It’s being reported in the Los Angeles Times this morning that Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed an increase in the state sales tax to deal with a state budget crisis created by years of overspending. The Governor’s office does not deny this.

I feel like going out and getting “Shame on me for believing Arnold” T-shirts for the thousands of Republican donors and activists who took Arnold’s “no new taxes” pledge as an actual covenant with the voters.

Last year the Governor supported the largest single increase in business taxes in California history for the Schwarzenegger/Nunez health care plan debacle.

Now, he is proposing billions in taxes on Californians as a component to passing a state budget. He proposes to reward overspending with more overtaxing.

Fortunately I believe that legislative Republicans have the stuff it takes to oppose this tax hike, as they opposes Schwarzenegger’s tax hike plan last year.

I wonder if the Governor has no conscience. For if he did, surely he would be consumed with guilt. To repeatedly assure thousands of people he would NEVER support… Read More

Last weekend I was in Idaho for the sale of the farm my dad grew up on. It is located 40 minutes outside of Boise. As soon as I arrived my cell phone rang. I looked around. I share hands free cell phone issues that Curt Hagman wrote about earlier.

What do I do?

Wait. I’m in Idaho.A state somewhat freer than Arnold’s California. I can answer the phone directly. Turns out it was small business proposition. It would require me to make a few calls. Needless to say I did it all the way to my Dad’s hometown. I even took a weekend call from my boss. (Joel Anderson is always making sure I’m working Saturdays for him too.)

In California I could never have done that. I wouldn’t have had the time. Beacuse Idaho doesn’t have a nanny state like ban on talking on my cell phone, I earned a little cash and oh yes California will get more that their fair share of it.

Others talk about debating to answer the phone or taking their eyes of the road to look for cops.

Nanny State laws have unintended consequences. The… Read More

In Yolo County we have had several cases recently where we have had the actions of our law enforcement officers called into question.

This is where local government sometimes gets messy. It is also where you will find one of the biggest opportunities to protect taxpayer money.

In the most recent case we had an individual that voluntarily checked himself into a group treatment facility. This man was 44 years old, weighed more than 300 pounds, and was less than six feet tall. He did not have drugs in his system but had a history of psychological and physical issues.

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

Permit me to detour from my usual inside-the-beltway reporting.

If Marco Ramius can read Halsey, I can read the New Yorker. Explore the pros, "cons" and everything in between by reading David Samuels’ interesting report on the state of the California "medical" pot economy.

While the piece misses some points of distinction (no one from "down south" calls Humbolt or anyplace in Nor Cal "upstate," nor is there a "state police" agency–that would be the California Highway Patrol, an important distinction), the article nonetheless offers interesting reporting, a look at the vague middle areas of the quasi-legal medical marijuana market, and first-hand accounts gathered over a long period of reporting.

We learn how the law enacting the medical marijuana initiative authorizes doctors to prescribe, patients to consume for certain treatments (when authorized by a doctor) and certain establishments to sell to authorized patients. We also learn that it is legal to grow under certain circumstances–oddly, the law leaves a void about the transport of pot from legal field to legal shop, according to… Read More

In Yolo County we have had several cases recently where we have had the actions of our law enforcement officers called into question.

This is where local government sometimes gets messy. It is also where you will find one of the biggest opportunities to protect taxpayer money.

In the most recent case we had an individual that voluntarily checked himself into a group treatment facility. This man was 44 years old, weighed more than 300 pounds, and was less than six feet tall. He did not have drugs in his system but had a history of psychological and physical issues.

When he checked himself out of the center the next day the staff called the police for a "welfare check". He was approached by officers. Due to whatever reason the officers ended up taking the guy down. He was hit with a Taser several times. After the officers cuffed him they realized he was not breathing and administered CPR. He died on the scene.

Things like this happen. Here is an article about the results of the autopsy report.

So this is what I think it wrong. The attorney for the family… Read More

If it is indeed true that the Governor has proposed a "temporary" increase in the State sales tax to slap a band – aid on the disastrous budget problem he allowed to be created, then what is left of the GOP in California, the last remnant, can just kiss itself goodbye.

Iwould suggest the State GOPeither calla meeting of the Party’s Executive to immediately denounce the proposal, or just fold up. If we can’t be on the record on the right side of an easy issue, it needs to ask itself why it exists at all.

First, the economy cannot handle any further increases in the tax burden for citizens. Second, keeping taxes low is (was?) a bedrock position of the Republican Party.

If Villines and Cogdill can’t stop this train from leaving the station, and I think they can stop it, then the Party will be even more decimated than it is now, as people continue to leave it in droves over abandonment of simple, small government principles… Read More

The plastic bag tax keeps rolling along in the legislature. Meredith Turney first noted it for us in March. In April Jon Fleischman offered a commentaryon the subject, hi-liting the little matter of “greenwashing,” in which both consumers and policy-makers are hoodwinked into supposedly eco-friendly goals to the benefit and profit of the growing green industry.

Since then, Lloyd Levine’s AB 2058 has passed the Assembly, 44-33, and found its way to Senate Appropriations for a slated hearing this week. In essence, the bill would require proof that a grocery store is recycling a whopping 70 percent of all its plastic carry out bags, or require a charge to the customer of at least 25 cents per bag. The plastic bag police will be the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

A website has been set up in opposition to the bill, with radio ads running in various parts of the… Read More

The plastic bag tax keeps rolling along in the legislature. Meredith Turney first noted it for us in March. In April Jon Fleischman offered a commentaryon the subject, hi-liting the little matter of “greenwashing,” in which both consumers and policy-makers are hoodwinked into supposedly eco-friendly goals to the benefit and profit of the growing green industry.

Since then, Lloyd Levine’s AB 2058 has passed the Assembly, 44-33, and found its way to Senate Appropriations for a slated hearing this week. In essence, the bill would require proof that a grocery store is recycling a whopping 70 percent of all its plastic carry out bags, or require a charge to the customer of at least 25 cents per bag. The plastic bag police will be the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

A website has been set up in opposition to the bill, with radio ads running in various parts of the… Read More