Today I called upon the Governor and Legislature to enact a six month interest and penalty holiday to help struggling small business owners and other taxpayers who have fallen behind on tax payments during the recent economic downturn.

The state’s job is to collect taxes, not penalties and interest. Too often heavy penalties and punitive interest charges actually make it more difficult for struggling taxpayers to catch up on late payments. If we want more jobs, we need to help California’s job creators get back on their feet.

Instead of increasing taxes or cutting vital programs, we ought to learn from the experience of other states where these programs have successfully raised millions of dollars. I believe a California program would generate several billion dollars of revenues for state and local government.

A tax interest and penalty holiday would be a win-win for both California’s job creators and state coffers.

Below is the text of my letter.You can find mypress release here.

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June 10,… Read More

Yesterday, the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights announced that a prominent conservative Orange County political action committee has joined a coalition of taxpayer and private property rights organizations in calling for the abolition of California redevelopment agencies (RDA).

RDAs have come under considerable public scrutiny for wasteful government spending, eminent domain abuse and, according to independent state analysis, failing to increase the overall number of California jobs. In March, only one Republican legislator, Orange County Assemblyman Chris Norby, joined Democrats in supporting Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to abolish redevelopment agencies. Failing to generate one more Republican vote, taxpayer funding of RDAs continue.

Several Orange County Republican legislators that have been critical of redevelopment agencies in the past, now defend their very existence.

“GOP support for redevelopment agencies is an affront to conservative values,” said Family Action PAC chairman Larry Smith. “During these tough economic times, providing taxpayer funding for private development, sports arenas and luxury golf courses is not a… Read More

Last week, the House voted down a debt limit increase without any conditions by a vote of 97-318. Not a single Republican voted for it. Then, last Tuesday, the President invited the entire Republican caucus to the White House for a discussion on the debt limit. Frankly, all the President succeeded in doing was angering us. His arrogance, haughty nature and his unwillingness to say anything other than his campaign talking points left us all quite discouraged about any potential agreement. Still, the debt limit looms. Treasury Secretary Geithner says that we have already technically hit the ceiling, but that he is raising cash using “extraordinary measures” until August 2nd, at which he point he predicts we will be at the end of our financial rope and run out of cash. Conveniently, that day is just a couple of days before the House and the Senate are scheduled to go on summer recess. The potential to have to cancel that recess will focus negotiators in Washington.

So, what happens if we breeze past August 2nd without increasing the debt limit? Virtually every media outlet would have you believe that we will default on our debt. Even the… Read More

On Tuesday the voters of San Juan Capistrano went to the polls, actually only2,000 went to the polls – the other4,700 voted by mail and approved Measure B. B was a referendum on a retail development,meaning the council hadapproved the project anda NIMBY citizen groupcollected signatures, got it on the ballot, andlost –56% of the voter sided with the council and the developer.

The developer had the help of veteran political consultant Eileen Padberg. But there was also a robust independent expenditure funded by the Orange CountyAssociation of Realtors (Dave Stefanides) and run by political consultant Brandon Powers.

The campaign stuck to basic messages and they won, which is not easy in party of South Orange County where development can meet with strong opposition.… Read More

I have spent some time in the vineyards of California Republican politics. I have had two main goals over time: (1) to promote solid conservative principles; and (2) to expand the conservative base, that is, to find ways to change how conservatives do what they do, in order to persuade people that conservative principles in politics are what is best for them. When a majority of Californians believe that conservative principles are what is best for them in their life, Conservatives will win elections. Until the majority of Californians believe that, conservatives should (and will) lose elections. The job to persuade people is up to conservatives, and no other job is more important in politics than the work of persuading people of that fact.

I don’t believe we should change our principles to win, but we do need to work. Changing our strategies and our tactics is critical, changing principles is nonnegotiable. When conservatives win elections, we should have the power of majority opinion behind our victory. That has been a major motivating factor behind all of my, sometimes lonely, fight in politics. Some of my Republican friends think only victory… Read More

The statutory remedy for most common “Brown Act” open meeting violations is a simple “do-over” of the meeting in public. But if the government agency won’t acknowledge a violation, another feature of the Brown Act is that if you have to take them to court to prove the violation, and you win, a judge can order the “do-over” and you can get an award of attorneys fees for your trouble of having to bring the case. Or the DA can self-institute a criminal proceeding. I know a little about the Brown Act – I won a two-day trial against the Mission Viejo City Council years ago for clients for Brown Act violations the City would not acknowledge, and I won a contested attorney fee award, too. I also sued the Capistrano Unified School District a few years ago for a client on a Brown Act violation claim, held a deposition and did other discovery to prove the case, and was able to settle the case out of court, winning a court-approved stipulation agreement that Capo would record closed session meetings for a certain time period. I also was awarded attorney fees in that case. In those two cases, if the government agency had just… Read More

Speaker John Perez is on a jihad to obliterate the City of Vernon, home of the world famous Dodger Dog, quite literally. His legislation to literally abolish the city has garnered much attention, and has already passed out of the Assembly. While some serious legal questions have been raised about whether Vernon can be obliterated in such a manner, the underlying question is should Vernon be a city at all? In my mind, there are really three issues at hand here.

The first is whether it is appropriate to have a city whose only real function is to serve as an incubator for its local business community. At less than a hundred residents in an area of roughly five square miles, that is home to businesses that collectively have more than 50,000 employees, you can kind of get the picture. Vernon was not started as a residential community. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Vernon has been a magnet over the decades for every kind of gross, smelly and loud business that you could think of – incinerators, slaughterhouses, and the like. Frankly, I’m surprised it has even the few residents that it does. Vernon has no parks, no libraries, and no infrastructure… Read More

In aneffort to push for greater transparency in Congress, my colleagues and I aregoing head-to-headin a New Media Competition. Thanks to your support, I have advanced to the Top Eight and this week I am fighting for a spot in the Final Four.

By “liking” my Facebook page, “following” me on Twitter, and viewing my latestYouTube videos, you can help my online communications efforts in a meaningful way.

I am constantly striving to find new and improved ways to connect with all of my constituents. I am here to serve you and hope to provide you with the greatest transparency to my work in Congress.

With the strong emergence of New Media, I am able to give you a more personal look into my work days in the 25th District of California and in Washington, D.C. By “liking” my… Read More