Dear Jerry …
Dear Jerry,
Please, please shut up before you screw this whole thing up.
You may not realize it, but you enter the race for governor – by the way, glad to see that you’re in the race and campaigning full-speed – with San Francisco Bay-sized reservoirs of good will. This feeling is present of people of both parties (conservative Republicans remember your frugality), and is particularly strong among Californians who remember you or have parents or grandparents who remember you and your father fondly.
It’s Time to Get Serious About Small Business
It seems that every election year, several key phrases start to emanate from the Capitol – "small business" and "job creation". A note to press secretaries and communications directors everywhere: just because a press release claims that a particular legislator is "small business" friendly or favors "job creation", doesn’t make it so.
It’s time for our state leaders to get serious about small business and pay attention to what job creators genuinely need from Sacramento.
First, legislators must ask themselves, "Who is responsible for creating jobs?" The answer should be obvious when you learn that small business creates approximately three quarters of all new jobs. They also create 14 times more patents per employee than large businesses and include more than 98 percent of business establishments.
The Proposition 13 Idea of Capping Property Taxes Continues to Spread
Proposition 13 was passed by California voters 32 years ago this month and in New Jersey the governor is trying to get a similar property tax reform on the ballot. Gov. Chris Christie’s proposal would set an annual 2.5% cap on property taxes.
The measure is more in line with Massachusetts’s Proposition 2 ½, which passed in the shadow of Proposition 13. Proposition 2 ½, steered to victory by taxpayer activist Barbara Anderson, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Anderson held meetings with Howard Jarvis a number of times in preparing her initiative. It seems Proposition 13’s progeny could populate more of the country.
Of course, the New Jersey property tax proposal is not law, yet. The Garden State does not have the initiative process so the governor has to convince the legislature to put the measure on the ballot. Then the people will get a chance to vote on it.
Individuals with Developmental Disabilities Bring Enthusiasm, Dedication to City Hall
Sacramento is "The City That Works For Everyone."
For us, that slogan starts at home, in the Mayor’s Office.
The Sacramento mayoral support team has been fortunate to be assisted
by two wonderfully dedicated interns from the WE Include program, an
effort created and led by California First Lady Maria Shriver and Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Year of the Executive?
Since Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman so easily
trounced their opponents last week, some believe this is the Year of the Woman.
Others opined that the primary election results in California, as elsewhere, underscore the
anti-incumbent mood, so that makes this the Year of the Outsider.
Maybe.
But I’m thinking something else. I believe this may be the Year of the
Executive.
Think
about it. This recession has unmasked the enormous financial problems that have
been festering in all levels of government for a generation. Or two.