Flashreport Blog

Today was my version of a nightmare. I woke up to over a hundred emails from (really) early birds letting me know that their browsers were not letting them access the FlashReport — that my site had been infected with a virus! I quickly got a hold of our IT developers with Cloudspace in Orlando. They jumped on it right away, but to make a (very) long short short, even though they got the site squared away in relatively short order, it takes a while before the Gods of the WWW process such things and remove all of the blocks that were people from coming to the site.

I’m pleased to report, at least from the readers perspective, things are AOK now. We still have some work to do on the backside of the site, but that shouldn’t impact your experience. We will re-run today’s original content again tomorrow, in addition to some new stuff.

My apologies for any inconvenience.

… Read More

Board of Equalization Member Michelle Steel will be forced from her post next year due to term limits. She is actively engaged in an impressive campaign for an open seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Two conservative legislators — State Senator Mark Wyland and Assemblywoman Diane Harkey — are the only credible candidates who have emerged thus far seeking to succeed Steel in this “Safe GOP” BOE seat that encompasses all of Orange, San Diego, Imperial, and Riverside Counties, and portions of Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties.

I have known Mark Wyland since meeting him in 1998, and I met Diane Harkey when she ran for Dana Point City Council in 2004. Both are ideological conservatives — both are friends. As such, I have not endorsed either candidate — either would make a solid BOE Member.a

That having been said, those watching the race may have seen the stories about a lawsuit filed against Point Center Financial Inc., Dan Harkey, and Diane Harkey. The suit involves investors to Point Center Financial, Dan Harkey’s real estate investment company. Like so many during the real estate bust of the past… Read More

The Capitol FBI probe involving state Senator Ron Calderon, D- Montebello, has dominated the news out of Sacramento this past week. Understandably so. It’s been more than a decade since the FBI has investigated corruption under the dome, and more than two decades since the last major arrest and successful prosecution of a sitting state legislator.

Because the FBI isn’t talking about their ongoing investigation, much of the reporting has been speculation — attempts to the connect the dots. Some of this has been well-informed, some has not. But, the worst speculation has been those stories that paint all the Calderons with the same brush.

In April, when I was in Sacramento to cover the California Democrat Party’s state convention, every reference to the Calderon family described them as two groups, 1) Ian and Charles and 2) Ron and Tom. And the latter group, Ron and Tom, were always described in less favorable terms. This was long before anyone knew about the pending… Read More

The Legislature should be commended for approving an on-time budget and exercising some measure of restraint.

However, the success of this budget hinges on the decisions of a very small number of overtaxed Californians, their continued presence in California and their success in the stock market.

According to the Franchise Tax Board, the highest one percent of income earners will pay more than $2 billion less in 2013 than 2012. That’s not surprising. A recent survey found 75 percent of affluent Californians are planning actions to reduce their tax liabilities—and a quarter are considering moving out-of-state.

It’s troubling that the volatile personal income tax accounts for 63 percent of budget revenue. Just one percent of California taxpayers now provide nearly half of all income tax payments the state receives.

You can’t tax your way to prosperity. To create true budget stability, California must attract jobs and investment to our state rather than drive them away.… Read More

The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court is paid $223,500 per year, while the General Manager of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District is paid $318,000 a year. That might seem like an imbalance of pay for public servants, given the very serious qualifications required to become a Chief Justice and comparing the responsibilities involved for the BART manager. It is a fact that the General Manager of BART must manage a huge agency. But the fact is she and her predecessors happen to be managing BART very badly. The agency is $3 billion in debt and later this month its contracts with four fairly rowdy public employee unions will expire, putting BART’s awful management and pay policies squarely in the public eye.

And out of touch BART GM Grace Crunican is not setting the stage very well for these critical union negotiations, where give backs should be on the agenda rather than pay increases at the financially crippled agency, whose salaries are already grossly bloated and whose underfunded pension liabilities… Read More

California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates that the state will enjoy an unexpected $4.4 billion tax revenue gain through June 2014. If you think that means a tax cut in your future, think again. Politicians already have plans to spend it, laying the groundwork for the next huge budget deficit.

The revenue gain resulted from three factors: increased state capital-gains taxes from California residents who sold investments at the end of 2012 to avoid the higher federal taxes that took effect January 1, when the Bush-era tax cuts expired; improved stock and real estate markets; and temporary sales and income tax hikes approved by California voters in November 2012 (Proposition 30).

At least three quarters of the gain will go to education, as mandated by Proposition 98, the so-called Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability… Read More

Democrat State Sen. Ron Calderon returned to work this week, just a few days after FBI agents raided his Capitol office and removed numerous boxes in what was at least the appearance of an extensive criminal investigation. It sure wasn’t spring cleaning.

Perhaps you may be thinking you missed the wall-to-wall news coverage and breathless newspaper reporters pursuing this story with Watergate-like zeal. Well, don’t bother to go to Google now – you didn’t miss much.

Showing the absolute minimum journalistic curiosity, the Capitol press corps hasn’t had much to say about this and even less to report. No matter your politics, this is a disappointing shortfall of public information.

Too harsh an assessment? After being permitted by reporters the right to remain silent for a week, Calderon finally did meet the press outside his Capitol office. He took no questions and went on the record – for a full 80 seconds.

With no apparent trace… Read More

On the way to our spring vacation, I wanted to choose a book that had some ties to the region we were visiting – China. I could not put my fingers on my copy of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book, so I grabbed Stephen Ambrose’s Nothing Like It In The World, about the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. I thought it would be interesting because of how the Chinese had participated in the construction. Little did I know how much I would learn about Governor Brown’s $100 billion high-speed train folly.

First, if you are interested in the development of this country and emergence of California as a powerhouse, you should pick up this book. The railroad united a country separated by immense space and majestic mountain ranges. Before the railroad, in order to traverse the country from the West Coast, one could take a prairie wagon… Read More