In another twist in Sacramento’s arena derangement syndrome, a petition drive to put a public subsidy for the proposed Sacramento basketball arena project to a public vote, has been rejected by the Sacramento City Clerk.

Friday, the city clerk announced that she rejected the petitions, along with 34,000 signatures, on the grounds some of the petition versions did not comply with election code.

“Due to technical issues identified in the submitted petitions, I find the petition noncompliant with significant provisions of the California Elections Code and the Sacramento City Charter, and therefore insufficient to move forward,”Shirley Concolino, Sacramento City Clerk, said in a press release.

Yet, just last week,theSacramento County Registrarcertified there… Read More

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said: “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.”

I agree. I don’t mind paying taxes, or government spending on defense, education, infrastructure, public safety, or to give a helping hand to those in need.

What I mind is OVERPAYING taxes because government recklessly overspends, and overspends, and overspends.

I mind paying HIGHER taxes because government wastespublic money in an oftentimes spectacularly stupid manner.

I mind well-paid bureaucrats allowing that waste to continue because fixing the problem might be hard.

I mind my taxes being diverted away from vital services, programs and infrastructure to subsidize the extremely lazy, the extremely wealthy and the politically connected.

I mind paying year-after-year-after-year to subsidize those with a sense of entitlement so deep that they make no effort to better the lives of their own children.

I mind paying over 1/3 of what I earn while government racks up an exploding debt that will hobble my children – and their children – and limit their future… Read More

This is Part 2 of a series on the EDD. Part 1, an interview with Spokesman Dan Stephens, ishere.

Just after the Labor Day weekend, the California Employment Development Department released a $100 million computer upgrade. Itcrashed.

Without warning,150,000 joblessCalifornians were cut from unemployment benefits. The EDD blamed a computer glitch and said it would take weeks to fix.

November hearings in the Legislature produced promises to fix the system. In response,Henry Perea, D-Fresno, the chairman of the Insurance Committee, senta letterto EDD Director Hilliard demanding fixes by Dec. 31. Perea identified five… Read More

This is Part 1 of a series.

Obamacare’s computers aren’t the only government systems struck by major glitches.

Two months after a California Employment Development Departmentcomputer crashcut off tens of thousands of Californians from their unemployment benefits, the EDD remains overwhelmed by overdue unemployment claims from thousands of people looking for jobs.

State Labor Secretary Marty Morgenstern, an appointee of Gov. Jerry Brown, quicklyordered EDDofficials to pay the unemployment claims immediately, and check eligibility later. Yet today thousands of… Read More

For the third year in a row, California has been named the worst-run state in America, by 24/7 Wall Street. Is it any wonder? With at least10 Californiacitieson the verge of municipal bankruptcy, a $24 billion budget shortfall in 2012, including a mid-year shortfall of $930 million and $8.2 billion carried over from the year before, California is a mess.

“California carries an A credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, and an A1 from Moody’s — both worse than any other state except for Illinois. Explaining its rating, Moody’s pointed to the state’s history of one-time solutions to resolve its budgetary gaps,” 24/7 Wall Street reported in… Read More

Ouch! That’s the cry of someone trying to sign up for the Affordable Care Act, usually called Obamacare.

Health insurance cancellation notices have gone out to millions of Americans. Many cannot get insurance at all. And for many who can, “premium shock” strikes those seeing their health plans canceled and renewed at higher rates.

Insurance industry experts are warning that two-thirds of already insured Americans will see their current insurance dumped into the hospital waste bin.

Obamacare is supposed to take care of people with pre-existing health conditions. But the actual “preexisting health condition” turns out to be already having private insurance. Obamacare means you have to sign up to find out whether that “condition” still exists — or has been canceled.

Another Obamacare bombshell about to… Read More

Government Shutdown Day 14: The status of the “negotiations” or of any resolution of this Government Shutdown/Debt Limit debate is as clear as mud. But, it is becoming crystal clear what each side is really fighting over.

It’s not really about any one bill or any one policy. It is about the things that have separated Democrats and Republicans ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall – taxes, spending, deficits and government control of our lives.

As Democrats have been “feeling their oats” in the last few days due to favorable polling data, you have seen them push for the things they really want. They want the “Sequester” to go away. The “Sequester” is the one thing that has reduced spending in recent years, and they want to see spending go back up. The president said in a meeting with Republicans that he wants more tax increases. This demand has been echoed by a number of his surrogate talking heads over the last few days. And, if you listen carefully when the left acknowledges the problems with ObamaCare, you’ll notice that they say its failings are not because the government has been given too much… Read More

Shutdown Day 12 and 13: I did not write you yesterday. Not because I have lost any affection for you, but because the “negotiations” in the House and the Senate were moving so fast that I feared that anything I wrote you would be obsolete before you had time to read it. There is still a risk of that on this gloomy and wet Sunday morning in Washington, DC.

I also wanted to put down my rhetorical sword in the hopes that real discussions to perhaps get a win-win solution here were ongoing. It seems that whenever I give this administration and their allies the benefit of the doubt, it leads to disappointment. And it did so again this weekend.

Here is where we stand as I see it. I put the word “negotiations” in quotes because it is quite clear now that the president was disingenuous in his agreement to enter negotiations. House Republicans made a good faith offer to begin resolution of this dispute. The offer was one that I and others didn’t think was very good from our perspective, but it was made. The White House took a day to pretend as though they were negotiating, because they are clearly sensitive to that criticism,… Read More