End of the Proposition 13 Era?
Tuesday’s election results were not even in print when questions arose whether the Proposition 13 era in California history had come to an end. Tax-resisting California began a generation ago in 1978 when the famous tax cutting measure was overwhelmingly passed by the voters. The Mercury News claimed in a post-election story that the passage […]
How Republicans Misplayed the Race Card in 2012 – Just Like they Did in 1994
Eighteen long years ago, Gov. Pete Wilson in his 1994 re-election campaign injected the poison of immigrant bashing into the California body politic, and for 18 years this poison metastases into a cancer that slowly choked the California Republican Party to death. But in 2012, the national Republicans played the same poisonous game in state […]
In Defense of Millionaires
Why is Darrell Steinberg still picking on millionaires? On the heels of successfully promoting a new “millionaire’s tax,” Proposition 30, the leader of the State Senate has proposed using his new supermajority legislative power to “alter the initiative process in a way that makes it harder for millionaires to impose their will by spending vast […]
Global Warming Bill Could Become Big Pork Barrel
Crossposted on Orange County Register One of the principal justifications for the California High Speed Rail line planned from Anaheim to San Francisco is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Gov. Jerry Brown and the California Air Resources Board seem poised to spend “cap and trade” revenue from Assembly Bill 32 (the “Global Warming Solutions Act” […]