If it is indeed true that the Governor has proposed a "temporary" increase in the State sales tax to slap a band – aid on the disastrous budget problem he allowed to be created, then what is left of the GOP in California, the last remnant, can just kiss itself goodbye.

Iwould suggest the State GOPeither calla meeting of the Party’s Executive to immediately denounce the proposal, or just fold up. If we can’t be on the record on the right side of an easy issue, it needs to ask itself why it exists at all.

First, the economy cannot handle any further increases in the tax burden for citizens. Second, keeping taxes low is (was?) a bedrock position of the Republican Party.

If Villines and Cogdill can’t stop this train from leaving the station, and I think they can stop it, then the Party will be even more decimated than it is now, as people continue to leave it in droves over abandonment of simple, small government principles… Read More

The plastic bag tax keeps rolling along in the legislature. Meredith Turney first noted it for us in March. In April Jon Fleischman offered a commentaryon the subject, hi-liting the little matter of “greenwashing,” in which both consumers and policy-makers are hoodwinked into supposedly eco-friendly goals to the benefit and profit of the growing green industry.

Since then, Lloyd Levine’s AB 2058 has passed the Assembly, 44-33, and found its way to Senate Appropriations for a slated hearing this week. In essence, the bill would require proof that a grocery store is recycling a whopping 70 percent of all its plastic carry out bags, or require a charge to the customer of at least 25 cents per bag. The plastic bag police will be the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

A website has been set up in opposition to the bill, with radio ads running in various parts of the… Read More

In the Governor Schwarzenegger’s signing of Asssemblyman Tony Mendoza’s paternalism-on-steroids bill too ban transfats, I hereby surrender my free will and declare my dependence on state government.

After all, if the state government is going to plan my diet and decide what I can and cannot eat, then what aspect of my life is truly beyond their scope?

So the Governor wants the government to be my personal trainer. Fine. Let’s go all the way and turn the running of my life over to government. I want the state to do my grocery shopping, so that my cupboard is only stocked with healthy foods. And I’ll need a government driver, to prevent my from losing control and rolling through McDonald’s.

I’ll need a wake-up call from the state to make sure I don’t oversleep, and a go-to-bed call so that I don’t stay up too late watching TV. The New England Journal of Medicine says a good night’s sleep is vital to my health, you know — and a healthier me means a healthier California.

In between, I’ll need a government minder to schedule my… Read More

In the Governor Schwarzenegger’s signing of Asssemblyman Tony Mendoza’s paternalism-on-steroids bill too ban transfats, I hereby surrender my free will and declare my dependence on state government.

After all, if the state government is going to plan my diet and decide what I can and cannot eat, then what aspect of my life is truly beyond their scope?

So the Governor wants the government to be my personal trainer. Fine. Let’s go all the way and turn the running of my life over to government. I want the state to do my grocery shopping, so that my cupboard is only stocked with healthy foods. And I’ll need a government driver, to prevent my from losing control and rolling through McDonald’s.

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

Yesterday Congress adjourned without taking any action on energy policy. While not surprising, it’s really a shame for a lot of reasons. Some reasons we hear a lot about. Some we don’t.

For example, when the price of gasoline was only $1.25 a gallon, federal and state governments had no problems raising gas taxes. But now that fuel prices are up, revenue shortfalls caused by decreased gasoline demand, combined with poor energy policy, is contributing to a severe shortfall in highway funds. An L.A. Times report from July 21 gives an overview of the problem.

The President’s and Congress’ budget offices agree that the Federal Highway Account is projected to have a negative balance as early as 2009 or as late as 2011, respectively.

This particular government-related problem, among many we’re seeing in a downturned economy, will impact our ability to build transportation infrastructure in California in the next several years and perhaps beyond. That means building fewer roads, highways and interchanges.

About half of the road and… Read More

Yesterday Congress adjourned without taking any action on energy policy. While not surprising, it’s really a shame for a lot of reasons. Some reasons we hear a lot about. Some we don’t.

For example, when the price of gasoline was only $1.25 a gallon, federal and state governments had no problems raising gas taxes. But now that fuel prices are up, revenue shortfalls caused by decreased gasoline demand, combined with poor energy policy, is contributing to a severe shortfall in highway funds. An L.A. Times report from July 21 gives an overview of the problem.

The President’s and Congress’ budget offices agree that the Federal Highway Account is projected to have a negative balance as early as 2009 or as late as 2011, respectively.

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

Earlier this week, San Francisco Federalist Society President David DeGroot penned an Open Letter to Senator Boxer in the Daily Journal urging her to let Jim Rogan’s Judicial Nomination go forward.

FOCUS & FORUM • Jul. 30, 2008 Blocking Judge’s Nomination Puts Boxer’s Reputation at Risk

FORUM COLUMN

By David A. DeGroot This is a direct plea to Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Senator, you have always had guts and have a record of taking controversial stands. I urge you to recognize that same characteristic in Judge James Rogan and allow his nomination to the federal district court in Southern California to proceed to a Senate vote.

To your credit, you and Sen. Dianne Feinstein have had a productive relationship with President Bush on the appointment of district court judges. Since 2001, you and Feinstein have worked with the

I have chosen not to comment on this year’s budget discussions to this point because I was thinking what is the point? Very few people listen, and those that do have already made up their minds. I have grown frustrated, however, at the lack of information presented in the debates on the budget, and since more information is better than less, I figured what the heck? Maybe somebody will get something from this comment.

I joined the Legislature in 1992, in middle of a budget debacle. Total general fund spending in the 1991-92 budget, which was in effect when I took office: $42.1 billion. The problem was that the spending plan called for approximately $46 billion in spending, and supposedly had a tax increase of $7 billion to cover the revenue "shortfall" (as they call it in government, as opposed to referring to it as it really is a "spending splurge"). Net effect of the tax increase, revenues fell in the 1992-93 budget from $42.1 billion to $40.9 billion as spending kept going up. Democrats called for another tax increase to cover this out of control spending. Republicans stood strong to allow the 1991 tax increase to roll off in… Read More