Cuomo Tops Brown Again
There could not be a more stark contrast between New York Governor and Democrat Andrew Cuomo and California’s Jerry Brown. In 2011, Cuomo brought reform to New York and did so again in 2012 by getting pension reform passed through his legislature. Cuomo has become a leader of all New Yorkers and demonstrated that even a Democrat […]
Democrats Honestly Want to Raise Your Taxes
Do you believe what politicians tell you? For most Americans, it’s unlikely they would say yes – and that has been true for a long time. After all, according to Mark Twain, “Looking for an honest politician is like looking for an ethical burglar.” Recently, however, the California Democrats honestly made it very clearly to […]
Republicans Should Make 2012 a “Mandate” Election
As featured in BigGovernment.com. We live in The Divided Era of American politics – an Era defined by a roughly equal number of Democrats and Republicans, high partisanship and close Presidential elections. Independent voters often hold sway and candidates court the middle in order to win. Close victories, however, come without a mandate – a […]
Democrats Fail to Govern California
Governor Jerry Brown and the Democrats in the state legislature are failing to responsibly govern California. State Controller John Chiang said earlier this week that California would need “additional cash management solutions” because state tax revenues are $2.6 billion less than what Governor Jerry Brown and the Democrats assumed in their slapdash budget last year. […]
What Brown Can Do for You in 2012
It is a New Year, and California needs a new game plan. For more than a decade, California has been following the same policies. The budget and economic problems facing California are serious. We have unemployment that is currently in the double digits and among the worse in the Nation. We have perennial budget problems […]
My Open Letter to Governor Brown
Once again Governor, you have called upon Californians to bail out Sacramento by calling for higher taxes. Rather than sending us a bill for your future spending increases, which will top 25%, I suggest you moderate your Party’s positions and concentrate on adopting policies that will put people back to work. As you know, we […]
The Fallacy of the Untaxed Pot of Gold
With increasing frequency, offering new taxing mechanisms to fund ever-growing governments is becoming in vogue. Whether it’s tinkering with California’s Prop 13, marijuana taxes, or the newly proposed 5% “service” tax in California, such proposals labor under the false premise that there are untaxed pots of gold and that if only we would tap them […]
LA Mayor Makes the Case for a Referendum on the Senate Lines
They say that in life, timing is everything. That certainly can be applied to politics and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proved that this week. On the very same day that a referendum was filed to preserve balance in the California State Senate and prevent tax increases, the Mayor asked for a crushing new tax on employers. Now, more than ever, the business community needs to back a public referendum on the Senate lines.
California, like the nation, has been in a seemingly endless series of budget crises. The reflexive answer from the Democrats, and specifically Mayor Villaraigosa, is to raise tax rates. Democrats now want to roll back Prop 13 protection for businesses and attempt to force them to pay higher real estate taxes. Every business will pay for those increases, whether they own land or not, because land owners/landlords will pass on those higher taxes to tenants. Those increases will weaken the California economy further and result in higher unemployment and larger deficits.
Brown’s Supreme Court Appointment of Goodwin Liu – Another Bird of a Feather?
Jerry Brown’s political past was clouded for many reasons. Chief among them was his appointment of Rose Bird as Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. She was not reconfirmed to a new term by voters. In essence, she was kicked out of office. She earned that distinction because she literally refused to follow the law. By appointing the unqualified Goodwin Liu to the Supreme Court, Jerry Brown now has one more Bird of a feather.
Brown believes Liu is qualified to sit on the highest Court in the state because he is “a distinguished legal scholar and teacher. He is a nationally recognized expert on constitutional law and has experience in private practice, government service and in the academic community.” Notice what’s missing? He has never been a judge.
Would you put someone in charge of a hospital’s surgery department to operate on you who has never practiced surgery – even for a day? I wouldn’t and I also wouldn’t appoint someone to the highest Court in the state ahead of others who are far, far more qualified. Indeed, Liu is not qualified for the highest Court in the state – maybe a County Superior Court – but not the Supreme Court.
California Is For The Birds…and Fish
California has long been thought to be the land of fruits and nuts. The actions of its state government too often support that characterization. In recent years, government has deprived the breadbasket of America, California’s San Joaquin Valley, of much needed water to save a three-inch bait fish. Not to be out done, an agency is now seeking to displace prime dairy land to accommodate rail tracks for an utterly unneeded high-speed train. Why punish dairy farmers you ask? Because they don’t want to harm a bird sanctuary. In that way, and sundry others, California government deliberately destroys its own economy and literally is for the birds.
Not long ago, a major CEO from California’s tech industry said, “The killer factor in California for a manufacturer to create . . . a thousand blue-collar jobs is a hostile government that doesn’t want you there and demonstrates it in thousands of ways.” Of course, Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers was talking about one of California’s leading industries. His conclusion, however, is not limited to California’s tech industry. It certainly applies to California’s #1 industry: agriculture.