One might look towards the California State Capitol, and wonder if our state’s taxpayers are represented in the building at all. After all, last night a mass of state workers descended on the place to hold a what could be characterized as a "sympathy rally" for state workers in Wisconsin, where the elected Governor and legislature there stand on the bring of ending "collective bargaining" for public employees in that state (this is a process where elected officials no longer can make financial decisions about the spending of taxpayer funds without negotiating that with state workers).

You can tune into Strickland and Wagner at noon with Eric Hogue in the Sacramento Area — or at 5pm they will be on with John and Ken in SoCal and the Bay Area!

Today the Democrats convene meetings of the budget committees in the Capitol for the purpose of crafting a state budget that presumes not only that Republicans will be complicit in an effort to push the largest tax increase in the… Read More

With all eyes on Wisconsin, thought I would share these takes from today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary Email… … Read More

Hiring freezes are one of the most phony of attempts at budget savings. They are like crash diets. The only success might be to shrink fat cells but the freezes do not eliminate any bulk. Almost every Governor has tried hiring freezes when budgets get tight but the reality is that they do not save a lot of money and have never balanced a budget. They are useful symbols to make the press and public think the Governor is taking action.

I worked to implement a hiring freeze last year and all I can say is that it is a non-productive pain. Every department thinks their mission is critical and every department is under pressure from interested parties and legislators to do more. Add in the usual bureaucratic motives of turf building and every department hustles to gain an exemption to the freeze. I turned down many requests. I was told that it would violate the law to not hire more people. I was told that people would suffer if more state employees were not hired to protect consumers, process victim claims, print state publications, and on and on. I still said no. Governor Brown’s staff is going to be… Read More

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go" – President Abraham Lincoln

I’m exhausted. I wasn’t good at pulling "all-nighters" when I was in college. Now, at age 55, my resilience from such things is even less. Congress had an all-nighter Friday night, after a "most of the nighter" on Thursday. Just before 5 AM Saturday morning, after being in session and voting for 20 straight hours, and after 90 hours of debate on over 600 amendments, the House passed a bill to fund the federal government from March 5th until September 30, 2011 spending about $62 billion less than last year. But, more important than my physical depletion is the profound melancholy I feel right now. Yes, a spending bill passed that actually reduces spending. Many of my colleagues who have been around much longer than I have remind me that it is a huge shift to talk about how much we are going to cut instead of how to slow the rate of increase. I get that. But, if you are in a car heading for a cliff, it is not enough to… Read More

Assemblywoman Diane Harkey has a good idea with her AB 206 introduced last month, which would pull certain coastal fireworks displays out of the restrictions of the California Environmental Quality/Coastal Acts. I hope it is passed just in time for the Fourth of July. Coastal Commission rules have prevented or complicated many 4th of July celebrations in California coastal cities, where flocks of our residents congregate during the summer months. These strict rules should not continue to make more expensive or stop citizens from annual patriotic observances, as the so-called pollution created by them is minimal. Some of the irrational coastal rules affect more than just patriotic fireworks displays. The city council in Rancho Palos Verdes gave Donald Trump legal hell a few years ago at his struggling resort there after a few neighbors complained the American flag flying on the property was "too big" and distracted their coastal views. How selfish of them. The Mormon Temple in Newport Beach got nailed by that city and had to greatly limit it’s features, even though there really was no "view plane" problem. I say give the American flag, the Angel… Read More

I’m watching Fox News Channel right now, this Saturday morning, gleeful that the House of Representatives just passed the GOP sponsored $60 billion Federal budget cut. But the announcer said three Republicans voted with Democrats to oppose the budget cuts Republican candidates promised voters last November. And one of them was named John Campbell. Is that true? My God, the New York Times says it is true!!! Did Orange County’s John Campbell actually vote AGAINST $60 billion in budget cuts? If he did, we have a problem in Irvine, mission control! Sometimes the more duplicitous politicians who really want to kiss up to Democrats, or protect their own give-away programs, like the failed TARP program intended to avoid auto industry bankruptcies (and did not avoid them), the same budget busting legislation supported by former car salesman Campbell, will cross the isle but tell conservatives the reason for their vote was “they wanted even more budget cuts.” That would be just more crap from Campbell, who was into failed auto industry business handouts up to his eyebrows going back to the George W. Bush Administration. Though I’m interested to… Read More

Just a minute ago, the newest members of the State Senate were sworn in. Congrats to Sharon Runner and Ted Lieu of the 17th and 28th districts. This fills out all the State Senate seats due to the vacancies of Senator George Runner moving on to BOE and the untimely loss of Senator Jenny Oropeza.

This maintains the previous 25-15 Dem-Republican ratio, and now brings to only 2 the number of Republicans needed for a 2/3 vote assuming 25 Dem votes.… Read More

From time to time, it is worth calling out the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times for their hubris, and extremely liberal view of the world. Today is as good a day as any (although their editorials really make it possible to do so almost on a daily basis). The Times editorializes today against Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton’s statements that there are not votes in his caucus to assist Governor Brown with his plan to raise taxes by placing them on a special election ballot.

Obviously if Republicans do not think that increasing taxes is a solution to the out-of-whack, spending-orgy induced budget crisis — then Republicans support an all-cuts budget. As they should. Taxpayers should not be punished for the house of cards of taxpayer funded spending that was created over decades by a shameless coalition of liberal activists and public employee union leaders. It’s not convenient to have to speedily deconstruct what took so long to… Read More