The California Republican Party today released a new web ad entitled "Get Serious." The web ad highlights the status of the state budget crisis and displays Democrat leaders Karen Bass, Darrell Steinberg, Noreen Evans, Lori Saldana, and Isadore Hall, in their own words demonstrating their out-of-touch and insincere approach to the state’s budget problem.

Democrat leaders in Sacramento have shown a startling lack of accountability and flippant attitude regarding the tough decisions lawmakers must make. Conversely, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Republican lawmakers have stood up for California by pressing for a comprehensive solution to the budget crisis, that does not increase the economic burden on our already struggling California families.

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Longtime FR friend Ward Connerly penned the following commentary to explain to FR readers why he endorsed Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner for Governor…

Why I Support Steve Poizner By Ward Connerly I love California, but if I were not already a resident of this state, I would not be tempted to relocate here. Taxes are too high. We have been unable to control unbridled immigration – legal and illegal, the result of which is a… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger has unveiled a tough new 60 second television commercial in which he looks straight into the camera and makes it clear to Californians that the Governor is committed to rejecting any budget that includes tax increases, that does not curb waste fraud or abuse, or that "kicks the can" into the future. It’s a great commercial, and in sixty seconds provides and much stronger message to the public than the weak California Teachers Association ads that ran last week. You can see the Governor’s new commercial below.

I want to take the opportunity to thanks and commend Governor… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger has unveiled a tough new 60 second television commercial in which he looks straight into the camera and makes it clear to Californians that the Governor is committed to rejecting any budget that includes tax increases, that does not curb waste fraud or abuse, or that "kicks the can" into the future. It’s a great commercial, and in sixty seconds provides and much stronger message to the public than the weak California Teachers Association ads that ran last week. You can see the Governor’s new commercial below.

I want to take the opportunity to thanks and commend Governor… Read More

The BoE has released its 2007-08 Annual Report that breaks down the $53.1 billion in revenue collected by the BoE in year ending June 30, 2008. The BOE collected approximately $700 million less than the previous fiscal year, a decrease of 1.3 percent.

It is clear the economy was getting softer in the first half of last year and that retail sales were declining even more than other revenue categories. In light of this, February’s decision to raise the sales tax by one percent was a punitive and destructive decision. The Governor and legislators that signed off on it claimed raising the sales tax would bring in $6 billion more in revenue, despite the dynamic revenue analysis of the BoE’s chief economist showing that a … Read More

Question: What is significant about this amount of money? $15,000,000.00. Answer: According to the British Government, that is the cost of one of Queen Elizabeth’s two Golden Jubilee Bentley state limousines.

Second Answer: According to a campaign release, that is the amount of money that former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has added to her campaign coffers today in the form of one large campaign contribution.

Whitman had already dropped a cool $4 million into her own campaign, bringing the total of self-funding to a staggering $19 million. Add to this her impressive haul of $6.7 million from donations and that makes for a lot of green stuff.

Whitman’s wealthy primary opponent, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, has put over $4 million of his own into his campaign account, and raised another $1.2 on top of that.

Before you let these numbers glaze your eyes — based on the net worth of the candidates, and how badly each wants to be Governor of California… Read More

It didn’t take long for split roll property tax advocates to make their way into the headlines. Bottom line–split roll property tax and any similar tinkering with Proposition 13 will kill jobs in California. Below is a recent op ed I wrote for the North County Times on the subject:

Forum: Split-roll property tax proposal a job killer By NATHAN FLETCHER — 75th District assemblyman

In a crisis a lot of new ideas are put on the table. Many of these are welcomed additions to the debate. I’m particularly fond of new ways to make government work better-more accountably, more efficiently, and more transparently. There are some reform proposals that focus on using technology to open up state government for review and reorganization. There are other ideas for structural change-two-year performance-based budgets, term limit changes, instituting a part-time legislature, even calls for a constitutional convention. I have read about some cutting-edge steps to once again make California a competitive place to start and grow a business and to create jobs. All of these ideas have merit… Read More

I’d guess that a few readers of the Flashreport flip straight to the blog page in the morning, me among them. One opinion piece, written by Orange County Congressman Ed Royce, is an example of why the front page is worth reading. Congressman Royce’s column addresses TARP repayments, and the attempt by Congressional Democrats to siphon some of this money off to organizations like ACORN. In effect, this siphoning amounts to patronage for leftist ‘nonprofits’ that are another wing of the Democrat machine… taxpayers paying to help the Democrats maintain a majority. It’s a ‘must read’ – click back to the homepage and rub your eyes on it.… Read More