From State Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard’s latest e-newsletter: UNDER THE DOME ***The ‘No-Budget’ Budget*** As everybody knows from family or business budgeting, some 85% of spending is the same year after year with some adjustments for inflation. The real decisions are over the remaining 15% of available revenue, when it is available. The California state budget is the same. Except when it is warped by excessive borrowing (which is the current problem), the spending programs grow at a predictable rate. When spending gets out of hand there are major reforms that come together to make changes as we have done… Read More

Yesterday the California State Assembly convened a rare Sunday session for what was an important vote on a state budget. Of course, the only budget bill to come up for a vote was that written by Democrat lawmakers — one that responds to the crisis created by their overspending by heaping billions of dollars of new taxes on Californians. It was well known throughout all political circles that the outcome of yesterday’s vote was pre-ordained, because Democrats are unwilling to make the additional necessary cuts in state spending to balance the state’s books without penalizing taxpayers with a tax hike, and Republican lawmakers have made it abundantly clear that this overspending-caused situation must not be responded to with tax increases.

The contrast between the parties couldn’t be more clear. Democrats are the party of big spending, more government, and less freedom for Californians. Republicans want to empower individuals and family, and think that government should live within its means, including shrinking its expenditures substantially when state revenues decline.

It is now time for Senate President Pro-Tem Don Perata (while… Read More

Yesterday the California State Assembly convened a rare Sunday session for what was an important vote on a state budget. Of course, the only budget bill to come up for a vote was that written by Democrat lawmakers — one that responds to the crisis created by their overspending by heaping billions of dollars of new taxes on Californians. It was well known throughout all political circles that the outcome of yesterday’s vote was pre-ordained, because Democrats are unwilling to make the additional necessary cuts in state spending to balance the state’s books without penalizing taxpayers with a tax hike, and Republican lawmakers have made it abundantly clear that this overspending-caused situation must not be responded to with tax increases.

The contrast between the parties couldn’t be more clear. Democrats are the party of big spending, more government, and less freedom for Californians. Republicans want to empower individuals and family, and think that government should live within its means, including shrinking its expenditures substantially when state revenues decline.

It is now time for Senate President Pro-Tem Don Perata (while… Read More

No-I’m not talking about any member of the Legislature. I’m talking about inside information about what is happening on the budget. I had a conversation with one capitol insider who told me the budget will be adopted with a tax increase. So I called around to see what others thought. The general consensus was that wouldn’t happen.

The basic reason–the Governor needs 9 Assembly Republicans to vote for the budget. Three Assembly Democrats, Parra, Calderon, and Soto,aren’t voting for the budget (Parra and Calderon won’t and Soto is ill and can’t). That means 9 Assembly Republicans have to put up yes votes. However, 31 of the 32 Republican members of the Assembly have signed no new taxes pledges and won their primaries because they signed those pledges, that means at least 8 Republicans would have tobreak their promises to theirvoters in order for this budget to pass with tax increases. I’m betting that doesn’t happen, for several reasons.

(1)Most Assembly members believe they have apolitical career after the Assembly. As my earlier post showed, any Republican who votes for a tax… Read More

UPDATE: The vote was just taken and the bill, needing 54 votes,was defeated 45-30, with no Reep aye votes.

The Assembly is now on the floor with the budget debate happening now. The document being looked at is not one that has been put together in a bipartisan way.. It is largely a dolled up version of the joint budget conference committee report, with only Democrats voting for it, known as AB 1781.… Read More

Sacramento’s missing water meter saga continues like a bad soap opera. This major debacle is costing taxpayers millions of dollars—money that could be used to provide essential services without the tax increases liberals are crying for. Unfortunately, for taxpayers, the city of Sacramento hired an out-of-state consultant to find the lost meters at a cost of $99,000 to search about 32,000 addresses. According to the Sacramento Bee (July 16, 2008), the U.S. Metering and Technology representative “spends his days looking for Sacramento’s lost water meters, lifting heavy concrete hatches in yards and on sidewalks, meticulously recoding serial numbers.” “The Sacramento Utilities Department does not know where the meters are. They were labeled ‘unaccounted for’ in a recent city investigation….The… Read More

Clearly the public employee union bosses just don’t get it. To Republicans in the legislature, these unions are the single greatest obstacle to enacting sane public policy in Sacramento. Everyone knows that these unions have only three major agenda items — grow their members by pursuing more public dollars being spent to employ whichever type of employee is mandated to pay dues into their union, seek greater and greater pay for their union members (no matter the economy, state of the budget, or conditions in the private sector) and seek more and more retirement benefits for their members (again, no matter what else is taking place).

So when I see public employee unions paying to place advertisements out there bashing Republicans (I just saw a California Teachers Association television spot during Olympics coverage, and the California Faculty Association is advertising at least on the Sacramento Bee and Red County websites), they are just emboldening Republican legislators.

To these public employee unions I say this — spend more and more and more on your ads. Every time a GOP legislator sees one, it reminds them of the importance of… Read More

Clearly the public employee union bosses just don’t get it. To Republicans in the legislature, these unions are the single greatest obstacle to enacting sane public policy in Sacramento. Everyone knows that these unions have only three major agenda items — grow their members by pursuing more public dollars being spent to employ whichever type of employee is mandated to pay dues into their union, seek greater and greater pay for their union members (no matter the economy, state of the budget, or conditions in the private sector) and seek more and more retirement benefits for their members (again, no matter what else is taking place).

So when I see public employee unions paying to place advertisements out there bashing Republicans (I just saw a California Teachers Association television spot during Olympics coverage, and the California Faculty Association is advertising at least on the Sacramento Bee and Red County websites), they are just emboldening Republican legislators.

To these public employee unions I say this — spend more and more and more on your ads. Every time a GOP legislator sees one, it reminds them of the importance of… Read More