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.
Do We Have a “Grover Norquist Problem”?
The recent news from the political research firm Grassroots Lab, that registered Republicans comprise a majority of California’s local government elected positions, has sent shockwaves through the Party’s ranks. In a state where Democrats are a super majority in the Legislature and hold every statewide office, the fact that Republicans serve in about half of the state’s mayoralties and council member positions appears as an oasis in Death Valley.
But is this oasis a mirage?
Interviewed about their findings by the Los Angeles Times, Grassroots Labs’ Robb Korinke noted that since most local elections are nonpartisan, the Republican label is not as important—often even unknown by voters. It’s when local Republicans run for state office that problems begin: “The second they move on, they’re viewed through a much different lens,” Korinke said. In Robb’s view, that “lens” is the glass ceiling of social issues from abortion to gay marriage.
GOP Lawmakers Deliver Key Votes for Tax Extension
Last month, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a $2.3 billion tax extension. The measure, authored by a Central Valley Democrat, passed both houses of the legislature with overwhelmingly Democratic support.
Yet, the multi-billion dollar tax extension, a Democratic creation, couldn’t have passed the legislature without the help of Republican lawmakers.
Nine Republican legislators, a majority of whom have signed the no-tax pledge, delivered critical votes to ensure that the $2.3 billion tax extension reached Brown’s desk.
Assembly Bill 8 by Assemblyman Henry Perea, D-Fresno, extended the sunset date on various vehicle taxes and fees. The additional revenue will go toward programs for the construction of hydrogen fueling stations and the Carl Moyer Memorial Air Quality Standards Attainment Program, which provides taxpayer-funded grants for businesses to buy new eco-friendly engines and equipment. It also postpones new regulations by the Air Resources Board, a move which is praised by businesses and criticized by environmental groups.
126 Local Governments Called Out by State Controller for Not Filing Financial Books
We learn from our mistakes—that’s how we grow and in the end, succeed, right?
Well you’d think after the 2010 corruption scandal that rocked the working-class city of Bell, about 7 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California local governments would bend over backwards to ensure their decisions and financial dealings were as transparent as possible. That is one national spotlight other cities would clearly rather go without seeing.
It wasn’t much better earlier this year as the city of Stockton declared bankruptcy earlier this year, the most populous in the nation to do so until the Motor City went belly-up.
Apparently some lessons are only learned the hard way as Bell and Stockton both showed up on a less-than-illustrious list recently.
BART Strike and Fiscal Issues Test Unions’ Relationship with Democrats
A weekend article by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Andrew Ross suggests that the Bay Area BART strike could weaken the ties between unions and Democratic politicians most often found in the unions’ corner.
As polls show the public’s anger over the strike aimed mostly at the unions, some California Democrats are considering whether to pass a law that prohibits strikes by transit unions. One of the major arguments they raise is that such strikes can be crippling to the economy.
It is not only the transit strike by public unions that is calling into question the traditional relationship. The issue of fiscal management is the knife that is cutting away at the traditional ties.
California, The One Metric State
California is a big and diverse place that could be judged by any number of measures. But in this state, political and media elites are obsessed with just one metric:
The budget, and whether it’s balanced.
When the budget is out of balance, we’re in chaos. We’re broken. On those occasions when it appears balanced, as it is now, we’re a comeback and a national model, and we’ve done, in the words of Gov. Brown, “the impossible.”
This is nuts. A poor family that balances its budget at a low figure with low debt is not better off than a wealthy family with its books out of balance and mortgages. It matters how much you spend and how you spend the money. And more important, it matters what you get for your money.
CEC Regulating Consumer Electronics
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently adopted new incentives to promote and prioritize energy efficiency, furthering a utility culture focused on energy savings, rather than energy generation.
We applaud and share the CPUC’s belief that a comprehensive set of policy tools is necessary to achieve complex and critical energy goals. However, we hope this shift in focus will not result in more unnecessary regulations in a state where agencies often rely too heavily on a regulatory approach, despite evidence that more market-based, less costly and less harmful options exist.
For example, three recent and flawed energy efficiency rulemakings for consumer electronics from the CPUC’s counterparts at the California Energy Commission (CEC) have resulted in new layers of costly regulations – all perpetuated under the guise of energy savings for California.