SacBee’s Capitol Alert is reporting that the size of a "comprehensive water solution" package is well over nine billion (with a b) bucks. That is a lot of money – and a lot of borrowing.

There are a lot of water-related policy aspects at play, and not being a water policy expert, I will leave that to others to sort through.

But I do have some concerns about the size of the package in terms of raw dollars. It seems vastly expensive. I guess the first question would be how much of that package is made up of lease revenue bonds that SHOULD come to a vote of the people but often don’t. The embarrassing approval of those prison-bonds without voter approval comes to mind. There’s been plenty of time since then to put them to a vote of the people for ratification — but, I digress…

To keep me and those taxpayer advocates that I know from opposing the "comprehensive water solution" on amount-of-spending grounds, there is a very simple test that must be applied: 1. HOW MUCH INFRASTRUCTURE DO WE NEED TO BUILD?

We need… Read More

Look who TMZ caught driving with a cell phone to her ear!

Nice.… Read More

Good work from our College Republicans:

For the second time in the past month our state’s youngest activists traveled to the Bay Area to help Republican businessman David Harmer in his effort to defeat Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi for the Congressional seat vacated by Ellen Tauscher. After energizing speeches by Harmer and CRP Vice-Chairman Tom Del Beccaro, on Saturday morning just over 40 College Republicans from across California joined a dozen Young Republicans to spend their weekend walking door-to-door and making phone calls for Harmer. To show his gratitude for their hard work Tom Del Beccaro invited the groups to his home for dinner after the walk.… Read More

I just got off of the phone with Tim Whitacre, the Campaign Manager of the Anthony Adams Recall. FR readers will recall that in February Adams was one of six Republican legislators who crossed party lines and voted with every Democrat in the legislature to smack Californian’s with well over $16 BILLION in higher sales, income and car taxes, as well as a cutting the child tax credit.

Shortly after that vote, an effort was started to try and gather enough signatures to force one of these legislators to a recall vote — that legislator is Adams. Although it requires just under 36,000 signatures to force Adams into a recall election, Whitacre told me that with turn-ins today at the Registrar of Voters offices in Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties, the advocates for recalling Adams collected and have turned in a staggering 61,593 signatures.

Political veterans know that a percentage of those signatures will be invalid. But since the campaign was checking signatures gathered against the voter registration rolls, Whitacre assured me that there is a 100% likelihood that this recall will qualify with many, many thousands of signatures over the… Read More

Last week, I launched the AD72 Special Twitter feed to provide California political junkies up-to-date with the latest in this whirlwind special election to fill the Assembly seat of the fallen Mike Duvall.

Joining me as inaugural contributors are FR Publisher Jon Fleischman and RedCounty.com contributor Allan Bartlett.

Allan was at last night’s AD72 special election candidate forum organized by the OC Young Republicans; you can read his Twittering of the event on the feed, and his related post on RedCounty.com. One thing is becoming clear, mystery GOP candidate Richard Faher’s sole purpose in running seems to be to wreck Chris Norby’s candidacy.… Read More

The recently released Field Poll shows former Governor Jerry “moonbeam” Brown with a wide lead in the Democrat primary and a sizable lead over all GOP challengers.

Brown enjoys a lot of advantages — particularly in the Democrat primary. His biggest advantage is that most of his strongest challengers have fallen by the wayside, leaving him to face (currently) only controversial SF mayor Gavin Newsom.

Newsom is best known statewide for his guttural “it’s coming whether you like or not,” mocking of traditional marriage. Many same-sex marriage proponents blame Newsome’s riff – and his subsequent response – for the passage of Prop 8, and the arrogant declaration probably alienated values voters in both parties permanently.

So matched up against Newsom, you gotta like Brown’s odds.

But I don’t think Brown should start posing for a new Gubernatorial portrait just yet.

Brown has… Read More

I was asked to provide some ideas for Republican legislators for tax reform bills. Below is a list of ideas for a fairer tax system and enhanced justice for taxpayers. The first items are what I like from the Commission on the 21st Century Economy’s recommendations. ELIMINATE THE SALES AND USE TAX – COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION I support the Commission’s proposal to eliminate the state’s portion of the Sales and Use Tax. The Sales and Use Tax made sense when the vast majority of the economy consisted of tangible items. The economy has been transformed so much the Sales and Use Tax no longer effectively captures consumption. With economic growth occurring in services and electronic communications, the Sales and Use Tax is now merely a tax on a declining universe of businesses and it is exacerbating their decline. Additionally I support eliminating the local portion of the tax as well. LOWER … Read More

This just in from our friends at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association:

On the eve of a crucial vote, a Union-backed proposal to increase Pensions at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has now been withdrawn.

The proposal, which would have hiked Pensions for workers to receive 75% of their annual salaries upon retirement, was to be voted on tomorrow at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the MWD. It appears tonight — after much pressure from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the John and Ken Show on KFI, and others — that the taxpayers have succeeded in knocking some common sense into the Board Members who were leaning toward a pension increase in the midst of a recession.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association vows to continue to fight against egregious Pension increase proposals — and there are plenty around the state of California right now— whenever they are brought to a vote.… Read More