We here at the FlashReport are pleased to present this Guest Commentary, submitted by the Governor’s office, authored by David Crane. Mr. Crane is a Special Advisor to the Governor for Jobs and the Ecomony. Governor Schwarzenegger has called a special session of the legislature to deal with an $11.2 billion shortfall in the current fiscal year budget. He has introduced a plan to deal with this problem that contains billions of dollars in both cuts and new taxes. Crane discusses the Governor’s proposal below. You can read the Governor’s proposal as it was presented here (you can even watch a video of the Governor presenting his plan).

$11.2 BILLION SHORTFALL REQUIRES A TOUGH… Read More

We here at the FlashReport are pleased to present this Guest Commentary, submitted by the Governor’s office, authored by David Crane. Mr. Crane is a Special Advisor to the Governor for Jobs and the Ecomony. Governor Schwarzenegger has called a special session of the legislature to deal with an $11.2 billion shortfall in the current fiscal year budget. He has introduced a plan to deal with this problem that contains billions of dollars in both cuts and new taxes. Crane discusses the Governor’s proposal below. You can read the Governor’s proposal as it was presented here (you can even watch a video of the Governor presenting his plan).

$11.2 BILLION SHORTFALL REQUIRES A TOUGH… Read More

In Congressional District 4, Tom’s lead edges up to 709 votes from 451 on election night. According to folks on the ground there, Rahm Emanual has his goon squad lawyers up there throwing their weight around with elections offices to try tohassle and intimidate the workers and election clerks processing the ballots still not handled.… Read More

Two days after the election, and the vote counting continues here in the 4th CD. As of today, Tom McClintock is up 709 votes over Charlie Brown. There are still several thousand absentee and provisional ballots to count and it’s going slowly—election officials want to make sure they count accurately. I’ll post more updates on the vote count as the numbers come in…… Read More

I've been up in Sacramento for a couple of days, doing the kind of networking that FR readers would expect in order to be able to bring you the insights and commentaries you've come to expect here on the FlashReport. As I sit in my hotel room at the Capitol Hyatt hotel, formatting some columns for tomorrow morning's FR, there is a roar coming from the nearby Capitol building. There is a crowd of protesters gathered there, I would say about 1500 people strong – all upset about the defeat of Proposition 8. They are all screaming, “We want it. Now.”… Read More

Today, the Assembly special session was convened, the budget mess being the purpose. Thetax ideas being floated to "fix" it include 3 ideas I’ll talk about here, [plus,there’s a new tax on services and a vehicle fee increase].

Let me put it this way: When you get in your car [with a higher reg fee? or higher repair fees?], you pay a newoil tax. When you get to the store, you pay an increased sales tax. When you find you have less to spend because government is spending it for you, you may stop at the local watering hole and pay an increased alcohol tax per drink. Even then you may realize that dying won’t get you off the hook as the Fed death tax increases exponentially when the death taxphasedown expires Dec 31 2009, but that’s a Federal issue that I’ll leave out of the rest of this post.

The oil severance taxapplies to domestically produced oil…a sure fire incentive to decrease our dependence on foreign oil,yeah!

The sales tax increase, only temporary you know, of 1.5% is a surefire winner for boosting the economy going into… Read More

Just moments ago, Mike Villines was unanimously re-elected Leader by his fellow Assembly Republicans. Congratulations, Mike!!… Read More

Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines of Fresno today issued the following statement in response to Governor Schwarzenegger's proclamation calling a special session of the Legislature to address California's budget crisis and economic woes:

“Governor Schwarzenegger acted prudently in calling the Legislature back into session to focus on solving California's budget crisis and turning our lagging economy around. However, Republicans are very disappointed to see that his budget plan includes higher taxes. We need to open up state government ledgers to ensure tax dollars are being spent as effectively as possible, on necessary programs and projects that truly benefit Californians.Raising taxes is the worst thing we could do right now, it will devastate an economy that is hanging on by a thread, threaten jobs and hurt working families.

Instead of raising taxes so the Legislature can spend even more on bigger government, Republicans believe that our priority in the special session should be putting California jobs first and encouraging more companies to invest in our state and… Read More