For weeks now I have been delving into the new Commission on the 21st Century Economy report on taxes. I have praised its recommendations to reduce and eliminate taxes, and I have encouraged legislators to study the research into the many problems with the current tax structure. Now I need to move on to the worst part of the report: the recommendation to abolish the Board of Equalization. Without hearing from any Board member (including me), they concluded that our appeals process for taxpayers is unfair. While I do not always vote with the majority on the Board, I do know that of all tax appeal systems this is the fairest.

Members of the Board of Equalization are elected by the people. Voters still trust their own vote more than they trust the political appointment process. Judges or hearing officers who are appointed by a Governor or some department head are much more likely to answer to the one who gave them the job than to the people of the state. It is true that the BOE also administers the collection of sales taxes and dozens of other taxes, but our appeals process is independent of our auditors. The department must present its own case to the Board… Read More

The same unelected enviro-ideologues at the California Air Resources Board that earlier this year were intent on shutting down California’s gas stations have come up with yet another off-the-way crazy idea as they seek to come up with the screwiest schemes to lower carbon emissions in California to comply with the state’s draconian AB 32 guidelines…

It seems like lately California, which I remind readers is in the same recession as the rest of the country (actually worse) has been drawing a lot curious looks at state government churns out dumb ideas from banning big screen televisions to looking at how the state can directly control air conditioning use in new homes. The latest remarkably dumb idea has caught the attention of none-other than America’s most widely listened-to radio talk show host – Rush Limbaugh.

So take a guess as to what he talked about earlier this week, since our state has no shortage of interesting topics to dive into? It wasn’t our budget woes, prison overcrowding or even the proposed new NFL stadium in the City of Industry.

This week, Limbaugh gave… Read More

The same unelected enviro-ideologues at the California Air Resources Board that earlier this year were intent on shutting down California’s gas stations have come up with yet another off-the-way crazy idea as they seek to come up with the screwiest schemes to lower carbon emissions in California to comply with the state’s draconian AB 32 guidelines…

It seems like lately California, which I remind readers is in the same recession as the rest of the country (actually worse) has been drawing a lot curious looks at state government churns out dumb ideas from banning big screen televisions to looking at how the state can directly control air conditioning use in new homes. The latest remarkably dumb idea has caught the attention of none-other than America’s most widely listened-to radio talk show host – Rush Limbaugh.

So take a guess as to what he talked about earlier this week, since our state has no shortage of interesting topics to dive into? It wasn’t our budget woes, prison overcrowding or even the proposed new NFL stadium in the City of Industry.

This week, Limbaugh gave… Read More

Now’s your chance… We JUST started a fan page. We’ll be able to share EVEN MORE info and intel on California politics with our fans on Facebook… FB.init("855b46c73def61de14cbe908e34ec8bc");

According to the Orange County Registrar of Voters, 78,931 voters in the 72nd Assembly District have been mailed absentee ballots. As of close of business, the OCROV had received 4,355 back (see the daily updates here).

Tracking the number of absentee ballots returned is an essential component of properly framing the election strategy in this hyper-condensed special election that will have a relatively tiny turnout. If the past is any indicator (it is), then a strong majority of the votes cast in this election to fill the vacant Assembly Seat will come from absentee voters.

With the likelihood that thousands of votes will be cast each day (certainly in the coming days), there is a scramble for both the Norby and the Ackerman campaigns to really get their messaging out — especially to absentee voters — pronto.

Linda Ackerman has no choice but to hit Chris Norby hard with negative mail. As long long time public official in north Orange County, Norby has had many years to build up his positive name identification. If Ackerman… Read More

While I bask in the Florida sunshine, a small break from vacation, if that makes sense, to note a couple of items from last week…

Who needs a public vote, especially when we all know it will surely end in failure?… The quote resulting in the most buzz, shock and awe — as well as a few guffaws —during the week was undoubtedly that of longtime community leader Malin Burnham, an icon of the downtown San Diego business establishment. On Thursday he argued against a public vote for a new (and controversial) $432 million city hall:

There’s less than one percent of the citizens in the United States of America that understand the complexity in how to put these kinds of projects together, so why would we want to ask the other 99 percent? Oh my…talk about tossing a dirty diaper into the playpen.

Richard Rider was also part of the SD Downtown Partnership forum where the instantly classic comments were made.… Read More

From 1994 to 2002, I was the Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Public Employee and Retirement Systems (we called it the PERS committee). If that committee is not hell for Republicans, it certainly is purgatory. Every single committee hearing was filled with Government Employee Union Lobbyists coming in and asking for higher pensions. I used to refer to this gang of lobbyists as the Red Brigade.

For eight years, I sat on that committee voting NO on every single request for increased pensions, and talking about how these requests were going to bankrupt the State. In the Dot Com boom of the late 90’s, CalPers and these lobbyists talked about how wrong I was, and about how the increase in the value of CalPers investments would more than cover the increased pension benefits, and that "taxpayers would never have to pay for the pensions again." I endured harangue after harangue from these lobbyists and from my Democrat colleagues, both in committee and on the floor, for speaking up against this massive giveaway.

One of the Democrats who dished up those criticisms was Bill Lockyer, then President Pro Tem of the Senate. He had sentenced me… Read More

It’s useful to remember that the ‘unemployment rate’ used by this, and the last several administrations in Washington, is not the actual unemployment rate. Since the 1970’s consecutive administrations have segmented out portions of the unemployed and removed them from the equation. Usually, these segmented lists are basically people who are no longer looking for work or who are barely employed. Of course, people who the government determines ‘can’t work’ are also removed (having had a number of relatives in this camp, much to my disgust, I think getting on this list isn’t particularly hard).

To wit:

“If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking — so-called discouraged workers — and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart.

This is the number we should use, since it is the actual number.… Read More