The proposal for Universal health care in California has returned.

I am not surprised; liberal Legislators never saw a tax they didn’t like – and universal health care for California comes with a whopping price tag: $42 billion in its first full year of implementation and annual shortfalls of $46 billion thereafter. That’s billions, not millions.

It’s one thing for legislators to carry-on a failed ideas year after year when the analysis shows the legislative idea to be difficult. But when the non-partisan Legislative Analyst Office reports legislation like universal health… Read More

Last Friday March 13th was the deadline day for school districts to issue potential layoff notices to teachers for the next school year.

This early notice date was put into law by the teachers’ union and is now used by the teachers’ union as an excuse to complain about school budgets. In an abundance of caution, districts will issue notices to a number of teachers. The number is not important, but what is important is that these are not pink slips, not actual layoff notices, nor any notice that requires any action. It’s not even close to the private sector where the employer can layoff people with little or no actual notice.

Another teacher union law requires school districts to finalize any actual layoffs by May 15th whether or not they have any idea of what the state budget looks like or what next year’s enrollment might be.

Historically no district with a stable or growing enrollment has laid off any classroom teacher no matter how badly the state budget treated government schools. I would be surprised to hear of any district actually laying off classroom teachers this year either.

But right or wrong I will give… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary… John Fund remembers actor Ron Silver, who passed away yesterday… (We added the photo…)

Silver Was Pure Gold

Actor and liberal-turned-conservative activist Ron Silver knew how to live — and also how to deal courageously with the cancer that claimed his life yesterday at age 62.

When I last saw him at a lunch in New York a few months ago, I asked him how his health was. "Not good," he replied philosophically. "I’m probably not going to make it, but I’ll go down fighting."

Not much you can say to that, except to… Read More

Longtime FR friend penned some exclusive thoughts for FR readers on why he endorsed Meg Whitman for Governor….

As the Governor is out selling Proposition 1A, the tax extension measure with a “spending cap”, it may be time to remind voters of other promises he made them.

Anyone remember Proposition 58? Only 5 years ago. The Governor was touting his post recall plan for California. The budget deficit was ..gasp… over $20 billion.

Prop. 58 along with his economy recovery bond Prop. 57 would restore California to fiscal health.

The Governor got the CRP to support the measure. (CRA did oppose.)

Here is my favorite part from the official ballot argument in favor.

“State government spending in California is out of control. Over the past three years, state spending has significantly exceeded state revenues. Proposition 58 will require the Governor and the California State Legislature to ENACT a BALANCED BUDGET. Right now, the Governor is only required to propose, not enact, a balanced budget. This loophole has led to the huge budget deficits that plague California.

The California Balanced Budget Act:

WILL require a BALANCED BUDGET;

WILL require that

There seems to be a change in public sentiment of late. Perhaps it’s the mind-boggling bailouts, the economic turmoil, the rapacious government power grab, or maybe it’s just the “final straw” in a growing disgust with government overstepping.

Fox New Channel’s Glenn Beck has tapped into this public mood with his clarion call for greater government accountability. His new TV show is garnering huge ratings, evidence that his message is resonating with a significant number of politically-aware Americans. And “tea party” taxpayer revolts are popping up all over the country. Just last weekend over 15,000 people descended upon Fullerton for KFI talk show hosts John and Ken’s tax revolt rally.

This shift in public attitude can best be summed up in The Great Communicator’s first Inaugural Address: “We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people.”

Citizens are tired of answering to government, instead of vice versa. Government has become so abusive of the power granted to it by the people… Read More

LAO’s Announced $8 Billion Shortfall Prompts a "Survey"… Some have asked if the survey question posted yesterday was really meant to solicit responses, or if it was just to make a point? You decide.

The point, of course,is that an adopted State budget is never really a budget if it’s based on faulty expectations, mixed with a puff of smoke and a few mirrors. The legislature and the Governor have proved it twice now in the last five months … same budget, two different votes to pass (the first was an unconstitutional, didn’t get to a 2/3 vote, "get out of town for the holidays" iteration), and it still doesn’tresolve the spending binges of the lastseveral years.

But, whether one wants to join me in being a smart aleck about the truth by weighing in on whether to deem the latest news more appropriate for the "Color me surprised" file or some other title of one’s choice … well, that depends on one’s initiative and… Read More

As I watched Bernie Madoff finally head to prison earlier this week after pleading guilty to one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in history, I couldn’t help but think of the similarities between what Madoff did to his investors and what the Governor and the State Legislature are doing to the taxpayers of this state.

We were told just last week that the largest tax increase in state history was, “a comprehensive solution to the state’s $41.6 billion budget shortfall.” The non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office just announced yesterday that even if the blackmail measure, Proposition 1A, is approved by the voters in May and the state of California gets every dollar of the federal economic stimulus it hopes to get, that California will face an $8 billion deficit through June 2010. In addition, the Legislative Analyst projects continuing deficits of up to $25 billion. What makes this even worse is that the figures don’t take into account the billions more that the state is going to have to pay… Read More