This just in from Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner…

The budget deal passed by the Legislature is a raw deal for the people of California.I have repeatedly and vigorously spoken out against this budget deal. It is simply the latest example of the fundamental dysfunctionality of Sacramento.

California already has the highest income taxes and the highest state sales tax.This dealraises them even higher.The car taxwill be nearly doubled – a slap in the face of working Californians who thought the 2003 recall had resolved that issue in favor of the taxpayer.

As I'vepreviously said, it is astounding to me that while the Obama White House is proposing a tax cut for 95% of all Americans, the Sacramento politicians are proposing a tax increase for 95% of all Californians. Either raising taxes in the middle of a deep economic recession is good public policy or it is bad public policy, but it cannot be both.

As newspapers havereported, the state budget deal severely limits any positive financial benefit for the people of California from the federal economic stimulus package. Instead,the tax… Read More

Politics is more like a chess game than a checkers game — it’s complex, and people who want to seriously understand why things happen, and what some of the real motivations are, should take the time to step back, and take things in context.

First and foremost, it’s obvious on the face of it to be able to say that the six Republican legislators (Senators Ashburn, Cogdill and Maldonado and Assemblymen Adams, Niello and Villines) who actually voted for the bill that imposed over $14 billion in new taxes were critical to its passage. Shame on them. Truly, they have done a tremendous disservice to their state and to their party.

But in taking some time to contemplate the politics of the final hours of this Big 5/Big Taxes deal passing out of the legislature, you have to say, how did it happen? After all, the votes to pass the plan simply were not there in the State Senate. You needed three Republicans to support the actual tax increase legislation, and they were one vote shy. Eleven GOP Senators basically said there was no way there were going up on the tax bill (Aanestad, Benoit, Denham, Dutton,… Read More

From Capitol Alert:

This morning, Adams joined Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines and Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, as the three GOP votes needed, along with every Democrat, to pass the $40 billion budget deficit package in the lower house. The plan includes $15 billion in spending cuts, $12.8 billion in temporary tax increases, and $11.4 billion in borrowing.

By the time of the vote, Adams had gathered signed 2010 endorsements from every single Republican in the Assembly.

"While all the members may not feel the same way that I do about the matter, they are still very supportive of me and know that I’m doing this on principle and not for some giveaway or something like that," Adams said.

Un-fer-reaking-believable.

What does Adams have to do for his colleagues to yank their endorsements: Burn a picture of Ronald Reagan on the Assembly floor?… Read More

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has put out a statement on the recent adoption of the Big 5/Big Taxes budget: “The budget that was passed by the State Legislature is not the solution. Instead of respecting taxpayers and championing job creation, Sacramento is increasing taxes on the middle class. The proposed budget will kill jobs, hurt families and make future deficits even worse.”

We couldn’t agree with Whitman more. The center piece of this budget deal is the largest tax increase at the state level in the history of the United States of America.

Whitman’s campaign also released a list of her Finance Committee which predictably contains a lot of heavy hitters from the Silicon Valley, as well as from around the state. Our personal favorite: Jenny Craig! (Out of deference to Ms. Craig, we… Read More

The SacBee has a calculator up that will allow you to estimate how much more you own under the New Maldonado Tax Plan.

Check it out.at http://www.sacbee.com/1098/story/1627728.html… Read More

H/T to Mark Landsbaum at Orange Punch:

As Dan Ackroyd said in "The Twilight Zone" movie, "Wanna see something really scary?"

OK, not so much scary as sickening. Either way, check out these Los Angeles Times photos of "Republican" Sen. Abel Maldonado and Roy Ashburn celebrating the inglicting of a massive tax hike on Californai citizens. Recoil at the sheer ecstasy in their faces as they vote to suck at least a thousand dollars out of the every working Californian and toss it down the state government rat hole — and collect their tax-free per diem in the process!

These guys are a disgrace. If the Senate Republicans have any self-respect, they’ll toss these them out of the caucus. That goes for the Assembly republicans, as well. First order of business is electing a new leader, and then exiling Assemblymen Anthony Adams, Roger Niello and Mike Villines. If those three are willing to put the interests of the government ahead of the interests of taxpayers and isde… Read More

This weekend the CA GOP will gather in Sacramento for the Spring Convention and the power of the State Republican Parties and the National Committee men and women is made clear in this article just published in Politics Magazine. State and local party members have a real impact in setting our national agenda.

A cloud of potential ruin hangs Republicans and over the Democrats too. State Senator Maldonado’s sucker punch in the gut of organized political parties could destroy our party structure. The ‘top-two’ Primary System could see two Republicans face-off in a General Election.

Expect strong opposition to the measure this weekend.

http://www.politicsmagazine.com/plan-of-steele/… Read More

I don't know who the first people to wander through the bloody fields after the battle at Waterloo. But as I board a flight to Sacramento this morning, I feel like I may be one of the modern-day equivalents of those people.

The loosers of this battle — taxpayers, believers in a twop party political system. The winners — Sacramento's special interests who succeeded in driving overspending for years and years, and then were able to get the largest state level tax increase in the history of our nation to boot. A horrible loss for those who champion limited government — and a devistating blow to the GOP — the “promise breakers” in all of this.… Read More