For decades we have always heard from what have frankly been fringe, environmental extremist groups about the need to ban plastic grocery bags. These are the same groups that want Americans out of their cars. And that predicted that long ago the polar ice caps would be nonexistent by now. However, in recent years, the movement towards banning plastic bags has been gaining traction at the local level, primarily in liberal communities where left wing politicians dominate city councils. In these local areas, it is typical to see these local politicians completely dismiss all of the factual data that inconveniently dispels most of the myths about the alleged negative impacts of plastic grocery bags.

If I had to point to a political occurrence that has given rise in the positive momentum of plastic bag ban advocates, it is an… Read More

Back in 1964, as conservatism was starting to gain traction in the American political dialogue, the American Conservative Union was formed which represents the views of Americans who are concerned with economic growth through lower taxes and reduced government spending and the issues of liberty, personal responsibility, traditional values and national security. All of these years later, the ACU is most well known for both it’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in our nation’s capitol — and for their scorecard of the United State… Read More

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[Editor’s Note: We are pleased to share this success story from Board of Equalization members Michelle Steel and George Runner.]

On Tuesday, the Board of Equalization did something rare for a state agency in the Nanny State of California. We voted to end a government program and release up to a quarter-billion of taxpayer dollars back to taxpayers.

After many years of hard work attempting to reform the agency’s tax security deposit program, we were able to show staff that the costs of forcing business owners to post deposits against future liabilities outweighed the benefits of the program.

Under state law, certain businesses can be required to post and maintain a tax security deposit of anywhere between $2,000 and $50,000 for their first three years of operation. Before our recent vote, the agency had obtained security deposits when new business owners registered for a seller’s permit. Security deposits had been automatically required for corporations and LLCs. These security deposits are meant to act as insurance against possible future liabilities, and therefore do not count as state revenue unless… Read More

A few months ago UnionWatch published an editorial entitled “Social Security is Healthy Compared to Public Sector Pensions.” The highlights offer compelling evidence of two very distinct categories of “middle class workers” in America:

“According to theU.S. Census Bureau, in 2030, when Social Security will be supposedly approaching insolvency, there will be 99.4 million citizens over 58 years old, and 59.5 million citizens over 68 years old. This means that by 2030 (assuming no public employeesalsoparticipate in Social Security – which many of them do) there will be 19.9 million government retirees collecting pensions that average $60,000 per year, and there will be 47.6 million private sector retirees collecting Social Security benefits that average $20,000 per year. Using these assumptions, the total pension payouts to government retirees, who were only 20% of the workforce, will be $1.2… Read More

UPDATE: The American Tort Reform Association ranks California the “worst judicial hellhole” in U.S. for 2nd year in a row – extremely anti-business. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranks CA higher – “only” the 4th worst state (unfortunately, sliding from 7th worst in 2008). http://www.judicialhellholes.org/2013/12/17/california-ranks-1-in-20132014-judicial-hellholes-report/ and http://www.instituteforlegalreform.com/states/california… Read More

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A couple months back I wrote a satire for FlashReport regarding West Hollywood passing a law banning fire places. About half the readers found it plausible and were fooled into believing it was true. Though that scenario was contrived but seemed real to many, the situation I write about today is utterly real yet one beyond the imagination of most people before now.

Here are the basic facts:

1. The West Traffic Division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) created a traffic ticket quota for officers. The quota required officers to write 18 traffic tickets each shift with 80% of those tickets being for what are considered major violations. 2. Police Officers who participated in this scheme sued the city because of the harm done to them by being forced to participate in this quota system. 3. The prior city attorney (Carmen Trutanich) spent at least $2.4 million on outside legal counsel fighting this case. 4. The City Council of Los Angeles in executive session with the new City Attorney (Mike Feuer) unanimously agreed to a settlement of $5.9 million being paid to 11 police officers for the unstated harm that these officers… Read More

A common justification for California’s sky-high state and local public employee pay and pensions is our state’s high cost of living. This is a valid point — sorta. California DOES have a higher cost of living and higher pay, but it doesn’t come close to justifying most of the dramatic disparity between public and private total compensation.

The real comparison is the difference in average household income among states (CA is the 10th highest state — 13.4% higher than the national average) or per capita income ranking (CA is the 12th highest — 6.7% higher than the national average).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_income

Butcomparing California firefighter basic wages with the average firefighter’s pay in the other 49 states, we pay 60.2% higher than the other… Read More

What’s killing local California governments is the huge cost of overpaying and over-pensioning public employees. ESPECIALLY our public safety employees (mostly police and firefighters). Some cities have declared bankruptcy, with many others bankrupt but so far refusing to acknowledging their plight.

I here offer two database tools. The first let’s you find out how your town stacks up against other cities in the state. The second tells how your state stacks up against the other states.

1. If you’d like to find out how your CA city’s police and firefighter compensation stacks up against other bergs in the state, check out this excellent interactive link from the pro-public employee SACRAMENTO BEE. You can rank the cities by cost. Or you can take your COUNTY and easily compare the cities within the county. http://www.sacbee.com/2011/03/03/3446569/see-average-police-firefighter.html?

For instance, here’s the sorted link for firefighters’ compensation in the cities within San Diego County:… Read More