Fox and Hounds Daily Says Goodbye
With this article, we end publication of Fox and Hounds Daily. It has been a satisfying 12½ year run. When we opened in May 2008, our site was designed to offer an opportunity to those who wished to engage in public debate on many issues, especially in politics and business, but found it difficult to get placed in newspaper op-ed pages.
Co-publishers Tom Ross, Bryan Merica and I have kept F&H going over this time investing our own time, funding, and staff help. Last year at this time we considered closing the site, however with an election on the horizon we decided to keep F&H going through the election year. With the election come and gone, and with no sense of additional resources, we have decided to close the site down.
Fox and Hounds will live on, at least, with my articles collected in the California State Library.
On a personal note, I have spent over 40 years in California policy and politics. There have been some incredible high moments and some difficult low points. It pains me that politics too often is a blood sport, frequently demonizing the motives of opponents and using the legal system as a weapon in public discourse. At Fox & Hounds, we tried to adhere to the practice of giving all a voice in the debate, yet keep the commentaries civil and avoided personal attacks.
F&H offered the opportunity to publish different perspectives (even ones that criticized my writings!). We had success as indicated by the Washington Post twice citing Fox and Hounds Daily one of the best California political websites and many other positive affirmations and comments received over the years.
Tom, Bryan and I want to thank our many readers and writers for being part of our journey. The publishers of Fox and Hounds Daily believe that we added value to California and its people. We hope you agree.
California Job Seekers Per Job Opening in 2014
As we note from time to time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) provides rich material to understand the current and emerging job world in the United States and California.
In the past few years, we have drawn on JOLTS data relating to the enormous number of job openings on any given day (over 400,000 openings in California on an average day in December 2013), as well as the enormous number of Hires (over 450,000 Hires and an equal number of Separations in California in December 2013).
The State’s Rising Dough
The Legislative Analyst’s Office released its look at February revenues yesterday, and found quite a bit more in the piggy-bank than expected. “In total, the preliminary tax agency data indicates that overall PIT collections for February 2014 (all funds) were $2.07 billion, orabout $700 million (52 percent) above the administration’s projections. For the 2013-14 fiscal year to date, this would mean that PIT collections are beating the administration’s January budget projections by about $650 million (1.7 percent).”
Here is the chart of 2013-14 cash flow at January proposal, which projected personal income tax revenue at $64.287 billion, which accounts for 64.2% of the state’s anticipated revenue. This revenue projection for the “current year” was increased in the “budget year” (2014-15) proposed budget released in January by $3.46 billion. The LAO’s November forecast pegged PIT at $66.002 billion, or $1.715 billion above the governor’s budget (plus an additional $200m in sales and corporate taxes). To achieve this, personal income tax revenues need to be 3.3% above the Governor’s January projections in the last four months of the year.
Same Old Story with a New Chapter
Recently, I wrote about a story we’ve all heard before: another lawmaker proposing an oil severance tax. It’s a tax that will be ultimately passed on to consumers through higher gas prices as well as higher costs for any other goods or services. It would also result in the loss of thousands of jobs.
Now a coalition of businesses, taxpayers and consumers called “Californians Against Higher Oil Taxes,” has launched to defend taxpayers from higher prices and job loss. The group is fighting to ensure history repeats itself and that this idea is once again defeated.
Their new website, www.StopTheOilTax.com, has a wealth of information about the impact of the oil severance tax and how you can get involved with the effort.
Is the War Against E-Cigs About Loss of Tax Revenue?
When is a stroller a bicycle? When that stroller is in West Hollywood, where any human-powered, wheeled vehicle must yield to pedestrians on sidewalks.
Although electronic smoking devices are no more cigarettes than strollers are bicycles, the City of Los Angeles is moving to reclassify vaporizers as tobacco products that cannot be used indoors, at restaurants or in public parks. Mayor Eric Garcetti now has ten days to decide whether a product that contains no tobacco whatsoever should be regulated as a tobacco product.
There’s no debating that smoking tobacco is so bad for people’s health that society has decided to regulate when and where people can smoke. If the Los Angeles City Council has its way, doing something that vaguely looks like smoking a cigarette will be off-limits wherever smoking is prohibited.
Secretary of State Debate Kicks off Election Season
Candidate registration hasn’t closed yet but the first debate in the highly contested Secretary of State race took place yesterday in Los Angeles. It was a relatively genteel affair with candidates agreeing on the need to get more voters to participate in elections and improving technology to advance the state’s democracy – but some political shots were fired.
Independent candidate Dan Schnur challenged the other candidates to help build trust in government by calling for the expulsion from the senate of convicted Senator Rod Wright and indicted Senator Ron Calderon. None of the other candidates took up his challenge.
While championing public financing, former Common Cause official Derek Cressman, a Democrat, managed to slip in a reference to a fine Democratic senator Alex Padilla once faced for an election violation.
Options For Improving Transportation Finances
In two recent articles, I have made the case that transportation finance in California is falling far short of our needs, and that the gas tax, for structural and public policy reasons, is an inadequate source of ongoing investment for roads and highways.
After all, a robust travel network is vital for moving Californians between home, school and work, as well as moving goods and supporting tourism. Even after the internet revolution, physical transportation remains the backbone of the state’s economy.
A unique feature of transportation finance is the potentially close connection between potential new revenue sources and the use of the roads and highways. That is, some of these revenue sources are virtual proxies for the use of the transportation infrastructure, which would make them more akin to fees than to taxes.