Cross-posted at RonKayeLA.

With one foot in a cast and the other in the political grave, Antonio Villaraigosa hobbled into the lion’s den of San Fernando Valley unrest Monday night and offered a little song, a little dance and a lot of seltzer down everybody’s pants.

Mostly, he seemed preoccupied by the merciful end to his reign and his pain at 11:59 p.m. on June 30, 2013 – a fact he kept bringing up during an hour-long performance before a crowd of 200 Valleyites who attended the Daily News Town Hall with the mayor at Reseda High School, an event that is part of the newspaper’s celebration of its 100th anniversary year as the "Voice of the Valley."

Editorial Page Editor Mariel Garza did her best to push Antonio on the critical issues facing the city, its residents and businesses: City Hall’s overspending and under achieving.

In ordering the release of tens
of thousands of California prisoners, a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court sent
an unmistakable message to this state and its citizens: you are unable to
govern yourselves.

At a couple of points in the
decision, the opinion, by Anthony Kennedy, a Californian, departs from the
subject of prisons to comment on the bleak political and fiscal reality of the
state.

The prisons, he writes, are the
product of a state where governance is broken: "In addition to overcrowding the
failure of California’s prisons to provide adequate medical
and mental health care may be ascribed to chronic and worsening budget
shortfalls, a lack of political will in

favor of reform, inadequate facilities,
and systemic administrative failures."

This decision is a historic attack on the constitutional rights of states and the liberty of all Californians.

By flooding our neighborhoods with criminals, the Court will make one of highest taxed states in the nation among the most dangerous as well, further tarnishing the California dream.

At a time when law-abiding Californians cannot find jobs, it’s hard to imagine how convicted felons will do anything other than return to a life of crime.

But at least Justice Kennedy can sleep easier at night knowing that none of these dangerous felons will be released in his neighborhood.

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Governor Jerry Brown surprised the state political world
with his May budget revision that calculated a revenue surge of $6.6 billion.
Welcome news to a state that had to fill a budget hole more than twice that
size. But, what happens if that unanticipated revenue is just the beginning?

Less than a week after the governor’s press conference, the
LinkedIn IPO sent the stock market into a dither with LinkedIn stocks soaring
to unexpected heights. While it has settled back, the stock is still about
double the original offering.

Last week, Kathleen Pender wrote
an insightful article in the San Francisco Chronicle questioning whether
this IPO could open the floodgates for more of the same from other social
networking companies in the Silicon Valley. 
Pender pointed out if the match is lit on an IPO explosion, the state
could see a gusher of money from capital gains taxes. Some analysts have
suggested the surge acknowledged by the governor is made up in large part by
capital gains taxes.

The May Revise may have just gotten underway, but taxfighters have come out swinging against Governor Jerry Brown and his Union friends.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association announced today it has made a Statewide radio buy urging Californians to reject the Governor’s plan for massive tax increases. While it’s not unusual for organizations to take to the airwaves, it is unusual this early in a season that doesn’t yet have a special election on the calendar. A sign that Brown may have one heck of an uphill fight ahead of him.

The radio spot highlights the state of California’s status as “worst” in a variety of categories – “worst place to do business” in America, among the worst tax climates, worst housing market, worst jobless rate, and more. The ad also highlights Governor Brown’s billion-dollar sweetheart deal with the prison guards’ union earlier this month, which has taxpayer advocates fuming.

How did little-known Republican Craig Huey outpoll
Democratic Secretary of State Debra Bowen in last week’s Special Election in
CD36?

Sixteen candidates qualified for that special election
ballot: five Democrats, six Republicans and five affiliated with another party
or no party at all.

The district, stretching from Venice to the Los Angeles
Harbor community of San Pedro, is safely Democratic, with Democrats outnumbering
Republicans 45% – 27%, with 22% being independent.

Two heavyweight Democrats entered the race: Los Angeles
Councilmember Janice Hahn of San Pedro, and Secretary of State Debra Bowen, of
Venice, who had previously represented much of the district as a state senator
and assemblymember.

As we approach the 33^rd anniversary of the
voters’ approval of Proposition 13, efforts to undo the initiative’s property
tax protections are getting more attention.

The biggest threat is AB 448, by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano,
who announced last year that he would like to "nuke" Proposition 13 in its
entirety. His legislation would take a big step toward this goal by repealing
Proposition 13 protections for employers, even as the state struggles with a 12
percent unemployment rate.

Under Proposition 13, property is assessed based on the
acquisition value, and this value cannot increase more than 2 percent in any
given year, unless there is new construction or a change in ownership. When
property changes ownership, it is reassessed based on the purchase price.

In case you missed it, a group of San Franciscans has
qualified a ballot initiative to outlaw the circumcision of infants in that
city. They say that infants are being coerced into participating in a procedure
that carries health risks and is akin to female genital mutilation in Africa.
With activists in Santa Monica poised to follow suit, one can safely presume
that a local ban is just a first step in a campaign for a statewide
prohibition.

Now you can pinch yourself. Yes, you’re not dreaming.
Although I sometimes make jokes and use techniques of fiction in this space,
the San Francisco anti-circumcision initiative is real and is headed to the
ballot.

So where does one come down on this topic? Please pardon me
if I don’t get into an in-depth discussion of the health debates. I’m not a
doctor, nurse or health expert. And I’m no religious scholar, so I can’t
comment with any authority on religious objections to a circumcision ban.

Cross-posted at CityJournal.

The results of California’s 2010 midterm elections were tremendously discouraging for voters eager to rein in the influence of the state’s public-employee unions. While other states, like Wisconsin, elected political leaders willing to confront union power aggressively, Californians could only look on in frustration as pro-union politicians prevailed across the Golden State. But there is at least one beacon of hope in California: the Orange County city of Costa Mesa, which has charged ahead to address budget deficits by making massive cuts to its municipal workforce.

In March, Costa Mesa’s city council voted 4–1 to issue layoff notices to nearly half of the city’s workforce—more than 200 workers—and to outsource many city services, including street sweeping, payroll, printing, information technology, animal control, park maintenance, and some fire protection. These are eminently reasonable steps, given the city’s fiscal challenges. Costa Mesa faces a $3.3 million budget deficit in the 2011–12 fiscal year, pared down from a projected $5.1 million, and some of its leaders, including city councilman Jim Righeimer, worry that the budget situation could grow far worse in the future without immediate reforms. Righeimer, who campaigned on pension reform in 2010, says that while it’s unclear exactly how much money outsourcing will save the city, “it will be substantial.”