There’s been no shortage of attempts in recent years in the State Legislature to overhaul Proposition 13—California’s landmark initiative protecting homeowners and small business owners from out of control property taxes.

Multiple bills have taken aim at the proposition, but the most popular among these bills pushes the so-called “split roll” property tax, which would eliminate Prop. 13 protections for job creators but leave them in place for homeowners. This split roll idea is especially favored by lawmakers who are eager to bring more money into state coffers.

Given that California has the highest poverty rate in the nation, it seems a bit out of touch, if not downright greedy, for lawmakers to focus on funding government instead of making sure there are economic opportunities for everyone.

A recent study from Pepperdine University shows that split roll would increase property taxes on businesses by an estimated $6 billion. But the same study also shows that split roll could trigger the loss of nearly 400,000 jobs and cost California’s economy a total of $71.8 billion in output within the first five years.

That $71.8 billion loss would… Read More

Here’s a very interesting website about PRIVATE fire fighting companies in America.

https://www.wildfirex.com/private-firefighting/

Private Firefighting In the U.S. Private firefighting is a rapidly growing industry. Yes, private firefighters make up just 4.3 percent of the nation’s total firefighters, but this is an industry on the verge of catching fire because of a growing trend toward privatization.

According to a 2012 study conducted by market research firm IBISWorld, there are 256 private firefighting companies in the United States — a number that’s expected to grow to more than 320 by 2017. At the same time,the number of firefighters employed by private companies will increase from 16,880 to 27,206.

There was been increased privatization of firefighting efforts by state and local governments as those institutions have struggled with the decline in tax revenue, stressed budgets and caused consolidation of publicly funded fire suppression resources. Between 2009 and 2011, the number of public sector firefighters and first-line… Read More

Would-be reformers have filed an initiative that, if adopted by voters, would make the California Legislature one of the largest – if not the largest – legislative bodies in the world. The Neighborhood Legislature Reform Act (NLRA) would require one Senator for every 10,000 Californians and one Assembly representative for every 5,000. This would mean that the Senate would increase from 40 to 3,850 members while the Assembly would balloon from 80 members to 7,700.

The stated goal of this proposal is to reduce the influence of special interests, make our system more democratic and provide greater access to legislative representatives.

While proponents of NLRA may have their hearts in the right place, the plan raises a number of concerns. Special interests, who spent $48.5 million to lobby in just the first quarter of this year, are not likely to be deterred by the greater numbers of lawmakers. Lobbyists, and those interests which employ them, will still have the capacity to track all the members and, because the numbers will provide a certain amount of anonymity, bribery and influence peddling could very well may be more difficult to detect. On the other… Read More

Below is a pretty good summation of the major potential California tax increases now being proposed by Sacramento politicians. Here’s alinkto even more proposed CA state taxes. And there’s a link below to “Californians AGAINST Higher Taxes” — seeking funds, of course.

While my grassroots taxpayer group San Diego Tax Fighters has joined their coalition opposing this potential avalanche of higher taxes, we take no position on this taxpayer group’s effort vs. other fine tax fighting outfits in our state. This is not a fundraising pitch.

I DO recommend that you not spend much effort writing our politicians about this matter (as the pitch suggests) — their vote (EITHER way) is already pretty much locked in most of the time most of the time. If you write any politico, write a Republican — they sometimes need spine strengthening.

A better option would be letters to the editor, which reach thousands — including the politicians. But clearly we shouldn’t stand idly by while California… Read More

Conservatives on the Irvine City Council have abolished a million dollar business license tax, to reduce the taxes levied on local businesses. This move followed the council’s recent vote overturning the city’s mandated “living wage” ordinance. Mayor Pro-Tem Jeffrey Lalloway authored the issue, with votes in support from council members Christina Shea and Lynn Schott, all Republicans.

While the business tax amounted to… Read More

Last week, Pope Francis called for a cultural revolution to correct what he calls the “structurally perverse” economic system of the rich exploiting the poor that is turning Earth into an “immense pile of filth.” Under the sub-heading “Climate as a common good,” hedisparaged free market principles while indicating “global governance” as a solution to the politically created climate change crisis. The Pope also said that governments should redistribute wealth to the poor, advocating socialism, and he even gave communism a backhanded compliment.

Bishop Marcelo Sorondo, chancellor of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, said it is the pope’s wish to directly influence next year’s crucialUN climate meeting in Paris, when countries will try to conclude 20 years of fraught negotiations with a universal commitment to reduce emissions.

… Read More

Presidential campaigns are unpredictable, as the sudden national debate about the Confederate flag that flies over the South Carolina state capitol demonstrates. At a time when America is threatened by ISIS, expansionist Russia, and China, plus a dreary economy who would have guessed we would be thrust into a discussion of flags and symbols from a long concluded conflict?

Yet, when a story like this makes it into the national headlines there’s a reflexive struggle to define the narrative. Republicans who fail to engage in the debate risk being defined by our opponents – just ask Mitt Romney.

This isa great opportunity to discuss and compare the history of the two political parties. If we’re going to have a debate about history, that’s one our team will win if we have the courage to do so.

First, let’s remind people of how the Republican Party came to be. At its origin, the Republican Party was a single issue party founded on the idea of abolishing slavery across the entire nation. We fielded our first Presidential candidate in 1856 with Californian John Fremont (yes, the city of Fremont, California is named for him). Something of a… Read More

Recently there’s been a nationwide effort to get some overseas manufacturing jobs “reshored” to the United States, apparently with modest success. But California has received only 2.4% of those jobs — a pretty dismal result.

It’s particularly distressing when one considers that CA holds 12.18% of the nation’s population. That means that, per capita, on average the other 49 states got more than 5.5 times the “reshoring” jobs that California received.

http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2015/06/california-attracts-2-4-of-u-s-reshored-jobs/

California Attracts 2.4% Of U.S. Reshored Jobs

By… Read More