOP’s losses nationally were California seats). I won’t even get into the results of ballot propositions.

We’ve all heard that expression, “Through adversity comes opportunity.”

Well, the 36 Republican legislators in the State Capitol are going to have to figure out the opportunity that has been… Read More

When a business closes it’s doors forever, the impacts are far-reaching.

The announcement of the upcoming closure of the Campbell’s Soup plant in Sacramento will have regional and statewide impact.

Econ. 101

I may have been a political science student, but my husband is a longtime Sacramento manufacturer. For many years I lived and worked Econ. 101 lessons alongside 250 employees.

My businessman husband was an economics major in college and frequently reminds me that economics education in college has seen a dramatic shift. There weren’t many Keynesian economists in universities back then. Unfortunately, today, Keynesian economics seems to be the only economic theory coming out of universities.

Keynesian economics is an economic theory stating that aggressive government interventions in the marketplace and monetary policy are the best way to ensure economic growth and stability.

Economist Walter Williams has explained for many years the reality of the free market economy in which businesses must make a profit in order to survive: ”In the market, when a firm fails to please its customers and fails to earn a… Read More

Much has been said about the defeat of Proposition 32 in California. Much of that has focused on the GOTV operation of the labor unions, the Democrats and the Obama campaign. Not sure the difference between the but they trulydid a stupendous job. It was do or die and they did it.

The Proposition 32 campaign lost the election over year ago when a decision was made not the place a referendum on the ballot challenging Governor Brown’s signing of Senate Bill 202. SB 202 moved all initiatives to November ballot. As a side note it broke a previous budget deal with Republican squishes and moved a “rainy day” fund measure to 2014.

Clearly, if you look at the results of the June primary it was a much more conservative electorate.

Duh! That’s why the Democrats wanted to move all initiatives to November.

Had the referendum qualified In June we would have voted on Proposition 32 language, of course a different number.

The better turnout model would have arguably given the Proposition 32 folks had … Read More

This week House Republicans gathered and, among other things, confirmed Orange County Congressman Ed Royce to be the new Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In making this decision, the 113th Congress will convene in January with one of the most qualified, hard working, and committed conservatives in the House of Representatives at the helm of this key committee with oversight of the federal government’s role and legislation impacting the foreign affairs of the United States.

To meet Ed Royce for the first time, you might immediately assume that he must be a freshman. Because the high energy level and excitement that he has for his role as a Congressman really come across, and as you start to talk with him, you are struck with admiration for his fierce love of this country, and his outright optimism for its future. If you spend more than a little time with the California Congressman in his 10th term in the House, it becomes pretty evident, pretty quickly, that Royce is an ideologue and an intellectual, with a strong aptitude for public policy. When I first met Royce back in the late 1980’s, he gave me my first copy of former Arizona… Read More

Taxes and Culture: Being a CPA and all, I often opine in these pages about things fiscal, financial and economic. Today, in the mainstream, establishment press, all you hear about is the “fiscal cliff” and taxes and such. I care a great deal about taxes and the deficit, as you regular readers well know. And, you will hear much from me about these issues in the coming months. But, the underlying issue before us right now with the so-called “fiscal cliff” is, in my opinion, not actually fiscal or financial. It is cultural.

As you may not be aware, I have always believed that the culture of an organization is the biggest single attribute that will determine the success or failure of said organization. In my 25 year business career, I was obsessed with the culture of our company and with that of companies we might acquire or with which we might do business. A business with a strong culture of customer service will empower people with service skills and will change or weed out those people who don’t care how they treat others. If a company has a culture of dishonesty, even an honest person will cheat now and then because… Read More

Recently “my” San Diego Chargers lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — employing the patented Charger second half meltdown. No surprise. But my concern is that this loss might be the harbinger of what we can expect in future years–for a surprising reason.

First some background: Our star Charger player Vincent Jackson recently became a free agent, and Tampa Bay won the bidding war. After Sunday’s Tampa Bay victory, Jackson was a classy guy, saying all the right things about respecting the Chargers while being happy with his new team–and home. I bet he is!

Jackson is now WELL paid for his services. He makes $5.2 million a year, guaranteed for 5 years. Depending on incentive payments for how well he performs, he can make as much as $11 million a year. The Chargers could not come close to matching that offer–or at least chose not to try. But there’s an additional reason Jackson is so broadly smiling all the way to the bank. IF he were still in CA, he’d be paying 13.3% state income tax (easily the highest in the nation) on most of his $55 million, 5 year salary … Read More