Author: Joel Fox

Everything in California is Proposition 13’s fault – how many times have we heard it? But here’s one time it’s true. Property taxes went UP in Los Angeles County last year … and its Proposition 13’s fault! That’s what the Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach says in releasing property assessments for the county. In fact, the property tax increase exceeded expectations. While 5% was predicted, property taxes actually climbed 6.9% this year. Here’s a short piece about it in today’s Los Angeles Times.

Fires roared out of control across California. Pictures of heroic firefighters battling the blazes appeared on the nightly news and in the newspapers. As it so happened, the fires occurred just a week prior to Californians voting on a measure to raise the state sales tax a half-cent, the revenues to be distributed to local governments for public safety purposes.

This occurred in 1993. In a special election called by Governor Pete Wilson, the voters considered the fate of Proposition 172. The measure was little noticed by the voters until the firestorms hit. A campaign ad in support of the measure was hastily thrown together showing the firefighters standing against the blazes. The tax measure passed with 58% of the vote.

Today as thousands of fires sweep across Northern and Southern California the discussion of fires and taxes is intertwined again. The question is: Will the fires of 2008 lead to tax increases?

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed what he terms a fee on property insurance to be set aside for fire protection. The governor’s proposal would charge policyholders a 1.4 percent surcharge in high fire zones and a .75 percent surcharge in other areas of the state. The fee would raise about $125 million.

It was disappointing and sad to read that the Los Angeles Times plans to lay off 250 workers, a majority from the editorial side of the paper. The Times troubles are reflected in the plight of other newspapers, which are losing advertising revenue to the Internet.

When one participates in the public arena, as I have for 30 years, you can adopt some bitterness to the press if you feel your efforts have been misread or even trashed by the newspapers.

While Thomas Jefferson is often remembered for saying "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter;" he also wrote: "Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this. Divide his paper into four chapters, heading the first Truths; the second, Probabilities; the third, Possibilities, the fourth, Lies."

It’s a good thing that Tesla Motors has decided to build its electric car factory in California. One of the main reasons executives changed their minds and decided not to build the factory in New Mexico as previously announced is instructive, creative and disconcerting all at once.

A major incentive to produce the cars in California is that the company will not have to pay sales tax on $100 million worth of manufacturing equipment. That will be a savings to the company of about $8 million.

Once again we see companies reacting to tax pressure. While a whole host of legislators and interest groups are clamoring for business to pay more taxes, we see that business paying less in taxes keeps companies, and most importantly, jobs in California. The government will get its share of revenue when those workers pay their taxes and the company pays other taxes.

You would think that if California came out fourth in the nation in a technology and science index that would be a good thing. Since California ranks higher than 46 other states it isn’t bad, but considering the last time this index was released California ranked second there is reason for concern.

High Tech and California should go together like bread and butter. However, according to the Milken Institute’s 2008 State Technology and Science Index California fell further behind number one ranked Massachusetts since the last study was released four years ago.

The Supreme Court became a political football…again… with its 5 to 4 decision stating that an individual’s right to bear arms is constitutional. Even though Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama generally accepted the court’s decision, there will be plenty of advocates in his party who will argue that one Supreme Court appointee of a President Obama could reverse this decision in the near future.

Of course, on the other hand, this issue is one that may bring uncertain conservatives to finally embrace the McCain campaign using the same logic that one vote could change the result.

Thus, the Supreme Court’s right to bear arms decision will join the abortion issue as partisans try to use potential Supreme Court appointments as a persuasive debating point in trying to sway voters.