“The core reason [Proposition 30] brought people together was a belief in schools and universities and the capacity of government to make wise investments that benefit all of us.” San Jose Mercury News, November 6, 2012.

The above quote well summarizes the hue and cry made to the voters by Governor Brown to convince them to approve two “temporary” tax increases a little over a year ago. At some events, the Governor even brought along Sutter, California’s beloved “First Dog,” to convince voters to tax themselves, even though California already has some of the highest taxes in the nation. The voters, intent on protecting public education and trusting promises that the tax increases would only be temporary, approved Proposition 30.

Now the Legislative Analyst is projecting a $5.6 billion surplus for the coming budget year, significantly more than state financial experts predicted. We are all grateful that schools will stay open and those in need will continue to be served, but there are other priorities that the Legislature seems slow, or even unwilling, to address. Certainly, more revenue will make crafting a budget easier, but at… Read More

Opponents of the push for a heavily subsidized downtown Sacramento basketball arena are closer to forcing key city insiders to tell what they know about how much taxpayers actually will have to pay for the project.

Last week,Sacramento Superior Court Judge Eugene Balononissued a tentative ruling in the lawsuit targeting the arena deal orchestrated by Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star. It supported petitioners’ requests that they be allowed to depose Sacramento Councilman Kevin McCarty and Sacramento Economic Development Director Jim Rhinehartabout undisclosed dealings between city officials and the new Kings ownership group to help it buy the team.

The Sacramento Investor Group,led by tech entrepreneur… Read More

Today the following piece, authored by yours truly, appeared at the Human Events website…

Billions of people would like to live in America.

At this moment some 4 million people are patiently following the rules, filling out the paperwork, paying the fees, and getting interviews in order to get their chance to immigrate to America legally.

These 4 million, however, have no interest group supporting their plight. Aliens who cut in line are depriving millions of other people of their dream. Most of those legal immigrants are people of color.

Not answered is a fundamental injustice.

What does… Read More

Public employee unions own Sacramento.

To be more specific — public employee unions spent vast sums of money in political campaigns, almost exclusively for Democrats — and in doing so have succeeded in electing super-majorities in the State Senate and the State Assembly who will do their bidding. Oh yes, they also are the biggest funders of statewide officeholders — most notably Governor Jerry Brown.

The iron-lock that the unions have on the legislature, from time to time, is highlighted when the unions issue a death sentence for legislation that is just common sense, but not in their world where they can order bills… Read More

Several months ago my brother-in-law, a High School History teacher, was explaining to me the frustrations he has felt over the past few years dealing with the teachers union. Like many Republican teachers he and my sister, also a high school teacher, routinely saw money deducted from their pay and given to political causes with which they disagreed. Since our casual conversation he found the California Teacher Freedom Project through the California Public Policy Center and was asked to describe his experience in a column. The California Teacher Freedom Project has become a great resource for teachers who find themselves in a similar situation.

Below is the column that was published in the Ventura County Star by my brother-in-law Gabriel Enriquez on January 5th:

Teachers Pay to Protect Sex Offenders over Child Safety

In 2012 the California Assembly rejected a bill to give school boards the final authority to dismiss teachers accused of “serious and egregious” conduct, including abusing a child with sex, drugs, or violence. This proposal came after LAUSD agreed to pay teacher,… Read More

Governor Jerry Brown’s new budget proposes an additional $10 billion for K-14 education, but he also wants public school districts to increase and improve services for low-income students, foster youth, and other at-risk children. While commendable, there is bill in the State Assembly that seeks to address the needs of some of these same students in a much different and more innovative way.

AB 943, the Education Investment Incentives Act authored by Assembly Member Brian Nestande (R-Palm Desert), would increase educational opportunities for at-risk children by giving parents greater school choice and by improving the quality of education in low-income areas. Under the bill, corporations would be allowed to claim a tax credit for charitable contributions to education scholarship organizations (ESOs) that fund scholarships for school children. The scholarships would provide tuition or fee assistance for children with special needs and for foster youth to attend private schools that address their specific learning situations. These scholarships could also be used to cover transportation costs to attend a qualified public, charter or private school.

Arizona enacted… Read More

Shortly after Jerry Brown was first elected governor, nearly 40 years ago, he famously said, “This is an era of limits and we all had better get used to it.”

In keeping with this theme, it is now taxpayers who look at Governor Brown’s proposed 2014-15 budget with reduced expectations. In fairness, there are aspects of the budget plan that taxpayers can endorse. The budget reflects at least some measure of fiscal restraint and austerity. Brown’s desire for no new taxes,… Read More

I would characterize my relationship with longtime newspaper columnist and now Sacramento Bee Editorial Page Editor Dan Morain as a good one. I appreciate him for his willingness to take on anyone or anything if he smells a rat. He is also an exceptional writer. I think he appreciates me for my candor and my consistency. We disagree mightily on a number of policy areas — but that is to be expected since he part of the media’s liberal elite (Dan LOVES it when I generalize about him – not). Yesterday he had a column in the Bee entitled, Missteps on candidate questionnaires can cost elections, in which Dan offers up a shellacking of special interest groups, especially public employee unions, for their lengthy and specific candidate questionnaires, and takes a big issue with the fact that they are all filled out in secret — the public has no idea about what commitments or promises have been made by the people before them on the ballot. He does note an exception, which is the Americans for Tax Reform No Tax Pledge. In the second paragraph of his column… Read More