Yesterday the Governor announced the twelve person membership of a special state task force that is being charged with reviewing the way that the tax system works in California, with the idea of recommending an overhaul to try and move away from the current volatile system where tax revenues are very mercurial, shooting up and down depending on external factors.

We’ll be writing more next week about this Commission, but FR reached out to one of California’s leading tax policy experts, Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, for his reaction to the formal formation of the panel.

Yesterday the Governor announced the twelve person membership of a special state task force that is being charged with reviewing the way that the tax system works in California, with the idea of recommending an overhaul to try and move away from the current volatile system where tax revenues are very mercurial, shooting up and down depending on external factors.

We’ll be writing more next week about this Commission, but FR reached out to one of California’s leading tax policy experts, Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, for his reaction to the formal formation of the panel.

Yesterday I blogged in response to the Governor’s throwing rocks at Republican legislators over their resolute stand against rewarding the chronic overspending with tax increases. The Governor’s office responded here. I figured that I should, in turn, respond to the Governor… So read on… Numbers can be manipulated all you want to make the Governor seem like he is a fiscal champion, but the fact remains that spending has increased by over 30 percent under Schwarzenegger, from $78.6 billion when the Governor took office to $103.3 billion today. (See the Legislative Analyst’s Historical Expenditure Chart here.)

We know that… Read More

Later today, State Senator Jeff Denham will formally announce his candidate to be the next Lieutenant Governor of California, according to sources close to the FlashReport. Denham has become rather legendary within GOP donor and activist circles because of the failed attempt to recall him from office because of his leadership in opposing new taxes to resolve the state’s fiscal woes. As someone who follows Golden State politics closely, I welcome Denham into this race as his moxie, and straight-forward style are much desired with a party in need of solid representatives, who will clearly articulate the differences between Democrats and Republicans.

Denham is a tough and aggressive campaigner who has carried his huge Democratic-leaning Senate district – which spans the Central Valley to the Monterey Coast – 3 times. Denham was first elected in 2002 and re-elected in a landslide in 2006. As I mentioned above, earlier this year,… Read More

Later today, State Senator Jeff Denham will formally announce his candidate to be the next Lieutenant Governor of California, according to sources close to the FlashReport. Denham has become rather legendary within GOP donor and activist circles because of the failed attempt to recall him from office because of his leadership in opposing new taxes to resolve the state’s fiscal woes. As someone who follows Golden State politics closely, I welcome Denham into this race as his moxie, and straight-forward style are much desired with a party in need of solid representatives, who will clearly articulate the differences between Democrats and Republicans.

Denham is a tough and aggressive campaigner who has carried his huge Democratic-leaning Senate district – which spans the Central Valley to the Monterey Coast – 3 times. Denham was first elected in 2002 and re-elected in a landslide in 2006. As I mentioned above,… Read More

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner this morning is announcing a group of new legislative endorsements in his campaign for Governor. They are State Senators Dennis Hollingsworth and Mimi Walters, and State Assemblymembers Martin Garrick, Diane Harkey, Jim Nielson and Mike Duvall.

By my count, this brings Poizner to the point of having over 70% of the sitting Republicans in the legislature as backers of his bid — pretty impressive, I think.… Read More

SEIU’s Plan for Belt-tightening (For You, Not SEIU)

… Read More

Earlier today Governor Schwarzenegger held a press conference, blasting state legislators for not resolving the budget crisis. We’re on our way to "fiscal armageddon" he said, announcing that the state’s fiscal hole is getting deeper by about $40 million each and every day that goes by without a resolution. Yeah, we get that.

But the Governor is living in a very simplistic world if he thinks that, from his first floor conference room, he can blast away indiscriminately at "the legislature" and expect that this is going to resolve the substantial differences that divide Democrats who want to raise taxes, and Republicans who — don’t, and won’t.

Frankly, I don’t see where the Governor is really accomplishing much of anything. He was clearly elected with a mandate from the voters to oppose new taxes, and yet has thrown that to the wind as he has developed some sort of "Solomon like" simplistic view of resolving the state’s fiscal woes — "let’s figure out the level of the program and cut half of it,… Read More