Yesterday, in a column published in the Sacramento Bee, Republican Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen announced, two weeks before the general election, that she was no longer willing to stand by the written pledge that she made in her first election to the Assembly, to the constituents of her district, “to oppose and vote against any and all efforts to raise taxes.” She specifically said that she would not renew her pledge as she seeks re-election to her newly drawn district.

In her missive, Assemblywoman Olsen panned the pledge she made to her constituents, saying that, “entrenched special interests interpret what is or is not a violation of the pledge to serve their own agendas — and sometimes their interpretations defy logic.”

Not mentioned in her column is who exactly are these self-serving “entrenched special interests” — with interpretations that, “defy logic.”

No doubt Assemblywoman Olsen’s decision to pen her editorial comes as a product of her own decision, in the final hours of this… Read More

By every measure Californians are overtaxed. The latest proof comes from a Tax Foundation report showing that the average Californian’s tax burden worsened in 2010.

At a time when Californians could least afford it, our state and local tax burden was among the highest in the nation.

The Tax Foundation’s Annual State-Local Tax Burden Ranking estimates the average total tax burden for residents of each state. This method takes the point of view of the individual taxpayer, counting all taxes he or she pays, no matter to which state they are paid.

According to the report, Californians paid 11.2% of their income in state and local taxes in 2010—the fourth highest tax burden of any state. Only residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut paid more.

In 2010 the average California resident earned $43,919 but paid $4,934 in state and local taxes—$3,953 to state and local government in California and $981 to governments in other states.

Next year’s report may show some progress given the July 1, 2011 expiration… Read More

Earlier tonight I went head-to-head with prominent Los Angeles Obama supporter Kerman Maddox on KCAL-9 Television — it was our final jousting session. This is a good opportunity for me to thank KCAL political reporter Dave Bryan for having me on after each of the debates — it was a lot of fun. The entire dust-up is below, in four segments…

Segment 1 below:

LINK TO SEGMENT 2 LINK TO SEGMENT 3 LINK TO SEGMENT 4 … Read More

A World of Debt: It is no surprise to readers of these pages that we have a debt, spending, deficit and growth problem in the United States today. What you may not know, however, is that the rest of the developed world is suffering from the same malaise, albeit to different degrees. And, the causes of said malaise are the same the world over, again with variations only in degree. But, what is really disturbing is that governments around the world seem to be implementing exactly the same “solution” for the debt, spending, deficit and growth problems that abound everywhere. It’s disturbing because this “solution” will not work – at least it won’t work without potentially severe side effects that may make the medicine as bad or even worse than the disease.

Allow me to explain.

The U.S., Japan, the U.K. and continental Europe are all currently either in recession or experiencing very slow growth. All have massive, if not record, budget deficits, and all have record debt to GDP ratios. That means that the debt issued by the respective governments is a greater share of their economies than ever before. In fact,… Read More

The commonly-heard term “anti-tax group” is interesting. If you oppose tax INCREASES, then you are labeled by the press as “anti-tax.”

Really? I doubt that almost any of the opponents of tax increases want to do away with taxes, but that’s the inference.

Okay, fair is fair. What should we call the groups that always want to RAISE our taxes? “Pro-tax groups”? You’d think so.

Do these pro-tax groups want ALL our money going into taxes? I doubt few if any do.

Yet it makes as much sense to conclude that tax increase proponents want 100% taxes as it makes to accuse those opposing tax increases as wanting 0% taxes. Funny, come to think of it, I don’t recall EVER hearing of a liberal media outlet referring to tax increase advocates as “pro-tax.” But if one side is “anti-tax,” SURELY the other side is “pro-tax.”

Apparently not.… Read More

There are four factors suggested for our nation’s relatively improving unemployment figures.

More private sector hiring. More of the “unemployed” dropping out of the labor market — they no longer count as unemployed. More companies making full-time jobs into part-time jobs — to reduce the costs of ObamaCare and other benefit expenses. It spreads the work around — and gives the illusion of improving unemployment. A federal effort to cook the books before the election by encouraging false responses to the monthly unemployment sample questionnaires.

I don’t think the last one is significant or even true. I’m not a believer in big conspiracies — someone always tattles. I guess we’ll find out after the election — as cooked books on this scale cannot be maintained. If it IS a conspiracy by Obamabureaucrats, we will see animpressive“unexpected adjustment” upward in unemployment rates in December or January.

As for the other factors, I would rank “2” and “3” ahead of “1” in importance, but it’s… Read More

Even after California State University instructors received a mild rebuke for campaigning for Proposition 30 during class time, Gov. Jerry Brown is now making rounds to the state’s colleges and universities trying to convince students to vote for his tax increase ballot measure.

Despite the rebuke, state college instructors and professors continue to promote Prop. 30 during class time, according to Daniel Harrison, a student at California State University Fresno, and president of the Fresno State College Republicans. “From talking about Prop. 30 during irrelevant class time, to student fees funding campaign materials, to giving an essay exam question mandating students explain the rationale and virtues of Governor Brown’s tax initiative, Fresno State is using taxpayer dollars for illegal political advocacy,” Harrison said.

In a press release this week, Harrison said, “The use of college campuses around California to promote Proposition 30, a current ballot initiative that people in California will vote on next month, has crossed the line of legality.”

Harrison said during a CalWatchDog.com interview that he became concerned about the college… Read More

This guest blog post is authored by Emily Ekins, who is the Director of Polling for the Reason Foundation… For our politicos, note that the jump below in the first graph goes to a new statewide survey with new polling numbers on Propositions 30, 32 and 38.

Poll Finds Californians Are More Ready for Wisconsin-Like Reforms Than You Might Think

No one is going to mistake Gov. Jerry Brown for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, but our new Reason-Rupe telephone poll of likely voters in California finds emerging signs that even California’s Democratic-leaning electorate has grown weary of the state’s tax increases and may be ready for some Wisconsin-like reforms.

Adjusted for inflation, California’s government spending increased 42 percent per capita from 2000 to 2010, but the Reason-Rupe poll finds that just 14 percent of likely voters believe California’s government spending over that decade improved the quality of life in the state. In fact, 52 percent tell… Read More