With the latest session of the California legislature over, now is the time of year when various groups and organizations release their “scorecards” — assessing how legislators performed based on how they voted on key pieces of legislation that were of interest to that group or organization. Yesterday one such group to release its ratings of the legislature was the California Taxpayer Association — or “CalTax” as they are known in political circles. You can see their ratings here. If you peruse the lengthy list of bills that CalTax uses to rate legislators, they picked out a bevy of bills — many of them atrocious and worthy of being scored for a “no” vote — and many of them good, certainly appropriately scored as a “yes” vote. There is a lot of good information there, representing a lot of work to put together.

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**THIS IS AN EXCLUSIVE, BREAKING STORY**

This morning Landslide Communications filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court against Republican Party U.S. Senate nominee Elizabeth Emken, and her campaign committee, for breach of contract, fraud and other charges. Landslide Communications, whose proprietor is well-known longtime conservative activist and leader Jim Lacy, featured Emken on 5.5 million pieces of direct mail to voters, but hasn’t paid the bulk of the money owed for those mailings – $65,000. (A review of Emken’s campaign filings shows significant outstanding debt to other slate… Read More

File this one under the law of unintended consequences: the ban on exotic animals that was proposed by Councilwoman Lorri Galloway — and pulled from the agenda just minutes before last week’s Anaheim City Council meeting — would, if enatced, have outlawed the Rally Monkey, the famous mascot of the Angels baseball team.

That, according to a reliable source, was the conclusion of Angels’ lawyers.

Galloway’s ban was directed at Ringling Bro. and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus, which comes to the city-owned Honda Center every year foor a 10-day run, generating $1.3 million in revenue for the city — not to mention delighting thousands and children and their parents.

Why would it have also outlawed the Rally Monkey? You can read more here at this post on theAnaheim Blog, a new project I am involved in.… Read More

According to a recent AP news article (“Calif. tax collector criticized for opposing fee”), several Democratic leaders, including a few of my colleagues, want me to stop my “high profile campaign” against the new “Fire Prevention Fee.” They argue that my role is to simply to collect taxes—not to speak out against them.

They’re right about one thing. I do have a responsibility to administer taxes. I’m doing everything in my power to ensure that this tax, and others, are administered effectively, efficiently and fairly. I’m also encouraging taxpayers to pay their taxes, so they don’t get caught up with penalties and interest.

There’s a reason California has elected tax officials, rather than bureaucrats, in charge of tax administration and appeals. We are elected to represent the taxpayers in our districts. Doing so involves speaking on their behalf.

Accordingly, I respect the right of my Democratic colleagues to speak on behalf of their constituents—even when they disagree with me.

The new “fire fee” is an… Read More

The word ‘leakage’ is the new politically correct term used by legislators, the Governor, bureaucrats and the California Air Resources Board to describe what happens when California businesses leave the state because of tax increases and stupendous regulations… as if any of them know what it means for a business to make the difficult decision to close a location, terminate hundreds of employees, and move a business.

As The… Read More

I’m always skeptical of public opinion polling data. Time after time I say that to really understand the full story behind surveys, you have to investigate the questions being asked of respondents.

I was immediately surprised by the results from the recent PPIC statewide survey as it related to voter sentiment on the Death Penalty. California has and will continue to be supportive of capital punishment for the worst of the worst murders. I’ve known from experience that a death sentence isn’t given often, but when it is, the criminal deserves it.

PPIC didn’t test the actual ballot label of Prop 34 and suggested that it merely tested voter sentiment about the death penalty as opposed to life without parole. The results, they subtly (well not so subtly) would project where voters are on Proposition 34, a measure sponsored by the ACLU and defense attorneys to get rid of the death penalty. The irony behind Prop 34 is that the ACLU is claiming that the death penalty is broken because nobody gets executed and taxpayers are paying… Read More

Foreign Policy: My parents, who have now passed away, were both born around the start of World War I. They were of the “greatest generation” that came to adulthood during the depression and World War II. They grew up in a world where it was us and other democracies against the fascists and imperialists across the oceans. We had the white hats. They wore the black hats. The white hats won. It was all pretty clear.

I was born in 1955, square in the middle of the “baby boom” generation. We came of age during the Cold War and the Vietnam War. It was still pretty clear. There were 3 worlds: us with the white hats, the communists with the black hats, and the “third world” that we and the communists fought over. The Vietnam War was America’s first experience with a conflict that arguably did not result in the defeat of the opposition, which spoiled our air of invincibility. But, our objective for the Cold War, as Ronald Reagan famously described, was, “We win. They lose”. And, that is what happened. Also pretty clear.

After the Cold War came the “peace dividend” and a hope, if not an… Read More

As Sacramento legislators continue to pass laws that make California increasingly less competitive, while ignoring needed reforms in the way state government taxes, spends, and regulates, San Diego stands as a bright spot for advocates of reform, fiscal sanity, and transparency. That bright spot is because of the efforts of City Councilman Carl DeMaio, candidate for mayor of California’s second largest city.

Charter reform, coupled with redistricting, have taken the San Diego City Council from eight seats to nine, having already changed the mayor into a “strong mayor” executive role, and separating the office from the council. Going into this election, left-leaning councilmembers outnumbered pro-business councilmembers 5-3. However, the outright victories of businessmen Mark Kersey and Scott Sherman in the June primary have created a 4-4 split with the deciding ninth seat a battle between businessman Ray Ellis and liberal incumbent Sherri Lightner. Ellis topped Lightner in the 4-way June primary and reformers are excited about Ellis’ chances in November.

But the best part about what is happening in San Diego is not the prospect of a pro-reform,… Read More