A 2011 Special Election if Brown Wins?

In 2005, I wrote in a document titled, Creating a Business Friendly California, meant to energize the business community: "To achieve a business friendly California, the business community must speak directly to the voters.  We must educate voters on issues of the economy, business, regulations, and taxes. It's not enough to educate the elected policy makers. Voters are the policy makers, themselves, when they vote on initiatives.  We have to show them that a business friendly California is good for everybody."

Finally, such an effort is coming about thanks to the United States Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber issued a report the end of last month on California's economic troubles and offered suggestions on how to turn around our economy. You can find the full report here.

The Chamber plans to back up this report with a media campaign to get the word out along the lines of my proposal from years ago.

California needs high quality jobs, new manufacturing facilities and small business growth. Rational state environmental policy, supported by economic impacts analysis, will help us achieve these goals.

Unfortunately, the state is implementing another expensive environmental program that drags the economy farther down. SB 375, passed into law two years ago, seeks bold greenhouse gas emission reductions by controlling regional planning policies.

As the lead agency, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has been charged with working with Regional Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to determine reasonable and achievable greenhouse gas targets to meet the goals of SB 375. The substantial undertaking started out as a collaborative process but it has turned into a disaster for the economy.

It is no secret that two Texas oil companies have bought their way onto the California ballot in an attempt to undo California's clean energy and clean air standards. The companies bankrolling Proposition 23, Tesoro and Valero, are two of the largest polluters in our state. Their intent: kill California's job-creating clean air and energy standards and cripple their clean-energy competition.

Their campaign, which has received more than 89 percent of its contributions from out of state, deceptively frames Proposition 23 as a "jobs" initiative and uses the word "suspend" rather than repeal. But the trigger for resumption of the law would be when unemployment falls below 5.5 percent for an entire year - something that has happened only three times in 40 years, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office. For any business, Prop 23 would create a climate of uncertainty and cause chaos in the marketplace.

As the recovery begins, albeit fitfully, where can we expect growth in jobs, incomes and, most importantly, middle class opportunities? In the US there are two emerging "new" economies, one largely promoted by the Administration and the other more grounded in longer-term market and demographic forces.

The November election and its subsequent massive expansion of federal power may have determined which regions win the post-bust economy, but the stakes in November are particularly acute for some prime beneficiaries of what could be called the Obama economy: the education lobby, Silicon Valley venture firms, Wall Street, urban land interests and the public sector. All backers of his 2008 campaign, these groups have either reaped significant benefits from the stimulus or have used it to bolster themselves from the worst impact of the recession.

In a sense the Obama policies are designed to overturn the pattern of economic dispersion -towards the exurbs, the south, the intermountain West, and more recently the Plains - that has defined the last half century. The biggest winner, in regional terms, is the Washington area. Even as local governments cut back, the federal establishment continues to swell. Federal employment, excluding the postal service, remains roughly 200,000 larger than in 2008.

You remember the fairy tale ... the little girl visits her grandmother but notices something strange about her ... "What big teeth you have, grandmother."

A Big Bad Wolf has dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother so as to catch her by surprise and devour her.

The backers of Proposition 27 play the Big Bad Wolf in a modern day version of the tale. The politicians behind Prop 27 want to devour the poor voters who think it's a good idea to remove legislators from the obvious self-interest of drawing their own legislative districts.

In their magnificent study about eight centuries of financial folly ("This Time Is Different"), economists Ken Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart lampoon the low level of accuracy with which governments maintain their books: ""Think of the implicit guarantees given to the massive mortgage lenders that ultimately added trillions to the effective size of national debt, the trillions in dollars in off-balance sheet transactions engaged in by the Federal Reserve . . . not to mention unfunded pension and medical liabilities. Lack of transparency . . . is almost comical."

It's also expensive. In a recent study, Alicia Munnell, a member of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors and now director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College cited one example:

"In 1999, the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) reported that assets equaled 128 percent of liabilities, [after which] the California legislature enhanced the benefits of both current and future employees. If CalPERS liabilities had been valued at the riskless rate, the plan would have been only 88 percent funded. An accurate reporting of benefits to liabilities would avoid this type of expansion . . .."

We just celebrated Labor Day, which means you've gotten a dose of boring "state of the labor market" articles and opinions. Alas, this is another one.

The situation on the job front is not good. You probably know that unemployment nationwide was 9.6 percent in August. It was much worse in California at 12.3 percent and in Los Angeles County at 12.4 percent in July. A year earlier, L.A.'s unemployment was 11.9 percent. In other words, it was bad last year and worse this year.

But you may not know that the unemployment rate only tells some of the story. Another part is how many jobs are being created. Or lost.

One of the most famous quotes from the American Revolution was uttered by Sam Adams: "It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." As fiscal conservatives in a fiscally irresponsible state, we at Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association often find ourselves in the minority when trying to advance pro-taxpayer principles in the legislature - especially with our current crop of politicians.

While HJTA may be better known for our initiatives and victories in the courtroom, some might overlook the fact that we also maintain a fulltime lobbying presence in Sacramento. Our top legislative priority every year, of course, is stopping the direct attacks on Prop 13.

As part of the California Constitution, however, Prop 13 cannot be amended or repealed by statute - only by a proposed constitutional amendment emanating from the legislature with a two-thirds vote of each house. While fiscal conservatives in the Legislature don't come close to a majority, they do constitute (barely) more than a third. Because of that, and because hundreds of thousands of our members sign petitions to their legislators demanding that Prop 13 be protected, we have successfully stopped these efforts to weaken or repeal California's most popular law.

Jerry Brown released his first official campaign television ad and it contains a decidedly Republican theme. Following a revisit of his governorship by an announcer, Brown comes on the screen to tell voters three points of his platform: We must live within our means; power must move to the local level; and no new taxes without voter approval.

Of course, there are many Republicans who want no new taxes -- period! But, generally, for years Republicans have emphasized the points expressed by Brown.

However, Brown adopting these themes raises some questions in the current political environment.

Recently, Orange County's biggest private employer has been in the spotlight over a suit filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by Imane Boudlal, a restaurant hostess working at Disneyland citing religious discrimination. Boudlal, who has worked at Disneyland for the past two years, recently obtained her U.S. citizenship, and began wearing a hijab last week to work. She was asked to remove the headscarf or work in another job at Disneyland. She refused and went home.

Every business has the right to create guidelines, policies and regulations to better serve its customers, in addition to better protecting themselves. Companies like Disney work hard to ensure their products and services continuously meet certain standards, meet their mission and the brand that generations have grown to love over the last 55 years.

On key issues, Opinion will present a variety of timely opinions in a pro/con format to give readers a quick cross-section of viewpoints.