The state budget will be voted on this week in Sacramento. There are unlimited options available to figure out how the state can spend the billions of dollars available to provide state services in California.

As a local government official I have strong feelings about the ways that make the most sense. People certainly disagree with me on some of these things and that is fine.

I am not going to argue about how stupid it is to raid Highway User Tax Act (HUTA) funds on the basis of what these funds do. That could be the subject of a whole blog by itself.

What I will argue is that a budget based on this transfer is not wise because it may not be legal.

Voting for this budget suggests confidence that it will be used as a document of proposed spending that will last for the next fiscal year. However, that just isn’t going to happen.

Prop 5 (1974) provided cities and counties greater control over these funds. This is money that can be used to pay off local bonds but not state bonds. See Section 19 of the State Constitution.

Whatever you think about HUTA funds and the… Read More

Word from all sources is that the confidential meetings of Governor Schwarzenegger, Senate President Darrell Steinberg, Senate GOP Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, and Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee – with only their most senior staff members present – has resulted in the framework for a deal to balance the state’s current budget, which currently is projected to spend $26.2 billion more than the tax revenues coming into fund it.

The last time the so-named “Big 5” came to a budget deal, it was February and it was a raw deal for California taxpayers. Not only did the secret meetings results in well over $16 billion in higher sales, income and car taxes, as well as a families with children losing a key tax exemption – but that deal also produced the ill-fated Proposition 1A, which required “adult supervision” from California voters to reject any more tax increases to deal with the state’s fiscal woes.

As I look back at the terrible big budget/big taxes/open primary deal of February – one of the biggest problems with the deal was not even the terrible public policy within it, but the flawed “secret” process,… Read More

Word from all sources is that the confidential meetings of Governor Schwarzenegger, Senate President Darrell Steinberg, Senate GOP Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, and Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee – with only their most senior staff members present – has resulted in the framework for a deal to balance the state’s current budget, which currently is projected to spend $26.2 billion more than the tax revenues coming into fund it.

The last time the so-named “Big 5” came to a budget deal, it was February and it was a raw deal for California taxpayers. Not only did the secret meetings results in well over $16 billion in higher sales, income and car taxes, as well as a families with children losing a key tax exemption – but that deal also produced the ill-fated Proposition 1A, which required “adult supervision” from California voters to reject any more tax increases to deal with the state’s fiscal woes.

As I look back at the terrible big budget/big taxes/open primary deal of February – one of the biggest problems with the deal was not even the terrible public policy within it, but the flawed “secret” process,… Read More

Let me state that it was — and is — not my intent to make this blog a ‘he said-she said’ sort of thing.

However, last night candidate Steve Danon commented to me that he is "100 percent in" the race in 2012, whether incumbent 3rd District San Diego County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price runs for a sixth term or not, and that he was misunderstood if the Slater-Price folks believed him to say otherwise. (You may want to read that post and the couple of linked prior ones as a primer.)

In fairness to John Weil, chief of staff to Slater-Price, he attempted to post the following comment as a response to last night’s blog entry, but to no avail, so here it is…

Mr. Jantz:

I did not ‘misunderstand’ Steve Danon. He told me twice that he will not run against Vice Chairwoman Pam Slater-Price. He made it very clear. He can assert otherwise all he wants. However, I have a witness.

If Danon wants to manipulate the English language to break a… Read More

Today, I am particularly proud of the candidate that I support for Governor – Steve Poizner. Steve was the only candidate running for Governor, from either party, who attended the meeting of Commission on the 21st Century Economy in San Francisco. The commission is responsible for reforming California’s tax system. After the meeting, Steve released a statement saying, “…there is one thing that is already very clear to me: we need to cut taxes in California. There is no better way to create jobs and grow the economy than through a tax cut and this will be a cornerstone of my campaign for governor.” I could not agree more. Increased taxes will not stimulate economic growth and they will not solve the budget crisis created by the irresponsible spending by the state. Steve spent years creating jobs as an entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley and he is the only candidate running for governor who has actually cut waste from the state budget — almost 15% at the Department of Insurance. I know that he is prepared to use his unique experience to tackle the tough issues and I cannot wait to … Read More

In November 2008 television personality Marti "Troubleshooter" Emerald was narrowly elected to the San Diego City Council. The campaign had largely been waged over Emerald’s propensity to tell voters one thing, then get herself recorded telling her supporters the opposite.

This morning the San Diego Union Tribune broke the story that Emerald (1) is under investigation by the San Diego City Ethics Commission; (2) nominated a paid campaign worker to the Ethics Commission – a nominee that in fact might have been able to influence the investigation against Emerald. Under media scrutiny, and open pressure from her shocked Democrat and Republican peers, she withdrew the nomination Thursday. Emerald has yet to inform the public about the details of the ethics investigation.

The article speaks for itself: Emerald Pulls Ethics Panel Pick.… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

Grudge Match

… Read More

Earlier this week, legislation that Assemblyman Paul Cook was carrying that would have prohibited registered sex offenders from driving those ice cream trucks that we all see in our neighborhoods was summarily killed in the Senate "Public Safety" Committee. The Committee’s Chairman, San Francisco’s Mark Leno, was quite unabashed in his opposition to the bill — reminding us all about the flap between he and former Assemblyman Todd Spitzer and the accusation that Leno is "pro-criminal" in his conduct on the committee. The defeat of this common-sense legislation certainly emphasizes how the biggest bleeding heart liberals (you know, the ones who see criminals as actually being "victims of a society that has let them down") are placed on the Public Safety Committee by leadership, ensuring a soft on crime sentiment in the key policy committee that looks at these important pieces of legislation.

Here are Assemblyman Cook’s thoughts on the demise of his legislation…

… Read More