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.
Campaign Finance Battles Won’t Go Away
Campaign finance is in the news again as the U.S. Supreme Court took another look last week at who should be allowed to get how much from whom.
Regardless of whether the justices decide in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission to overturn the current federal limits on combined contributions to individual candidates over a two-year election cycle – and the smart money is betting they will – the only guarantee is that it won’t be the last time one group or another stands before the high court to complain about money in politics.
Because, with a nod to Jessie Unruh, money remains the mother’s milk of politics and as campaigns get more expensive, candidates need more and more cash. As anyone who’s ever been in Sacramento during the height of the legislative fund-raising season knows, lawmakers and wannabes have become increasing creative in ways to find that money.
Gov. Brown Spikes Faulty Initiative Change
Governor Jerry Brown refused to go along with a labor unions’ scheme to swing the initiative process in their favor. Brown vetoed AB 857, a bill authored by Assemblyman Paul Fong and sponsored by unions, that would have required ten percent of the signatures gathered on statewide initiative petitions to be collected by non-paid signature gatherers. The problem is that the bill defined non-paid signature gatherers to include members of non-profit organizations. Union members would qualify as non-paid signature gatherers. At the same time, signatures collected through direct mail would not qualify.
Gov. Brown recognized the gimmick in the measure. In his veto message, Brown wrote that the bill’s requirements would not “stop abuses by narrow special interests – particularly if ‘volunteer’ is defined with the broad exemptions as in this bill.”
The governor saw that a special interest was trying to take control of the initiative process.
Bill Signings End Tax Board Money Grab from Small Business
Small businesses got a bit of hope this past week as Governor Brown signed two bills, Senate Bill 209 (Lieu) and Assembly Bill 1412 (Bocanegra) to ensure that interest and penalties will not be assessed retroactively against taxpayers who complied in good faith with existing tax law when that law was later declared unconstitutional by a court.
Here’s a brief history lesson to explain why these two bills were desperately needed:
In August of 2012, a California Court of Appeal overturned a state law that provided a tax deferral or partial exclusion on returns to investors in certain qualified small businesses that had 80% or more of their assets and payroll in California (Cutler v. Franchise Tax Board). This law was passed to encourage investment in California-based small businesses, but the court ruled that it violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution by treating California businesses differently. While these types of exclusions for investments in small business are allowed under federal law, the state went too far in only allowing them for small businesses based at least 80% in-state.
Shrine To Big Government In Place In State Capitol
There were a number of low-points from my perspective during the tenure of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. But none was worse for California taxpayers, or for the California Republican Party, than the budget deal of 2009. At the heart of this particular budget deal was a two-year massive increase in taxes on income, sales and cars in California. It also included a big cut in the tax credit for families. Oh yes, the deal also placed on the ballot a two-year extension of those same taxes (which was slaughtered at the polls by voters). It was a deal that made no sense for the state, and one that Republicans should have been easily able to fend off — after all, we had not only Schwarzenegger, a GOP Governor, but Democrats did not have super-majorities in the legislature back then. So this deal required GOP legislative votes for both the budget itself, as well as the tax increases.
Business Shutting Down the GOP
News accounts in a number of media outlets say business leaders and organizations are angry with the Republican Party’s role in bringing about the government shutdown. Some writers have conjectured that the long-term effect of the shutdown effort will sever traditional ties between business and the GOP.
Is there a threat that the business community will reconsider its historical relationship with the Republican Party?
There’s no question many in business are upset with the shutdown and many business leaders are unhappy with the hardline position taken by the Republicans, particularly Tea Party members. One writer surmised what a business leader might say, paraphrasing a Ronald Reagan quote: “I didn’t leave the Republican Party; the Republican Party left me.”
After Fizzling in CA and NY, Bloomberg Peddles Soda Tax in Mexico
Searching for relevance after bruising losses in the soda tax fight in California, the loss of his hand-picked choice of Christine Quinn in the New York Mayor’s race, and the loss of the gun-related Recall elections in Colorado, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appears to be packing it in and heading to Mexico.
With nothing but time on his hands now that he is termed out of office, Bloomberg is spending vast personal resources to help pass a National soda tax South of the border.