MEMORANDUM To: GOP State Senators, GOP State Assemblymembers From: Jon Fleischman, Publisher, FlashReport.org RE: Heartfelt Input Concerning The State Budget And Jerry Brown’s Proposal To Place A Massive Tax Increase On A June Special Election Ballot

You don’t have to have a conversation with State Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton for too long before you can hear the frustration in his voice. Dutton has served in the legislature for nearly a decade, and he will share with you that as long as he has been in the Capitol, he has seen the Democrats continue to enact more regulations, raise more taxes (often on majority votes, calling them fees), and all of the while continuing to increase state spending (the latter only finally abating when literally the money to spend ran out). He will tell you that the situation in which state government finds itself in today was not only totally predictable, but also was completely avoidable. Of course one only need talk to a host of retired Republican legislators to know that this has been the case going back… Read More

Life is not just about politics and law! Here is a picture from my caricature party at the downtown Los Angeles Palm last Monday night, attended by your publisher and many other good friends in politics and law, celebrating my caricature being placed on a wall over a booth in the bar area. With me are my wife and business partner Janice, and my very good friend State Senator Lori Klein, (R-AZ). … Read More

Governor Jerry Brown swept into Los Angeles last Friday, picking up the preordained endorsement from the Los AngelesArea Chamber of Commerce for his $50 billion tax increase election. Preordained because the Los Angeles Area Chamber long ago lost its soul. It is no longera dependable ally for the small or larger business communities.

The Los Angeles Area Chamber was taken over by non-profits and lawyers. The landmark election of George Kieffer of Manatt Phelps (pictured right) in 2003 began a new assault against entrepreneurs. Since then the LA Chamber has supported virtually every tax increase from the city, county and state level. The Chamber supported the ill fated tax Prop 1A in 2009, which was rejected by angry California taxpayers by a margin of two to one.

George Kieffer is a gentleman and a… Read More

Former Assembly Speaker, Anaheim Mayor and current High Speed Rail Authority Chairman Curt Pringle was elected to head the Orange County Taxpayers Association this week.

OCTax is known for working with local government to improve tax policy andwork better with the business community. They also have a PAC that endorses and contributes to pro-business and anti-tax candidates.

In recent years the group has brought on higher profile leaders to serve on the board including former CA Housing and Community Development Director and current OC Business Council CEO Lucy Dunn and Cox Communications Government Affairs executive Jim Leach.

OCTax’s mission is to insure that taxes and tax supported programs are fair, understandable, cost effective and good for the economy.

OCTax is one of those endorsements you want to collect and feature in your voter contact if you can. The group has positive name ID and especially now, when voters are so peeved over the failed state of government budgets, OCTax’s stamp of approval is helpful to have. Organization president Reed Royalty has been around a long time and has the respect of most… Read More

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When the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed one of the primary tools to prevent discrimination was Section 5. This section was meant to “cover” certain parts of the country so that they did not come up with new ways of disenfranchising black voters.

Under this law the covered areas needed to seek preclearance from the US Department of Justice prior to making any change in voting procedures. This means that after an ordinance or administrative procedure and background material must be submitted to the Justice Department as soon as possible after it is passed.

When the VRA was updated in 1970 the test of what states or other political jurisdictions were covered was based on two criteria

The state or jurisdiction had a barrier in place in 1968 as a prerequisite to voting Less than 50% of the voting age population was registered to vote in 1968 or less than 50% of the voting age population voted for President in November 1968

Some entire states (mostly southern) as well as some counties and cities were covered by this test. You can see the… Read More

I don’t really know Rancho Santa Margarita City Councilman Jesse Petrilla. Yet I think every single person that reads this blog should stand with him against the majority on his City Council.

See related Jim Lacy post here.

In 2003 I was the Vice-Mayor of Woodland and was called to active duty in the Marine Corps. When I left we had no idea how long I would be gone. Could have been months or even years. We really did not know.

The people on the City Council chose not to replace me but since my term of deployment was not clear I would have understood if they did. Petrilla will be gone for just three months.

Here is the problem for the service member that is publicly reported to be deployed. To most people in the public it says "military service is an honorable thing". To some it says that "the family of the service member is vulnerable". Not cool. I am sure that Councilman Petrilla is happy to do this training but has concerns about his wife. These are… Read More

I’m a fan of Steve Harmon, who is a political reporter for the Bay Area News Group (Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, San Jose Mercury News, etc.) — generally I find him to be a solid reporter, and I enjoy reading his stories.

That said, Steve and I have a running disagreement that centers around whether the 2009 budget deal that saw six Republican legislators vote to enact the largest tax increase in the history of any state (sales, income and car taxes, as well as an axing of a chunk of the child tax credit) caused those six GOPers to pay a steep political price. These same six Republicans also voted to create a trigger whereby if voters passed Proposition 1A in an ensuing special election, these same taxes which had been enacted for two years would have their sunset date extended two years further out. California voters rejected 1A by nearly a two-to-one margin thus those taxes were not extended.

In a piece that Harman had published over the weekend (for which, alas, I was not called for a quote), he… Read More