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Katy Grimes

Hertzberg Bill Benefits Taxpayer-Financed Union Slush Fund

The Labor-Management Cooperation Act of 1978 is rearing its ugly head once again in the California Legislature, as it roars to the end of the 2015-16 session. The idea behind the “Labor Management Cooperation Committee” ostensibly is to improve communication between representatives of Labor and Management, expand and improve working relationships between worker and managers, and to ensure health and safety working conditions in the construction industry, among other stated goals. But really, it is to put non-union companies out of business.

Senate Bill 954 by Sen. Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, would redefine what benefits employers can pay into as part of their obligation to pay workers on public works projects the prevailing wage. Specifically, the bill qualifies certain prevailing wage benefit payments, but only if they are made by an employer “obligated under a collective bargaining agreement.”

What this means is that non-union groups will be… Read More

Katy Grimes

California Legislative Spending Rampage Continues

If there is any doubt that this Democrat-controlled Legislature is on a spending rampage, take a look at the legislation below currently blowing through the Assembly and Senate.

All Democrat-authored bills

AB 1770 (Asm. Luis Alejo) makes non-citizens who are in the U.S. legally eligible for the California Food Assistance Program. AB 1770 is on suspense.

AB 1809 (Asm. Patty Lopez) eliminates the consideration of an individual’s assets as a condition of eligibility for CalWORKS. AB 1809 is currently being held in a committee.

SB 1010 (Sen. Ed Hernández) requires health plans and insurers to report information about prescription drug pricing to the State. Requires Department of Managed Health Care and Department of Insurance DOI to compile a report regarding the overall impact of drug costs on health care pricing.

AB 492 (Asm Lorena Gonzalez) provides an additional $50 per month to CalWORKS recipients for diapers for children under 2 years old.

SB 1465 (Sen. Pres. Kevin De León) allows the Governor to sign agreements making Los Angeles the host of the 2024 Olympic Games, including an agreement for joint liability.… Read More

Katy Grimes

Gov. Jerry Brown: Facilitating The Inevitable California Collapse

“California is definitely back,” Governor Jerry Brown boasted in 2014. Brown then proclaimed the state a “job creation engine,” proving he was still living in the 1960’s. However, Brown has shown little stomach for sensible tax and regulatory cuts, and instead pays lip service to the media about how fiscally prudent he is….everything he touches turns Brown.

For a state $130 Billion upside down in budget debt, and another $750 Billion of long term unfunded public employee pension debt, the estrangement between what the Democrats in charge say and do, and what Californians know and live daily, continues to grow.

Things are not rosy in California, despite what… Read More

Katy Grimes

The Artificial Outrage of Paid Protestors and Rent-A-Mobs

Every day on the news there are stories of well-organized protests. I report from the California State Capitol which almost daily is ground zero for some group protesting a grievance. Asapoliticaljournalist,Iam skeptical of most protests. It does not matter if the protestors arewearinghardhatsandorangevestsand standalldayinfrontofanofficebuildingunder construction,oraprominentrestaurant feigning outrage showcasing a giant inflatable rat to passersby.

The recipe is always the same whether it’s a faculty walkout, a nurses walkout, minimum wage protests, Wall Street protesters, union members, or recently, students protesting University of California, Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi.

While every citizen is entitled to his or her own voice for a cause, the professional paid protesters who appear at protests all across the state and even across national borders are mercenaries.

The average employed American does not have the time to protest, yet we often see the same people at different protests around the state. Where does the funding for these rent-a-mobs come from?

Wealthy Foundations FundRead More

Katy Grimes

California’s Shadow Water Conservation Government and the Curious Tale of Lester Snow and Gerald Meral

Droughts are naturally occurring; water shortages are government-created and political. A proposed California ballot measure titled “Water Priorities for All,” would shift bond money earmarked for California’s bullet train and use it instead to build new dams and enlarge existing dams.

The initiative would also amend the State Constitution to include language prioritizing residential and agricultural water use over environmental and recreational claims on river water while leaving water rights untouched.

The ballot measure is under attack by a coalition of seemingly environmental opponents. The Committee to Stop the Special Interest Water Grab, led by David Guy, president of the Northern California Water Association, Tim Johnson, president of the California Rice Commission and a “contract administrator” at California Rice Industry Association, and political operative Steve Maviglio of Forza Communications, a Democratic strategist and big supporter of High Speed Rail and the Twin Tunnels, have launched an all-out assault campaign against the California Water Priorities Initiative.

All communications against “Water Priorities for All” have come… Read More

Katy Grimes

Who is Blocking 29 Million People in Los Angeles From Getting Water, and Why?

In my last article, Why Can’t California Farmers Get the Water They Need?, exposed were Gov. Brown’s appointees at the State Water Resources Control Board who ordered the release of massive amounts of water from the New Melones Reservoir and Lake Tulloch, to save a dozen fish, and Gov. Brown who has systematically booted a number of qualified people off of the California Water Commission, the body that decides how to spend $2.7 billion in Prop. 1 Water Bond water storage money.

Read More

Katy Grimes

Taxpayers Shouldn’t Reward Regional Transit’s Fiscal Disaster With Another Tax Hike

On the heels of the Sacramento Taxpayer Association awarding the bankrupt Sacramento Regional Transit its annual GOLDEN FLEECE AWARD, the Sacramento Bee published a story claiming Regional Transit “may be better than you think.” Rather than acting like a watchdog on government, the Bee appears to be the Public Relations firm of RT.

GOLDEN FLEECE AWARDs are bestowed upon public officials, governmental agencies and organizations for their “wasteful, ridiculous, or ironic use of taxpayers’ money.”The SacTax FLEECE AWARD went to the… Read More

Katy Grimes

Gov. Jerry Brown’s Minimum Wage Gift to Unions Is No Legacy

Despite all the evidence that increasing the minimum wage does little or nothing to reduce poverty, California Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democrats in the State Legislature just passed another minimum wage increase. Not one Republican in the Assembly or Senate voted for the bill, and all Democrats, save two, voted for the minimum wage increase.

The minimum wage has always been an arbitrary figure. If the arbitrary minimum wage is inflated, this also inflates prices, leaving low-wage workers spending more on everything.

This political decision by Brown will likely come back to haunt California, much as the 1999 political pension deal signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis… Read More

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