Tax Commission Takes Pass on Prop 1A Endorsement
The commission studying California’s tax system decided to pass on a suggestion to endorse Proposition 1A, which will establish a spending cap and at the same time extend temporary taxes. At the tax commission meeting held at UC Davis today, Commissioner Bill Hauck asked the Commission on the 21st Century Economy to support Proposition 1A, arguing that it addressed one of the main concerns the commission is attempting to resolve—the volatility of state tax revenue.
However, Committee Chairman Gerald Parsky suggested that the commission as the whole should not go on record either for or against the measure. Parsky pointed out that the commission’s original deadline of April 15 was pushed back to July 31 to see how voters would decide on the ballot measures. Parsky also argued that the proposal to offer an endorsement would go beyond the charge of the commission.
Commissioners agreed with this position and did not take up the endorsement.
In the News — April 9, 2009
Assemblyman Anthony Adams was served with recall papers yesterday at a fundraiser with Governor Schwarzenegger. Former GOP Chairman Mike Schroder, who chaired two successful legislative recalls in 1995, did the honors outside the event in Glendora.
Adams’ crossover vote appeared out of character, as the San Bernadino assemblymember is only in his second term – legislators generally don’t expend their political capital so early in their career. If the GOP activists backing this recall prove successful in unseating Adams, I would think the precedent being set might scare others away from doing the same thing in the near future.
Tom Campbell’s been getting a lot of attention from the papers lately. In addition to today’s LA Times article, the San Francisco Chronicle has taken a look at the gubernatorial candidate twice this week (Debra Saunders and John Wildermuth).
Pirates off Somalia: Deja vu All Over Again
Wednesday, the Media had a field day with a story as old as the presidency of Thomas Jefferson and as new as the presidency of Barak Obama. Pirates off Somalia, getting greedier and bolder as they took ship after ship in gigantic areas of the ocean off East Africa, finally took a US-crewed, container ship flying the US flag.
The container ship, the Maersk Alabama, has a 20-person American crew and is operated and owned by Danish shipping titan A.P. Moller-Maersk Group’s US subsidiary, Maersk Line Limited. News broke very early in the California morning that the ship was taken by pirates, at sea some 280 miles southwest of the Somali city of Eyl, a haven for the modern pirates.
A US destroyer, the Bainbridge, was headed for the scene, but, due to the vast distances at sea involved, many thousands of square miles of water actually, it is not expected to arrive for at least another day. As is often the case, Media reports have varied wildly all day as any tidbits of information are seized, not vetted at all, and then broadcast to get the scoop. What is real and what is not will all be sorted out later. Stay tuned.
A brief look at PublicCEO
PublicCEO.com, a new Web site dedicated to local politics throughout California, launched this week. Like Fox and Hounds, the new site is a must-read for California’s many public administrators and those who follow local government.
At PublicCEO, local governments share information with one another, thus helping public executives to administer their own city/county/special district. PublicCEO.com provides public executives the needed information to excel in their public service and foster cohesion among governments.
The new Web site seeks to facilitate the occupational demands of City Managers, County Administrators, public executives and elected officials by providing relevant information and timely news about California’s local governments.