In light of the debate whether what is yours is yours, or if it is only yours when government decides what is yours, 2 bills were just defeated that would raise the tax on internet purchases and take away the tax refund option on bad retail loans.

AB 1840 applies sales tax to certain Internet transactions, known as the I-Tunes tax. The we need revenue crowd only numbered 18 Aye votes and 31 No votes, including 4 Dems.

AB 1839 went down by 24-33 with 3 Dems voting No. If a retailer had sold it’s financing paper of a retail item to a "Big Finance" house, if that became a bad debt, the lender could no longer recover the sales tax via refund, from the state. The state is in effect saying, "nope, thats mine, too bad for you" even though the retailer is eligible for the refund and rightly so. In the floor presentation of the bill, the author included a statement that asked "When did the state become a partner of these businesses on their bad sales tax debt?" I know. When the state became everyone’s silent partner by forcing retailers to… Read More

AB 1996, a bill to grant food stamp eligibility to those convicted of felony drug charges has passed by a 42-31 vote today. It only requires thatthe user merely be on a waiting listfor drug use rehab,or enrolled, but no requirement of actually completing said rehab to receive benefits. 3 Dems joined 28 Republicans in voting no.… Read More

State Board Of Equalization Member Bill Leonard is considered to be one of the GOP’s experts on State finances… He penned the following for his “Leonard Letter” e-mail….

***Phony Revenues in May Revise***

I have now spent hours trying to explain the state budget to myself and ended up frustrated. I did find in the Department of Finance information the numbers that the state expects to take in (with May and June included in advance). The total is $101.1 billion this year and, for the next year that everyone is fighting about, the take is projected at $102.9 billion. However, I have learned the Governor is booking new bond debt and his lottery sale proposal — around $5 billion that is not real revenue, but actually is borrowing.

If you and I count money as revenue, we have to pay income taxes on it. However, if it’s a loan we do not have to pay taxes on the money because the IRS/FTB do not consider it revenue. But if you are state government, borrowed money is called revenue even though it was not earned nor collected as taxes and must be repaid. Most budgets would make the distinction between earned revenue and… Read More

This Sacramento home owned by Rep. Richardson was sold at foreclosure auction. The buyer agreed to pay her property tax bill, and her lender lost $200,000 on the deal. She fail to pay property taxesover $12,000.(Rich Pedroncelli / The Associated Press)

… Read More

The Los Angeles Times had an article about the City of Needles considering the idea of leaving California and joining either Nevada or Arizona. It brings up important questions about the organization of California government.

101 years ago Imperial County seperated from San Diego County. That is the last time we have created another county in California.

I believe in local government. It can be very effective for the people it serves.

One way it can be more effective is to take a serious look at the way it is organized in California.

As the demographics of California have changed over the last 100 years the political boundaries have not changed at all. We end up with Los Angeles County being the home to millions while some counties are hard to justify when they are the home to less than 30,000 people.

Los Angeles County is simply too large to govern with 10 million people. Several other counties are too small to make sense as a separate government entity.

This is similar to redistricting in that people can agree that changes need to be… Read More

Now that former Congressman and House Clintonimpeachment manager Bob Barr is the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president, one might ask, will he compromise his principles and take the Federal matching funds to pay for his campaign?

Well, it’s very unlikely he’ll get any Federal money, even if he secretly wants it.

Since 1976 there has been a "check-off" on tax returns to allow taxpayers to designate what is now $3 per return to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. The Federal Election Commission has devised a formula for candidates and parties to get the money from the U.S. Treasury, but to get it there are strings attached.

Among the strings are you have to agree to abide by the "national spending limit," which for 2008 is $84.1 million; and you can’t put in more than $50,000 of personal funds. The parties also have to limit what they can spend to help out in the campaign. But if you are in a major party (i.e., Republican or Democrat) all you have to do is raise a little more than $42 million in small contributions and the government will give you a check for the… Read More

Daniel Weintraub has an exceptional piece in the Sacramento Bee today on the state budget crisis. Read it here.

You can’t read this and think that borrowing from future lottery revenues, increasing the sales tax even temporarily, or adjusting income taxes is the answer to the state budget problems. It proves to me that we have a spending problem.

Tax increases under the facts presented by Weintraub would do nothing but increase the size of the budget.

Blow up some boxes!… Read More

It’s time for The San Diego Primary Election Contest. Well, mine anyway. Read below and take a stab. Every correct answer is worth one point unless otherwise noted.

Question #1: 75th Assembly (0 points) – Name the winner of the Republican nomination. (That’s right, a throw away…you get nothing for answering this correctly, but if you get it wrong, none of the rest of your answers count, ‘cuz I’m not even gonna waste my time.)

Question #2: San Diego Mayor – Will this race be decided in the primary, yes or no?

Question #3: San Diego Mayor – Regardless of your answer to #2, which candidate will finish first in the primary?

Question #4: 78th Assembly – Which candidate will win the Democratic nomination?

Question #5: San Diego City Attorney – Name the top two primary finishers, regardless of order.

Question #6: 52nd Congressional – Although they are not presently competing directly with each other, and each is currently vying with a different number of opponents, which candidate… Read More