Come Hell or High-water Ron George likes getting his way. Whether it isre-defining marriage to his liking, ignoring previous decisions to get the parental consent result he wanted, violating private property rights or religious rights, Ron George and the Imperial Court he runs gets his way.

Now, George through the Judicial Council is poised to get his way with courthouses and a 10 billion dollar revenue bond through SB 1407.

SB 1407 raises fees on all kinds of court filings including parking tickets, family court filings, traffic violations and attending traffic school in order to get 5 billion dollars worth of money for courthouse construction.

Whats wrong with that? Lots of reasons.

Why are courthouses getting special budgetary treatment over other budgetary items? Shouldn’t the General fund make them a priority?Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association thinks so, they oppose the bill.

Maybe we could re- allocate a mere $500 million a year and not pay billions in interest. It takes 10 billion in fees to get 5 billion in buildings.

This is an end run around the people of California that rejected courthouse bonds in the past. An end… Read More

The current occupant of the Capitol’s smallest legislative office welcomes Assemblywoman Parra to "the doghouse" (which is the nickname for the smallest office in the building).… Read More

Veteran FlashReport leaders are quite familiar with the writings of Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Weintraub. I have actually known Dan for almost two decades, going back to when he actually worked for the Orange County Register. Dan’s insightful and inciteful columns are always great reading and we almost always provide FR readers to links to his regular columns in the Bee on our main page daily news links. In addition to being a recognized columnist who has an important impact on policy and politics in the Golden State, Dan (pictured) was truly a pioneer in launching his Insider blog on the Sacramento Bee website years ago — serving as an inspiration to many of us who followed him.

In June, I had a chance to sit down with Dan in Sacramento, and he enthusiastically shared with me that he would be spearheading a new endeavor for the Sacramento Bee called The Conversation. At the time, I told him that once it was up and… Read More

Veteran FlashReport leaders are quite familiar with the writings of Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Weintraub. I have actually known Dan for almost two decades, going back to when he actually worked for the Orange County Register. Dan’s insightful and inciteful columns are always great reading and we almost always provide FR readers to links to his regular columns in the Bee on our main page daily news links. In addition to being a recognized columnist who has an important impact on policy and politics in the Golden State, Dan (pictured) was truly a pioneer in launching his Insider blog on the Sacramento Bee website years ago — serving as an inspiration to many of us who followed him.

In June, I had a chance to sit down with Dan in Sacramento, and he enthusiastically shared with me that he would be spearheading a new endeavor for the Sacramento Bee called The Conversation. At the time, I told him that once it was up and… Read More

Democrats are actually counting the days since the budget was supposed to be approved. Who cares?

Not real people. Not the producers. Not the private sector workers. Not families who want to be left alone. Not thosewho find government a busy -body-nanny-state-regulators.

Only those on the take. Those who take state pay checks. And, they should be comfortable waiting. After all one of the key reasons for the massive hemorrhage of red ink, aregovernment unions greed in fleecing… Read More

In my haste to post on Big 5 meeting below, I erroneously said that the Governor was pushing an INCOME tax. That is an error. I meant to say SALES tax. But to be honest, exactly what taxes the Governor was advocating in the meeting is assumed on my part — it’s not specified in Villines’ comments.… Read More

Update: 7:15pm: In my haste to post on Big 5 meeting below, I erroneously said that the Governor was pushing an INCOME tax. That is an error. I meant to say SALES tax. But to be honest, exactly what taxes the Governor was advocating in the meeting is assumed on my part — it’s not specified in Villines’ comments- Flash

"Post-Partisan" Arnold has become a royal pain in the celebrity posterior. Post-Partisan Arnold isn’t the guy who we re-elected in 2006 who ran on an emphatic platform of never raising taxes. Post-Partisan Arnold is the guy that the Governor of the 2006 campaign trail "morphed" into after he was re-elected. Post-Partisan Arnold has no "team" — he is a team of one.

Today the Governor hosted a meeting of the Big 5 (The Governor and the four legislative leaders) in his office to see where everyone stands on budget negotiations. Apparently, according to the Sacramento Bee story covering the meeting, Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines had to walk out of the… Read More

I’m not sure if the Governor’s pain medication for his recent knee surgery impaired his decision-making, when he picked up the phone and called into the John and Ken radio show yesterday, and defended his discussions with state legislators and his proposal to increase the state sales tax as a means to get the votes to pass a state budget.

The show is absolutely fabulous political theatre — with the Governor trying to defend the tax increase and his battle against global warming — while he is rather mercilously strafed by John and Ken.

There’s one point in the interview where they ask, "Are you still on anethesia?" The point I made above.

Here is the link to the John and Ken Show website. Click on the 8/18 3 p.m. hour broadcast to listen.

While the Governor’s call into the show starts around the 12 minute mark in the show, he follows a GREAT interview with FR friend Assembly… Read More