On Friday, the Legislature passed the state budget and, while I don’t want to sound like a crank, I have to ask: Really? This is how we do things in Sacramento? This is how we govern the nation’s most populous state? This is how we pass the budget – the single most important piece of legislation we’ll consider all year?

I serve on the Budget Committee and thought we had scraped the bottom of the procedural barrel last year. The committee hearing on that final budget lasted only about 45 minutes before the committee chairman cut off questioning to take a vote so that Democratic members of the committee could “catch airplanes.”

But we hadn’t hit bottom. This year, incredibly, the process was worse.

For example, the Budget Committee never even held a hearing and vote on the budget we passed on Friday, so I guess last year’s 45 minutes wasn’t bad. Instead, we had an “informational” presentation of a budget “framework.” In some news reports, Sacramento’s ruling Democrats called it a “concept” for the budget. In any event, there was no vote, even on the “concept” for this year’s budget. Moreover, the language of the budget… Read More

Rather than deal with reality, the Legislature has once again sent a fantasy budget to the Governor.

This fantasy budget foolishly assumes overtaxed Californians will vote this November to send even more of their hard-earned dollars to Sacramento.

When voters approved Proposition 25, they didn’t anticipate it would allow one party to make all major budget decisions in secret. Not only were Republicans shut out of the process, but so was the public.

Rather than make real reforms to increase private sector paychecks, this budget plan relies on taxes, borrowing and gimmicks to keep legislators’ paychecks flowing.

The Governor should veto this budget, scrap his proposed $50 billion tax hike and propose a new plan that requires government to live within its means.… Read More

Before the June election we were the first to post the official slate of Romney delegates for the RNC Convention. Since Romney carried all 53 House Districts in California, all of his delegates will be seated. In addition, for every delegate there is an Alternate Delegate as well. While these folks, for the most part, won’t get to cast a vote for Romney, they do get great seats to see the show, and of course get invited to all of the great parties. You can see the delegate list here, and the just-released alternate list here.… Read More

The final chapter….sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? I’m just taking my cue from Desperate Housewives and House and such to draw you in. Maybe this will be as big as the last episode of M*A*S*H?!

Except that I’m not going to be satisfied with cable channel reruns like those shows. No, you will continue to hear from me about a variety of matters. But, it is time to wrap up our series on how we can fix our economy.

In the previous VIII Episodes, I have talked about strategies to address the too big to fail problem, repair our deficits, and set housing, energy, health care, education, infrastructure, and manufacturing all on a path to prosperity. Most of these strategies are built upon tenets that could elicit bipartisan support. And, every single problem I’ve addressed can be successfully resolved in the United States regardless of what happens in Europe or China or anywhere else. But, before I sign off from this series, there are 3 more points I would like to make:

Absolutism Will not Work: There are some of my colleagues on the right who believe that tax cuts can cure anything. There are some on the left who believe that… Read More

Californians are demanding real change to the failed status quo and on June 5th, based upon the primary election results, they sent an unmistakable message to Sacramento – stop overspending or else.

That message was clearly delivered by the voters. Victories for pension reform in San Jose and San Diego, and the looming defeat of a higher cigarette tax, are an encouraging outcome for fiscal responsibility in California. In the Democrat bastion of San Jose, voters overwhelmingly approved a measure that will force current city workers to either contribute more of their own money to their existing pension plan or enroll in a less generous plan with a higher retirement age. Future workers will receive retirement benefits that are somewhat similar to what private sector workers receive. San Jose’s voters approved this reform mainly because the city’s pension costs rose from $73 million in 2001 to a whopping $245 million this year. Residents have seen less police and fire services and more potholes as city government spent more money to fund out-of-control pension costs for retirees. The voters understood that every additional dollar… Read More

In 2009, politicians in Sacramento enacted the largest tax increase in the state’s history, a $12.8 billion infusion of cash that was supposed to end the state’s fiscal woes. Three years later, the state finds itself nearly $16 billion in the red and now the same politicians want another $50 billion in higher taxes to bail them out. As we have seen, no matter how much they raise our taxes, it is never enough for the free-spending politicians in Sacramento.

The problem with sending more money to Sacramento is that it gives politicians the easy way out. They’re not forced to reform the dysfunctional system as long as taxpayers continue let them off the hook with higher taxes to paper over the problems.

California already has the highest average state tax rate in the nation, and this measure would increase it 3% to 8.4%. Income taxes would jump as much as 32%. These higher income taxes would stay in place for seven years, regardless of whether or not the state’s economy improves, giving politicians a slush fund to continue their reckless spending.

The measure hurts small businesses, the engine that drives our economy and creates jobs, particularly… Read More

– Last night about 800 were on hand for the Orange County GOP’s annual Flag Day fundraising dinner featuring Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, author/screenwriter/political pundit Andrew Klavan, and a moving tribute to Andrew Breitbart. Persona non grata at the event was Charles Munger, Jr. A rousing applause was given when Assemblyman Allan Mansoor was introduced. A vast amount of OCGOP resources were diverted into re-electing Mansoor when Munger put over a half-million dollars into his ultimately very unsuccessful opponent.

– Proposition 14 is already clearly failing utterly to deliver on two of it’s articulated goals — reducing the role of special interests, and increasing voter choice. On the first, as candidates gear up for what will now be a second election in a row where they need to raise enough money to campaign to all voters (direct voter contact is quite expensive and California’s legislative districts are quite large), true local candidates have mostly tapped out their local sources of contributions. Guess who will have lots of… Read More

Following last Tuesday’s hotly contested San Diego City Council election for District 7, interest was piqued over the weekend when Friday’s count of late absentee and provisional ballots showed front-runner and Republican Scott Sherman’s portion of the vote tally slipping from about 51 percent to 50.59 percent.

With about 88,000 votes left to count across the county, it’s unclear what proportion of those remaining ballots are in the City of San Diego or even the 7th District, for that matter.

Yet, what’s clear is that it takes at least 50 percent plus one vote to secure an outright victory in the primary. With Sherman’s margin at last count heading towards that magic 50 number – even if only for a day or two — twitter recently sprang to life with a few self-annointed mathematicians, including yours truly (although I’d say I’m more of a wannabe in the arithmetic department than an anointed one).

The second place finisher in the primary race, Democrat Mat Kostrinsky, has no chance of catching Sherman, since he’s trailing by more than 10 points. Yet, political watchers know if Sherman falls below 50 percent, a forced top-two finisher… Read More