Today Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association appropriately demanded an apology from Assembly Speaker Karen Bass after she called Californians who oppose tax increases, in a word, "terrorists.

Speaker Bass used that word several times during an interview with the Los Angeles Times. She said that Republican members of the legislature, "operate under a terrorist threat" and that they are "terrorized" against voting for [taxes]."

Bass mentioned the recall effort being mounted against Assemblyman Anthony Adams by concerned citizens, and went on to say, "I don’t know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist." Coupal (pictured) condemned these statements as outrageous — saying, "For the State of California’s Speaker of the Assembly to call the people of California ‘terrorists’ is despicable. For… Read More

There are a lot of measures that are used in computing the viability and health of a political campaign. Given the enormous costs associated with campaigning in a state as large as California, one of the most critical metrics is a candidates ability to raise money. Yesterday marked the end of a six-month reporting period — candidates for office, in a few weeks, will have to file official statements noting what they have raised and spent from January 1 through June 30.

Meg Whitman’s campaign for Governor today announced that they have raised a staggering $6.5 million dollars in just five months — a huge financial outpouring of support for her candidacy. This does not include the more than $4 million of her own personal funds that she has given to her campaign, bringing her fundraising total for the period to above $10 million.

It will be some time before official reports will be available for review and analysis — to get more insights into who Whitman’s donors are, and… Read More

The big question looming out there for vendors and people who receive money from the state, and for the record way too many people do, is who will accept IOU’s?

Banks haven’t made up there minds. They may be waiting to see what the interest rate will be. Golden State Credit Union will take the warrants; they after all cater to government employees.

I have co-authored AB 1506 that would allow the recipients of IOUs from the state to use the warrants as payment for state services.

Today, I attended a press conference organized by Assembly Bill 1506 Author Assemblyman Joel Anderson.

If IOU’s are going to be issued by the state, the state should take them as payments. The DMV should take them, California State universities should take them, the Board of Equalization should take them etc…

If California wants banks to take them, shouldn’t California government do the same?

Think of the all the interest California will save and besides they are safe bet, right?… Read More

Today Governor Schwarzenegger was "channeling" Republican Assemblyman Bill Emmerson who has for quite some time now been beating the drum of stopping all other legislative work and focusing exclusively on the budget shortfall (Emmerson had a column on this topic just last weekend published in the Riverside Press Enterprise). Needless to say, until now, Emmerson’s been on a lonely quest — as his legislative colleagues have not been in a hurry to push thousands of pieces through the process while state government is literally going broke. Well, if Emmerson could have hand-picked one politician in the Capitol to agree with him, it would have been Arnold Schwarzenegger. I’m sure Assemblyman Emmerson was smiling as he watched this clip from the Governor’s press conference just a couple of hours ago. We’re smiling — because we agree with Emmerson and Schwarzenegger — it’s time to stop all non-budget related matters, and focus exclusively on a comprehensive solution to the massive shortfall of over $26… Read More

At 11:30am today, Governor Schwarzenegger held a press conference where he issued a State of Emergency due to the budget impasse, and also has ordered a third non-paid furlough day for each state employee through June 30, 2010. Below is a release put out by the Governor’s office with the details…

Following the legislature’s inability to pass a comprehensive solution to solve California’s entire $24.3 billion deficit, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today proclaimed a fiscal emergency and called a Proposition 58 legislative special session to address this emergency. Additionally, the Governor exercised his executive authority to save cash for vital state functions and services by ordering three furlough days every month.

“Though the legislature failed to… Read More

"We have that duty to make sure that no one starves," state Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach) said as she pleaded with GOP senators for their votes.

And thusly, the stupidity and ignorance continues……….

I don’t know anyone starving in California. If there are needs, they are being met by family, social service agencies or some form of government. If Jenny Oropeza really believes that this budget is about people starving, she is just dumb.

Even with no money, Democrats don’t get it – because they have no purpose in life other than to spend. Without money to spend, they might as well go home.

Much is made of "outreach" programs to meet politlical objectives. Republicans have their various outreach programs, which don’t work. The entire Democrat outreach program is spending money. That is all they have to offer. And now that then can’t do it anymore, the are an angry mob prone to say stupid things.

Thanks for the entertainment……….… Read More

I have to admit that I was pretty impressed when I got off of the phone with Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner last Sunday night. When my phone rang, and Poizner was on the other end, I expected to have a chat about his campaign for the GOP Gubernatorial nomination. But actually, he was calling me, in his capacity as Insurance Commissioner, to let me know about a bold new policy that he would be announcing on Monday, launching a funding probe from the Department of Insurance targeting investments made by insurance companies in Iran.

"Jon, using my authority as Insurance Commissioner, I will be announcing tomorrow a terror funding probe targeting direct and indirect investments by insurers in Iran."

As I am sure that many FR… Read More

That "mega" number (my eyes glaze over) is now the size of the projected shortfall in the state’s 2009-10 fiscal year budget.

It’s time for the Democrats in the State Legislature to step up and deliver a plan to deal with this shortfall. Every minute, hour and day that goes by without a comprehensive solution, the more difficult it will be to resolve this shortfall.

Hopeful the resolve of Republicans to not allow a piecemeal approach to solving this shortfall is very, very clear to Capitol Democrats. Republicans are committed and united to protecting taxpaying Californians from being hit with higher taxes to resolve this problem. Republicans understand that a piece-meal approach to trying to resolve this shortfall, passing cuts a few billion at a time will eventually lead to a time, mid-fiscal year, when Democrats can simply stop agreeing to cuts at all — leaving our state more vulnerable to a play to raise taxes. Especially since the ability to implement cuts becomes more dubious once you are well into the fiscal year. Funny how that works — cuts take considerable time to implement, while tax increases seem to go into… Read More