"Mike Schroeder acted with intent to hurt Marilyn and to hurt the Orange County GOP. It’s Mike Schroeder flexing his muscle. He took something that should have been inconsequential and turned it into an international media circus. Mike Schroeder should be the one apologizing to Marilyn Davenport and the Orange County GOP." – GOP activist Teresa Trujillo, as quoted in the Orange County Register.

Dear Marilyn,

Since Republican officials like Mike Schroeder, who made public that harmless little email of yours (the one with President Obama’s face on a chimpanzee), won’t apologize to you, please permit me to step in and issue you a heartfelt apology in their place.

CALA would like to applaud Assemblymember Cathleen Galgiani (D-17) for being a part of the recent delegation that went to Texas to hear from businesses and other officials about ways to encourage job creation. The delegation was led byAssemblymember Dan Logue (R-3) and included nine other lawmakers plus Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom. Texas has added 165,000 jobs over the past three years while CA has lost 1.2 million, so it is good that a group of decision makers hit the road to find out what the problem is with California and what can be done.

President Barack Obama’s Wednesday afternoon visit
to Facebook, the grandfather of the social networking biz, showed that his
team has grasped political truism that has eluded many California campaigns:
Bucks ain’t ballots.

Now it’s true the president reportedly plans to raise a
breathtaking $1 billion for his effort to win four more years in the White
House and yes, that’s billion with a "b."

And since no one in the campaign business has ever suggested
that "Big Daddy" Jesse Unruh’s observation that "money is the mother’s milk of
politics" is any less valid now than when the former Assembly speaker made it
in 1966, the $35,800-a-napkin dinner he had with 60 of his closest friends
Wednesday night in San Francisco was a pleasant reminder of why it’s good to be
the president.

Applying the same criteria in which Major League Baseball (MLB) stepped in to take over the operation of the Los Angeles Dodgers, MLB decided it needed to rescue the State of California from a similar crisis, baseball commissioner Bud Selig announced in a statement.

“Like the Dodgers, the state of California is on shaky financial grounds and there is a question of who is in charge.” Selig said. “Under these same circumstances that forced us to rescue the Dodgers, we decided to step in and help California.”

Selig explained that, like the Dodgers, the state has borrowed to meet its payroll and is potentially facing the need to use IOUs to pay its obligations as it has done in the past. “We could not stand by and watch that happen again,” he said.

Selig noted other similarities between the Dodger situation and the woes of the state.

Pointing to safety concerns faced by fans at Dodger Stadium and the need for beefed up security, Selig said he is similarly concerned with the safety of California residents after hearing Governor Jerry Brown say there could be layoffs of police officers if the budget is not resolved.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget and temporary tax push is stuck,
in part for lack of leverage.

It sure would have been nice if he
had been able to gather signatures on a ballot initiative as he negotiated with
lawmakers in March. But that would have cost too much (thereby giving too much
power to his financial backers) and taken too much time.

Jeez, it’s too bad there isn’t a
quick, fast, cheap way to collect signatures on an initiative petition.

Oh, that’s right. There is such a
way.

Electronic signatures.

Cross-posted at City Journal.

In Sacramento, Governor Jerry Brown is planning to close California’s $26.6 billion structural deficit through spending cuts and tax extensions. Opposition has been spirited but less contentious than expected, probably because of the size of the budget hole. But one item of Brown’s plan—something that would save about $1.7 billion annually—has generated heated debates between local officials and the new administration. The governor has proposed eliminating California’s approximately 400 redevelopment agencies (RDAs).

In theory, RDAs spearhead blight removal. In fact, they divert billions of dollars from traditional services, such as schools, parks, and firefighting; use eminent domain to seize property for favored developers; and run up California’s debt to pay those developers to construct projects of dubious public value, such as stadiums and big-box stores. Most Californians have long been unaware that these agencies exist. As the activist group Municipal Officials for Redevelopment Reform puts it, RDAs constitute an “unknown government” that “consumes 12 percent of all property taxes statewide,” is “supported by a powerful Sacramento lobby,” and is “backed by an army of lawyers, consultants, bond brokers and land developers.”

If you needed more evidence that the Republican legislators
are right to push Governor Brown for long-term fiscal reforms in the current
budget face-off, look no further than the public sector contracts negotiated by
the governor. Giveaways in the contracts will only make budget matters worse as
time goes on.

At the end of last month, Daniel Weintraub reported
on this site that the Legislative Analyst’s Office review of contracts made
by the administration and public safety employees found that the promised ten-
percent cost savings were not there. Weintraub wrote: "The analyst believes the contract will
actually increase costs this year, save just 2.8 percent next year and then
start adding to the state’s payroll costs again the year after next."

Weintraub added that the contracts were "chock-full of concessions by
the state." Among those concessions were big costs to the state on changes to
employees’ time off and holiday pay. The contract allows for nearly 8 weeks off
even for new hires. The legislative analyst doubts employees will use all that
time off and will bank the time to be paid later when the employee leaves the
job.

Isn’t it great how Prop 25 has fixed the budget process?

Remember
all the arguments for Prop 25? The majority party will own the budget now. They
can fix the problem all by themselves. They’ll move quickly. The minority party
won’t hold the budget hostage. Instead, they’ll offer a specific alternative
that they can take to the voters in the next election.

How’s that
working it out?

It isn’t –
for reasons that should have been obvious to reformers then, but weren’t. I
can’t tell you all the grief I received from good government folks, not to
mention folks on the left (and some on the right), for calling Prop 25 a
mistake last fall. I was told that it was at the very least a good first step
in the right direction.

Well, I
told you so.

While the legislature is in session, the National Federation
of Independent Business/California will be profiling anti-small business bills
and the adverse effect they would have on California’s job creators.  This is the first column of the 2011 series.

If this year is any indication, the
news is not good for small businesses and their employees.  And it’s not because of the troubled economy,
recession or any other external source. 
Well, check that, there is an external source that consistently, year
after year, inflicts pain and hardship on small businesses. 

Cue scary, dramatic music here…The California Legislature.

Some may assert that it is an
overgeneralization to say that the entire legislature has it out for small
businesses in the state.  But, consider
for a moment the results of the NFIB/CA 2010 Voting Record.  When 50 assembly members and over 20 senators
have voting records of 50 percent or less on the issues that matter most to our
members – something just isn’t getting through those Capitol doors.