Despite what you are hearing in the news these days, taxpayers are not to blame for California’s recurring budget crisis. Trust me on this one.

Overspending is built into our state’s budget system and the Democrats have long insisted that Republicans in the Legislature are simply obstructionists blocking the passage of state budgets filled with spending increases. They argue that if the two-thirds vote requirement was abolished, California would have on-time and fully-funded budgets. Even Governor Schwarzenegger has suggested that he might support eliminating the two-thirds vote requirement for passing a budget bill.

The voters of California reaffirmed their strong support of the two-thirds threshold by rejecting Proposition 56 in March of 2004 by a resounding 66% to 34%.

Well, we have learned that in California politics, if at first you do not succeed, just rig the system to get what you want—that is exactly what the Democrats are trying to do with their budget proposal. They have devised and schemed up a proposals that rob or eliminate voter-supported initiatives—such as Proposition 42 funds for transportation projects—and added fees on the… Read More

FR readers HAVE to check out the details on how Democrats plan on raising income taxes, the car tax, gas taxes and more — without a 2/3 vote.

This is sick.

I’ve been intently looking for a statement from our Republican Governor announcing that such an end-run against the spirit of the 2/3 vote for new taxes would be DOA. Still waiting..… Read More

In response to Jennifer Nelson’s post below, the Governor’s office has responded. Below is a brief commentary from David Crane, Special Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger on Jobs and the Economy…

This was published in today’s edition of Investor’s Business Daily. It outlines a few of my thoughtsand ideason the path towardsrestructuring our financial regulatory system.

Bold Changes Should Prevent Another CrisisBy REP. JOHN CAMPBELL

The credit markets continue to unfreeze. The general economy continues to sink. There are new stock market lows and unemployment highs and we don’t know where and how it will all end.

But it will end. And we need to start thinking about what regulatory structure will replace the one that failed us so miserably this time. We came perilously close to an abyss (or collapse or Armageddon, depending on who is describing it).

I looked down into that abyss and what I saw was way scarier than any Stephen King movie. Therefore, I think we need dramatic changes to ensure that this sort of calamity does not befall us again.… Read More

From what I have been told, today the State Legislature will take up a Democrat-only drafted budget "fix" that includes BILLIONS in tax increases, and they will do so using trickery that will require only a majority vote for passage. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is a current court ruling that says that the State Constitution’s requirement for a 2/3 vote for a tax increase does not apply to what bureaucrats call a fee.

You and I as lay persons would think of a fee as like what you pay to go into a state park. Okay, fine, so increasing a fee for services received by someone going into a park takes a majority vote? Right. But this idea of differentiating a "fee" from a "tax" has been taking to extreme and massive levels by Sacramento liberals. For example, what you and I call the car tax — that you pay annually when you register your car — they would call a fee. They would argue that the funds from your "car fee" go to provide services with a nexus to your driving (roads, etc). And they then make the case that this fee requires only a majority, not a 2/3 vote.

Apparently the… Read More

So California can’t sell its bonds because the outside world has no confidence in our leadership’s ability to manage the state’s finances. And now public works projects are shutting down—projects that the public approved at the governor’s urging. If only he had shown as much leadership throughout his tenure in fighting for budget reform. Instead, when that issue wasn’t an easy win and didn’t come with accolades from the Democrats and the media, he shifted his attention to global warming. For once, a politician’s chickens are coming to roost when he is still in office. I’m glad that the Schwarzenegger is having to deal with this mess. He could have avoided it—or at least the deficit wouldn’t be this big and his options would be better—if he had stayed true to his word when he first ran for office and shepherded through real budget reform early on.

… Read More

Speaker Grinch hauled all of the State Assemblymembers down to the floor yesterday for a 6+ hour waste of time session. During their lengthy stay in the legislative chambers, care to guess what was achieved? The Democrats put up BILLIONS of dollars in tax increases for a vote — and only Democrats supported them. I am VERY PLEASED to convey to FR readers that 100% of Assembly Republicans voted against their blatant attempt to punish California’s taxpayers for their spending addiction.

Once again, Democrats put up these tax increases without putting up the votes for a permanent spending cap (you know, in order to make sure that the chronic overspending must come to a halt), nor any of the other major reforms in state law that would improve our state’s business climate, to stimulate growth in the economy.

I guess later today the GOP proposal will get a vote on the Assembly Floor, where we can predict that all of the Republicans will support it (I would hope so!) and all of the Democrats will oppose it.

And in the "upper" chamber, there is a disturbing rumor that they have concocted some scheme to increase taxes by calling… Read More

A reminder that once a year, the elves here at the FlashReport take our annual vacation. Every year, the FlashReport publishes daily through the Friday before Christmas, and we restart our daily routine on January 2. For those looking at a calendar, that means that this Friday will be the last time our main page is updated for the year. This is traditionally a very slow time for political news.

That said, this particular year, because of the chaos caused by the chronic overspending of legislative Democrats, and the resulting budget mess, we will be keeping the FR blog open through the holidays, and will encourage our readers to check in regularly (normally we would shut that down, too!).

When we come back after the holidays, look for one new major feature on the site, and we’ll also be revamping our blogger row, with some new, awesome contributors joining our blog team.

As always, if you have any thoughts or suggestions about how we can improve FR, please share them with us. You can e-mail me here.… Read More