I’m pleased to report that Senate Republicans yesterday held firm against an attempt by Democrats to strip California voters of their right to hold a referendum on the “Amazon Tax.”

AB 155 would have cemented the failed policy of AB 28X into law, but the measure fell five votes short of the required 2/3rds vote. In his floor speech, Senator Sam Blakeslee rightly described the measure as “an attempt to thwart the voice of the people.”

Opponents of the “Amazon Tax” have already collected more than enough signatures to force a referendum vote next year. And as I recently warned the Governor and legislative leaders, the $200 million they are counting on in “Amazon Tax” budget revenue is certain not to materialize this fiscal year.

Even so, the Governor and Democrat leaders have spurned an offer by Amazon.com to collect the tax in two years and voluntarily bring thousands of jobs to California in exchange for a repeal of AB 28X.

Republicans must continue to… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: As part of an ongoing effort to bring original, thoughtful commentary to you here at the FlashReport, I am pleased to present this column from Kevin Dayton, State Government Affairs Director for the Association Builders and Contractors of California – Flash]

It’s the time of year for notorious “gut and amend” antics in the California State Legislature: remove the text of an innocuous bill, replace it with something controversial and divisive, and sling it through the legislative process in the last chaotic week of the session before opponents become fully activated and the public learns about the scheme.

Many leftist special interest groups find value in this anti-democratic tactic, including the California State Building and Construction Trades Council. The Plot: Kill Off Those Pesky Policies to Protect Taxpayers from Union Monopolies

On the afternoon of Friday, September 2 – the day before Labor Day weekend – Democrat… Read More

New polling shows Republican voters oppose party platform changes that would eliminate the pro-life and traditional marraige stances and would weaken the party’s position on illegal immigration.

Sixty-three percent of Republican and conservative Decline to State voters oppose the party platform‘reforms’.More than58%say theyapprove of a new party, the Conservative Party, that would be founded ontraditional Republicanprincipals.And fifty-percent of Republican voters would also consider joining a newly formed Conservative Party in California if that option was available.

While I am not an advocate for the formation of a Conservative Party, I have heard rumblings about such a movement.These pollingnumbers clearly indicate that Republican voters want their party to remain true to it’s conservative roots and that there is a significant element among Decline to State voters who self-identify as conservatives and hold similar values.

You can find the link to the full poll report here.… Read More

Last week on CalBuzz I penned a column outlining how I thought a bipartisan deal could be put together to end the Single Sales Factor tax break (a goal of Governor Brown) — but that it would not be accomplished through the plan the Brown put on the table. You can read that column here, which goes into great detail on why conservatives have an important motivation to get rid of this particular break (rewarding bad behavior is not a good thing).

That having been said, how do you get conservatives on board with getting rid of the Single Sales Factor tax break? It’s simple. Two things. The first is that it must be replaced with an equivalent level of tax cuts so that the ending of the Singe Sales Factor break is revenue neutral to the state. The second is broad based tax relief. Ideally this relief would come in the form of a permanent (admittedly slight) reduction in the state’s sales or income… Read More

Early last week, along with our friends the Boyz at CalBuzz and Joel Fox at F&HDaily, we broke the story that there was a lot of “back room chatter” about an idea that the unions have been floating – to have their tools in the state legislature push through a new law that would expressly prohibit ballot initiatives from appearing on the statewide June ballot each election year. The primary reason for this is situational, of course. The unions think that they are at a political disadvantage if an initiative measure appears on the June ballot to ban direct contributions to candidates by unions (or corporations) and that prohibits government (or corporations) from taking funds from employee payments for political purposes. Well, we’ve heard from one of… Read More

I sent a letter to theGovernor and legislative leaders todayurging them to consider aproposal by Amazon.com that would bring an estimated 7,000 jobs to California. I also asked them to re-evaluate the projected budget revenue associated with the “Amazon Tax” (AB 28X).

Read my letter here.… Read More

I have to admit to having been a bit nervous and distracted all week. You see I was asked by popular conservative radio talk show host Roger Hedgecock (the former Mayor of San Diego) if I would be willing to guest-host a day of his program, as he would be on vacation. Of course I agreed, but it was only a few days ago that I started to understand how much work goes on “off the air” in order to put on a great radio program for three hours. That having been said, I think that we pulled it off. And when I say we, it is not the “royal”” we — I want to thank longtime FR friend Jennifer Jacobs, who works with Hedgecock, and was very helpful (especially yesterday in studio) in keeping me sane.

The show is cut up into three segments — Hour 1, Hour 2, and Hour 3 — and was recorded yesterday from 3pm – 6pm and is now available for your listening pleasure, if you missed out on it live. I will provide the direct links the the MP3 files below, but all of Roger’s shows are on iTunes, and also available on his own website, RogerHedgecock.com.

Hour… Read More

According to the Los Angeles Times, Governor Jerry Brown is “leaning against” a proposed deal to bring an estimated 7,000 Amazon.com jobs to California. The Governor is concerned that a deal would somehow cost the state revenue.

If the Governor truly believes the ‘Amazon Tax’ is going to generate millions in revenue for the state this year, he’s mistaken. Board of Equalization staff have determined that the projected $200 million in revenue will not materialize this year.

As of today we’re not aware of a single online retailer that has registered with BOE to collect sales tax because of AB 28X. According to Board of Equalization staff, the number of out-of-state registrations in July 2011 was actually lower than July 2010.

Additionally, should a referendum qualify for the ballot, the law would be suspended until a vote of the people in June or November of next year. That would mean the ‘Amazon Tax’ would be a guaranteed money loser this fiscal year, since terminated affiliates will pay… Read More