They’re Off!
Yes siree, ladies and gentleman, the horse race for governor has begun. The horses are jockeying for position, mud flying, as they hurtle down the straightaway.
There’s Meg Whitman splattered over and over again with her voting record. She’s trying to avoid some more mud as she moves to the outside, hollering that she did so vote … once or twice.
Steve Poizner is moving to the right to get away from a smash-up in the middle of the track. But he can’t duck the glob of donations he made to Al Gore, or was that his stable mate. We can’t quite tell from here, but it seems the mud is sticking.
And, there’s the old war horse, Jerry Brown, biding his time along the rail. Brown still has mud stains splattered on his shirt from forty years of going around the track. And, there appears to be a new stain. Did he actually appear at a fundraiser for a hard core Republican DA in San Bernadino County? Wow! That won’t wash out so easily. Like trying to explain to your wife that lipstick on the collar.
State Likely to Vote on Legalizing Pot
Joel Fox, the honcho of this blog, had an interesting piece Wednesday about the prospect of dueling initiatives battling on the November 2010 ballot.
Ballot measures on the two-thirds budget vote rule, a split-roll property tax, a new paycheck protection assault on union dues, repeal of corporate tax incentives and other reform/revenge measures could bring out big money donors in campaigns that could change the political face of California, he warned.
Any of those measures could have a major impact on the state for years to come. But there’s an inside baseball feel to all of them, as if they’re issues that will stir up the party faithful and the groups directly affected, but won’t really interest the average California voter until a week before election day.
Hope for CA with the Tax Commission Plan
California has clearly hit a wall, which also opens the state to the possibility of truly positive change.
Last week a bi-partisan commission appointed by the Governor and legislature to find solutions to the state’s budgetary and fiscal problems recommended an overhaul of the state’s tax system. Specifically, the commission recommended that the state lower its top marginal personal income tax rate from 10.55% to 7.5% and that the state replace its state corporate and sales taxes with a tax on business net receipts. This lower rate would broaden the tax base making it much easier for budgeting. Additionally, several gubernatorial candidates appear to support a flat tax.
Out of the ashes of California, we may see a green shoot.
See my thoughts on tax reform in my earlier Fox and Hounds post.