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Jon Fleischman

Perry Announces CA Finance Leadership Team

Just in from Austin…

Gov. Rick Perry Announces California Finance Leadership Team Business and Technology Industry Leaders Spearhead Fundraising Efforts Statewide

Texas Gov. Rick Perry today announced his California finance leadership team, including Paul Folino, John Harris, E. Floyd Kvamme, Dean Spanos and Mike Tuchin as finance chairs.

“I am honored to have such a strong team of California business and community leaders join my campaign fundraising efforts,” said Gov. Perry. “With their support and hard work, we will run a strong campaign, to spark American job creation, take a wrecking ball to the Washington establishment, cut federal spending and get America working again.”

Gov. Perry has named the following individuals to his California finance leadership team:

Paul Folino, Statewide Finance Chair Folino is currently executive chairman of the board of directors of Emulex, an information technology product manufacturer headquartered in Costa Mesa, specializing in servers, network and storage devices for data centers.… Read More

Congressman John Campbell

Heartless Republicans

Those of us who have spent our political careers trying to keep taxes low and rein in government overspending are often called “heartless” by the opposition. I remember a time in the California Assembly when a Democratic colleague went to the floor and accused me of killing children, an accusation which she was forced to retract. Another time on that same floor, a different Democrat inquired how blood ran through my body since I clearly had no heart to pump it.

It is unfortunate that many in society seem to find fiscal responsibility and caring for the needy to be mutually exclusive objectives. It is so unfortunate because it is not true. In fact, I firmly believe that one is necessary to do the other.

As regular readers of this missive know, I believe that it is our moral imperative to care for those in need around us. But, where I differ from some of our more liberal friends is on the means to accomplish that goal. President Lyndon Johnson declared “war on poverty” back in the 60s. Tons of new programs were set up and tens of trillions of dollars have been spent on this “war” in the intervening 40+ years. And,… Read More

Jon Fleischman

New High Speed Rail Cost Estimate Means Voters Should Get A Re-Vote

Today, according to the Sacramento Bee, the California High Speed Rail Authority will formally announce that the estimated cost to construct a HSR system in California was not the already outrageous $43 billion that had previously been publicly stated by the Authority — instead a new report will show that the costs are $98.5 million — over twice the original amount!

If you need a reminder about why moving forward with this project is a bad idea, let me draw your attention to an… Read More

Jon Fleischman

WSJ OpEd: California’s New Green Tax

From today’s Wall Street Journal…

CALIFORNIA’S NEW GREEN TAX Wall Street Journal Editorial

It may be time for California to formally apply for membership in the European Union. Its taxing, borrowing and regulatory policies are already more in line with the southern tier of Euroland than with other U.S. states, and the Golden State has taken another lurch in the Euro-direction by becoming the first jurisdiction in the nation to adopt a full-scale cap-and-trade tax to combat global warming. The new taxes and regulations will require a nearly 30% reduction in carbon emissions from power plants, manufacturers, cars and trucks by 2020.

This green tax was signed into law in 2006 by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger when the state’s economy was flying high. California was going to be the green role model for other states. Now no one believes that fantasy. Ten states in the Northeast entered a regional cap and trade compact to limit greenhouse gases in 2008, but that market is now dying if not dormant and states (recently New Jersey) are dropping out.

In 2006 it also seemed… Read More

Ron Nehring

More Americans Identifying as Republicans: How to Press the Advantage

In politics, as in economics, we see leading and lagging indicators that provide us with insight on where the country is heading. Leading indicators predict future trends, while lagging indicators show us where we are today.

Now, one of the leading political indicators has turned in favor of Republicans.

Following the 2008 election which saw the election of Barack Obama and a solidly Democratic Congress, the key leading indicator of political party self-identification turned strongly against Republicans. Gallup found the portion of the voters willing to call themselves Republicans had fallen to a modern low point. Many Republicans started referring to themselves as independents.

Political party self-identification is a critical leading indicator because it helps to predict future voter behavior. Voters are more likely to cast a ballot for a candidate of a party with which they identify, rather than an opposition party.

The correlating lagging indicator is voter registration. In states with registration by party, people obviously tend to register with the… Read More

Congressman Tom McClintock

Principles of Plenty

The following is a speech I recently delivered to the California Independent Automobile Dealers Association, and wanted to share it with FlashReport readers…

We are in the third year of policies predicated on the assumption that if Government just injects enough money into the economy, it can jump start consumer spending and therefore, economic growth.

For three years, this administration has squandered more than a trillion dollars of the nation’s wealth in pursuit of this assumption.

In so doing, it has incurred a debt greater than that acquired by this nation from the first day of the George Washington administration to the last day of the George H.W. Bush administration.

It has cost our nation its triple-A credit rating and it now threatens to bankrupt our country.

And not only have its policies not worked, but they have needlessly prolonged and deepened our economic suffering.

These policies have not worked because they CANNOT work. Government cannot inject a single dollar into the economy until it has first taken that dollar out of the very same… Read More

Jon Fleischman

Matt Rexroad (a.k.a.) “Beanie Boy” Models For Perry Swag

If you are a supporter of Rick Perry for President, looking to buy some cool swag, there’s a website for you to buy everything from shirts and stickers to buttons or even a coveted embroidered beanie hat. How exactly would you look in the beanie hat? The site comes complete with a beanie-sporting fashion model — who is none other than our own blogger and California politico (and potential candidate for Congress) Matt Rexroad.

If you are organizing a Rick Perry for President party at your home (or even at the local Chuck E. Cheese), we hear that Matt is willing to bring all of the swag and put on a fashion show. Though if you are overcome with the desire to stick dollar bills in Matt’s belt, as he dances around to official Rick Perry rally music, he no doubt will… Read More

Ron Nehring

Union-Controlled San Diego Unified Edges Closer to Insolvency

Officials at California’s second largest school district, San Diego Unified, are now openly discussing the possibility of insolvency.

Predictably, district officials are blaming state education cuts for the district’s massive financial problems, including the prospect of a $118 million deficit this year. To put that amount in perspective, when I served on the Grossmont Union High School District Board of Trustees, our entire annual budget for a district of 24,000 students was $140 million.

So, are state education cuts alone to blame for San Diego Unified’s woes? Not so fast.

Two years ago, well before the current round of education cuts went into effect, district officials were already seeing the financial warning signs of trouble ahead.

Did the district take every possible step to bring costs down when the insolvency warning light started blinking on the dashboard? It doesn’t appear that way.

Earlier this week I discussed on this site how despite the warning signs, the union-dominated board voted to… Read More

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