Today in the Assembly Transportation Committee will be the first appearance in the lower chamber this session of a car tax bill, A.B. 8 (Perea) that, if ultimately signed into law by Governor Brown, would hit every car owner in the Golden State with 9 years of additional car taxes totaling over $2.3 billion.

In the strongest possible turns, I urge all legislators in the Assembly Transportation Committee to oppose this bad bill. But I especially want to emphasize to Republicans what a terrible piece of legislation this happens to be — A.B. 8 is bad public policy and it is bad politics for Republicans.

A.B. 8 – Very Bad Public Policy

Californians are amongst the highest taxes people in America. After the new taxes implemented after the passage of Proposition 30 last November, virtually no other people in America are burdened more by their state government than the people of California. In 2007 the legislature passed what were at-the-time characterized as “temporary fees” on car owners (a whole assortment of them) — which are due to expire at the end of… Read More

Abel Maldonado is running for Governor. Groan.

Only a few years ago as a state senator, Maldonado, a Republican, sold taxpayers down the river when he provided the key vote for the $13 billion tax increase of then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He did this after promising he would never increase taxes.

As a reward, Schwarzenegger appointed Maldonado to the vacant seat of lieutenant governor. But Abel seemed unable to acquire the confirmation of his colleagues. He’s not exactly liked in political circles. He finally prevailed, and settled in comfortably to the most useless office in the state.

But someone likes the sound of “Gov. Maldonado.”

“Charles T. Munger Jr. confirmed Friday that he plans to contribute an undisclosed amount to a committee Maldonado is opening to explore a gubernatorial bid, but said he is refraining from endorsing any of… Read More

Do you keep all of your money in cash? In your mattress, or perhaps in the secret compartment in your bedroom floor, revealed only when you pull back the carpeting from the wall? Of course not, undoubtedly you, like everyone else, keep yourr money in a bank (or similar financial institution). Why do you do this? No doubt for two key reasons — convenience and security. You want to be able to write checks, use a debit card, and all of things, right? And of course nothing symbolizes “secure” in our minds more than a bank vault — your money is safe, right? Heck, if anything happens with your money, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has you covered!

Now put yourself at the helm of a business. Small, medium or large, it doesn’t matter — profit or nonprofit. The same principles apply. You would no more keep your companies assets, in cash, in the office, than you would keep your own money at your house. How would you feel if one day somebody in an obscure foreign country hacked into your bank, and took your company’s money? How would you feel if your friendly neighborhood bank told you that it wasn’t… Read More

Did you know that the California legislature is looking to erode the quality of everyone’s access to healthcare, in their rush to implement Obamacare? Read on…

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama’s health reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – better known as “Obamacare,” celebrated its third birthday.

For some people, realizing that it’s already been three years since President Obama went before the American people to announce that health care reform in the United States was no longer “an unmet promise” but rather had become the “law of the land,” may cause them to wonder where the time has gone.

For others, like those who have truly been paying attention, however, a better question might be whether the Obama’s promise was one we ever really wanted to see fulfilled in the first place.

The reason for such a question has to do with the fact that, three years after the bill was signed into law, the American public is only now beginning to understand the wide array of unintended consequences that this misguided reform effort will have on our nation’s health care… Read More

How convenient. Instead of focusing on criminals released the last two years under AB 109 and now committing new crimes, the California Legislature is diverting citizens’ attention by taking up gun control. AB 109 was the prison “diversion” law that dumped thousands of criminals from state prisons onto local jails, many subsequently being released into the general public.

A hearing in the Assembly Public Safety committee Tuesday advanced the diversion while making the majority Democrats seem “tough on crime.”

The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence was one group that testified at Tuesday’s hearing. It advocates more gun control, while saying, “We all deserve to live in communities free from the fear and threat of gun violence.”

For a group to make such a definitive statement about public safety, there is oddly nothing on its website… Read More

Caltrans is an agency in trouble. The most recent buffoonery involves putting California motorists at risk, with the 30 broken bolts discovered on the newly renovated San Francisco Bay Bridge. And apparently Caltrans knew about this.

A recently released report from the California League of Cities , California State Association of Counties and other transportation organizations found only 56 percent of California’s local streets and roads were deemed to be in “good” condition, and 49 of the state’s 58 counties were rated “At Risk” or in “Poor’ condition.

“By ‘streets and roads,’ the report is also referring to bridges and essential components like sidewalks, storm drains, curbs and traffic signs,” the AllGov… Read More

I grew up in Los Angeles. My parents still live in the same home in which I was raised on the Westside. I have an affinity for the city that was my home for nearly half of my life. After watching with gross fascination for eight years as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has diminished the City of the Angels, both with his embrace of liberal public policies as well his fair share of scandals, I was ready for a new mayor, one that could lead the city back from the brink.

I endorsed Republican Kevin James in his bid for Mayor, penning a full-throated column in support of him on this website. On issue after issue that matters to the fiscal well being of the second largest city in our nation, James took the strong stands for fiscal restraint, budget reform, pension reform and more. I don’t live in Los Angeles anymore, but my folks do and they voted for James. Alas, he fell far short of what he needed to make the runoff, and the candidacy of Kevin James was no more, and the hope for sanity in city government faded with his departure from the… Read More

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

Contrary to a common misconception, it was not Charles Duell, the Commissioner of the US patent office, who said this back in 1899. According toPatentlyO.com, and a host of other debunking sources online, this line was actually part of a parody that appeared in an 1899 edition of Punch Magazine. But it was a common sentiment of that era.

Over a century later, with innovations in recent years that were entirely unimaginable back in the great era of steel and steam, we might be hesitant to think everything that can be invented has been invented. But reputable economists are on hand to diminish the potential of information technology to continue to yield advances in productivity –Robert Gordonof Northwestern University, for example, “downplays the role of computer technology in the economic growth of the latter 20th century and questions the actual productivity of such technological… Read More