As more details of the budget "raw deal" are made public, there’s going to be a long list of opponents coming forward to express their disapproval. Now, the Lincoln Club of Fresno County, led by FR’s Michael Der Manouel, Jr.,announces their opposition: Lincoln Club of Fresno County Opposes State Budget Deal

Fresno, California – The Central Valley’s premier Republican Political Action Committee has announced its opposition to the recently struck “deal” between Democrats and Republicans on the State budget.

“The increases in the sales tax, vehicle license fee, income tax and gasoline tax are an unconscionable compromise by the Republicans, who have now compromised with the Democrats eight straight years in a row. The mess we are in now is a reflection of this compromise. This bill must be defeated”, said Lincoln Club Chairman Michael Der Manouel, Jr.

Der Manouel continued that the “reforms and spending caps in this compromise can easily be undone by the Democrat majority in future years, while citizens will be stuck with the tax increases. In this economy, any tax increase will… Read More

After battling for more than 2 years, Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan has succeeded in eliminating a multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded healthcare program for citizens of other countries from the Sacramento County budget.

During an earlier budget cycle (yes even before the economic downturn), MacGlashan had gone through the budget (rather than relying on staff reports) where she discovered staff had been listing the healthcare program (which was ONLY for citizens of other countries) as mandatory, when it was a purely discretionary program.

At a cost more than $2.4 million a year, Sacramento County taxpayers were providing citizens from other countries with healthcare coverage beyond that which US, California and Sacramento citizens could access. MacGlashan believed that was wrong.

Supervisor MacGlashan has been hawkish on the budget and taxes since her election to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors in 2004, noted that… Read More

The education lobby continues to work parents into a frenzy over the state budget. Today, my kids’ school sent out an email asking us all to call the offices of the "Big 5" to voice our concerns over a proposed "spending cap." The message they are asking parents to send is this:

"Hard Caps on spending will devastate our education system and be a deterrent to our economic recovery. Dollars toward education are an investment in California’s future, not an expense." If the CTA and the rest of the education lobby were truly responsible, they’d educate parents about what the real tradeoffs are in the state budget. They’d tell parents how the staggering cost of health care and retirement for teachers and state workers are contributing to the state’s budget crisis. They’d also tell them that Legislature’s spending spree for the past 10 years has now caught up with us. So instead of a silly message about a spending cap hurting the economic recovery, they’d be… Read More

The following commentary is co-authored by Steve Baric, Keith Carlson, Tony Krvaric Paul Bruno, Shawn Steel, Doug Boyd and Jon Fleischman, the Secretary, Treasurer, Budget Committee Chairman, Vice Chairman, Central Coast, Vice Chairman, Los Angeles, National Committeeman and Vice Chairman, South of the California Republican Party respectively.

To say that we were disheartened upon news that the GOP’s primary negotiators in seeking a solution for the massive over-spending induced state budget shortfall, Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, had reached a “deal” as a product of the secret back-room “Big 5” process, and had come back to present plans to their respective legislative caucuses that contain roughly $14 billion in new taxes on Californians would be an understatement. It was almost a surreal experience – because the plan that was laid out was so much worse than any one of us could have imagined – and because the plan, from our understanding of… Read More

The following commentary is co-authored by Steve Baric, Keith Carlson, Tony Krvaric Paul Bruno, Shawn Steel, Doug Boyd and Jon Fleischman, the Secretary, Treasurer, Budget Committee Chairman, Vice Chairman, Central Coast, Vice Chairman, Los Angeles, National Committeeman and Vice Chairman, South of the California Republican Party respectively.

To say that we were disheartened upon news that the GOP’s primary negotiators in seeking a solution for the massive over-spending induced state budget shortfall, Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, had reached a “deal” as a product of the secret back-room “Big 5” process, and had come back to present plans to their respective legislative caucuses that contain roughly $14 billion in new taxes on Californians would be an understatement. It was almost a surreal experience – because the plan that was laid out was so much worse than any one of us could have imagined – and because the plan, from our understanding of it, is… Read More

Tackling the issue of responding to a plan to "rescue" California with massive tax increases in a reasoned commentary, co written by myself and fellow State GOP Board Members Keith Carlson and Steve Baric has been time consuming. We’ll have that up soon, and the main up page closer to 9am.… Read More

What suicidal impulse would lead any Republican legislator to believe it is a good for either California taxpayers or the California Republican Party to support: Raising the sales tax by an additional 1%? Nearly doubling the vehicle license fee? Raising income taxes? Spiking the gas tax by 12 cents per gallon?

Honestly, any Republican legislator who votes for this deal ought to re-register as a Democrat, because making the problem worse — which is what this deal will do — is an activity best left to legislators of that persuasion.

I saw somewhere today where Governor Schwarzenegger’s spokesman, Aaron McLear, claimed the "state is running out of money."

This is simply, manifestly untrue. It’s a fib, a fable. The state of California rakes in an absolutely enormous amount of money each and every year. The size of the ginormous haul gets bigger every year. in fact, the amount of tax revenues for this year was sufficient to fund the state budget just two short years ago.

Obviously, logically, the problem… Read More

Readers of my periodic Rants know that I have been highly critical of the way the Bush Administration and Republicans in Congress spent their way to ignominy in the past few years. Like crack-addicted junkies, it seemed like the answer to virtually every problem was more federal spending. When the economy began to slow in 2007, we had the first economic stimulus plan that was based on the brilliant economic principle of giving “targeted” tax refunds to millions of people who didn’t pay taxes in the first place. We were told that this federal spending was necessary to help consumers inject billions into the economy, thus saving jobs and preventing a recession. The stock market was at 12,337 when the first stimulus plan passed a year ago this week to great fanfare. By July it was down by 11 percent to 10,997. Next came the bailout of various financial institutions with the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). This was a $700 billion boondoggle based on the same flawed logic of the stimulus – since the stimulus plan didn’t work to actually stimulate the economy, let’s do more of it. Passing TARP was essential, we were told, to stabilize the nation’s financial… Read More