Our efforts to do something about the state’s fiscal crisisis underway. We had a package of 6 bills presented this morning, with pretty wide open language and ‘poison pills’ that all link back to tax and fee increases. Upon taking the floor for session, the Dems have decided to pare today’s work to just 2 of the 6 proposed bills, known as AB 6 and AB 7 of the 4th Extraordinary session. First up is ABX47, which does have some cuts , [including to law enforcement], and funding shifts in itand with strings attached. Next up will be AB4X 6, the Vehicle license fee tripling to 2% of car value, up from .65%, which would roughly raise the fee per car $300, or $600 for a ‘typical’ 2 car family per year.

AB 7 has just received only 40 yes votes and 30 no votes.

AB 6 also could not muster the votes needed, failing with 41 aye votes and 31 no votes.… Read More

Everyone get out their pencils and take some notes. Here's what's going on at the State Capitol this afternoon. The liberal Democrats are putting up their own budget revisions in the form of a package made up of a half-dozen or so bills.

Make no mistake about it, the package up for votes today represents no negotiation, no concessions, and no meeting of the minds. Once again the Democrats are trying to push more taxes on Californians – around $8 billion worth (just what our fragile economy needs — not!). The Democrats also put up some cuts — but it is almost impossible for this lay person to sort out potential real cuts from what appears to be a lot of accounting gimmickry (this from the people who call increasing spending less than they desire a “cut”).

Absent of course is the one item that Republicans have made clear is their Omaha Beach — a real spending cap measure to place before voters.

Look for the whole package to go down today without one Republican vote (even the cuts offered up are tied legislatively to the tax increases). As for the Democrats — let's see what some of them… Read More

One of the great challenges of terms limits is the need to educate new legislators as they arrive at the capitol. There is a "training session" they all go through, and usually a "retreat" by each of the caucuses that all attend, but, in each case, the agendas in each of those programs tend to reflect the bias of the staff or the leadership. Not that the information is bad, but I found that sometimes it is not helpful, especially when it comes to the budget. Government budgeting is not like private budgeting, whether it is individual or business budgeting. Government budgeting has, as its central guiding theme, the desire to deceive the decision-maker, to prevent oversight of government programs, and to grant to unelected bureaucrats as much freedom to spend taxpayer dollars without interference from lawmakers as possible.

One piece of advice to new lawmakers, start with Schedule 6 in the Governor’s Budget Summary . A quick look at that document show that not one single dime has been cut from overall state expenditures in the last six years. In fact, the last Governor to actually cut spending was Governor Gray Davis, in the last… Read More

Come into the FlashReport fortune telling booth, won’t you? No, we won’t be throwing the bones or pulling out the tarot cards this morning. This morning we’ll use the FR crystal ball!

Gather round and we’ll gaze into its depths…

“I see… Chronic overspending…. I see… Tax rates that are some of the highest in the nation… I see… Poor economic times and Californians who can’t afford to pay higher taxes… I hear… Doublespeak where reductions in projected increases are called decreases… I see… Liberal ideologues in the legislation who see the redistribution of wealth in society by government as some sort of religious calling… I see…… Read More

Come into the FlashReport fortune telling booth, won’t you? No, we won’t be throwing the bones or pulling out the tarot cards this morning. This morning we’ll use the FR crystal ball!

Gather round and we’ll gaze into its depths…

“I see… Chronic overspending…. I see… Tax rates that are some of the highest in the nation… I see… Poor economic times and Californians who can’t afford to pay higher taxes… I hear… Doublespeak where reductions in projected increases are called decreases… I see… Liberal ideologues in the legislation who see the redistribution of wealth in society by government as some sort of religious calling… I see… Democrat lawmakers… Read More

Well, you haven’t heard from me for a while. It’s not because I forgot about you or my Mac broke or something. There was that little matter of that election which required my attention earlier this month and that I had not been to Washington for almost 6 weeks. I have to say, being home in California for 6 weeks was pretty nice. There is a reason I don’t live on the East Coast and a little time at home always reminds me of that.

And as far as that election, I thank the people of the 48th Congressional District for their confidence to have me represent them in Washington for a 3rd term. I will not let you down.

You may recall in 1992 that then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton had signs posted in his campaign office that read "it’s the economy stupid" to remind his team of the main campaign issue in that year. Once again, the economy is issue number one….and two and three. As I write this, I am flying home on Virgin America after having been in Washington all week. One of my committees, the Financial Services Committee, heard testimony from Secretary Paulson, Fed Chairman Bernancke and the CEOs of the big 3 US automakers.… Read More

Well, it’s down to the last days of this 2 year term, with the session officially ending on Nov 30 at midnight but in all practicality [?] ending before Thanksgiving. The assembly has session scheduled for 3 PM Tuesday and the Senate last I heard was maybe 4 PM. With all the new tax ideas that have been tossed in the last few weeks since this special session was called, there will be much for taxpaying Californians to be thankful for by having this term finally lurch to an end.

We’ve seen ideas for a tax on domestically produced oil, a tax on services never taxed before; an increase in the car registration fee by 12 clams; an increase in the sales tax of 1% in early talks, now up to1.5 %. [The perfect lead life ring for the economy going into the most important retail season of the year] And, when you’re washing down your fiscal sorrows at the local watering hole, a drink tax on top of that.

But the capper that brings it the last few degrees of the full circle is the reinstatement of the Gray Davis car tax back to triple of what it is now…which of course fueled the sputtering recall in June of ’03 to then become… Read More

In early December, a new Republican Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee will be elected, with the current top GOPer on this key House Committee, Jim McCrery of Louisiana, retiring at the end of this term. The race to succeed McCrery has developed into a two-man competition, between Californian Wally Herger, who is next highest in seniority on the Committee, and Michigan Congressman David Camp.

I have known Congressman Herger for nearly two decades, and he is the kind of Reagan conservative that House Republicans need to elevate to these important posts as we work to re-earn our brand name as being a party of true fiscal conservatism. Congressman Herger is the kind of strong and articulate conservative that is essential in order to take on the notoriously liberal Chairman of the Committee, New York liberal Charlie Rangel who is infamous for his egregious Monument To Me earmark to create the Rangel Center at a College in his District (to house his… Read More