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.

Reed’s Pension Measure: Too Toxic for Deep Pockets?

Major newspapers and pundits across the state are reporting Wednesday that San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed has his tin cup out … or as Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters politely puts it: Reed is trying to get “deep-pocketed backers to pony up the billions of dollars – perhaps $10 million-plus – that they would need to qualify the measure and wage a competitive campaign for it.”

Where’s Reed’s money going to come from? So far, Reed has refused to disclose the source of the dark money fueling his campaign, repeatedly dodging the question when pressed by the media in recent radio appearances.

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Bipartisan Effort Would Limit Federal Spying in California

Federal agencies could find it harder to spy on Californians if a new bill proposed this legislative session becomes law.

State Senators Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, and Joel Anderson, R-San Diego, introduced legislation on Monday that would ban state agencies, officials and corporations that provide services to the state from supporting or assisting the federal government to spy or collect data on Californians, unless the government first obtains a warrant. The lawmakers say that they introduced Senate Bill 828 following “the repeated federal admissions of widespread spying on innocent American citizens.”

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Co-Ed Bathroom Referendum Moves Closer to the Ballot

The group pushing the referendum to overturn California’s recently enacted law to open school showers, bathrooms and locker rooms to members of the opposite sex took a huge step forward yesterday when it was announced that a random sample of signatures submitted showed they have collected enough valid signatures to advance to the next stage of the verification process – a full check of every signature submitted.

The leaders behind Privacy for All Students (PFAS) have quite literally been fighting “city hall” from the beginning. Many pundits and media representatives dismissed them outright, saying there was no way that a group relying primarily on volunteers could qualify a referendum in California. After all, it takes over half a million valid signatures to qualify, and they must be collected in about 80 days – a herculean task.

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Is It Going Too Well For Jerry?

As 2014 gets underway, Jerry Brown has succeeded to such a degree politically that he has a problem: things are going too well.

Brown’s political success has been built on political minimalism and diminished expectations. While officially taking on the idea that the state is ungovernable and that the budget is broken, he’s actually embraced both notions, touting the balancing of the budget as having done “the impossible.” He successfully sold temporary taxes as a long-term solution to the state’s problems. He also pushed austerity on an already austere state. The state’s obvious dysfunction allowed him to do this, because things had been so bad for so long that bigger moves seemed imprudent.

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Another Controversial Initiative Summary

Did Attorney General Kamala Harris read the memo supplied by pollsters who conducted a union sponsored poll on the pension reform initiative? As the Sacramento Bee reported last month, the  Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group suggested some messages that would bury the pension reform initiative. The group emphasized that the use of the word “eliminate” in reference to public pensions would be potent in killing the measure. “Note that ‘eliminating’ fosters a visceral negative response from voters,” the memo said.

The Attorney General’s summary of the proposed pension reform initiative begins with the word: “Eliminates” in referring to pension protections.

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Proposition 13 – It’s A Wonderful Life

(Editor’s Note: David R. Doerr recently published a lengthy commentary on Prop 13 in the Cal Tax Report. The following is a summary. To read the full commentary, click here.)

A split roll would mean a return to the unfair ad valorem tax system for locally assessed business real property, improvements and fixtures, including a reintroduction of all the problems associated with that method.

Under an ad valorem assessment system, property is assessed on a subjective, not objective, basis. For most properties, there is no conclusive proof of what the value is on the lien date, as the three methods for determining value have flaws – and, at best, establish a range of values.

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