Four times over the last three decades voters have offered their support for the right to vote on local taxes and for a two-thirds vote for legislative tax increases. Yet, the politicians have attempted to work their way around that mandate by calling taxes "fees." Fees only require a majority vote in the legislature, or a vote of the governing body at the local government level.

Proposition 26 will reaffirm the voters desires on the tax front.

NFIB is committed to supporting pro-small business policies that strengthen our economy, and provide our members with stability. One very important priority in our agenda and for our members is fiscal responsibility. We oppose wasteful government spending, which directly threatens free enterprise.

One of the key priorities for our members is fiscal responsibility and a commitment to free enterprise. Small businesses oppose wasteful government spending, which impedes job creation and exacerbates the already-unstable environment that government is fostering.

The fundamental question facing Los Angeles City Hall today is whether L.A.’s residents should continue current funding for city employee pension and health care costs at the expense of basic city services. Last Friday, members of the City Council began to answer that question. While Friday’s motion was a beginning, the Council has much larger reforms to consider if they are to address the primary cause for the budget deficit, which is the cost of pensions and health care for retirees that is growing between $200 and $300 million per year. The Chamber was encouraged that the City Council discussed additional reforms at its meeting today. The reality is that every additional dollar the City lays out for pensions and retiree health care means a dollar less for libraries, parks, police, fire and other basic city services.

You don’t have to live in San Francisco, or another major urban center, to thrive as a writer. Anywhere in California will do just fine, thank you.

We all have the image of the writer working alone in the garret room with the slanting roof, maybe a window like the one in the women’s apartment in Friends. But if you are a writer you know that while the "real" work must be accomplished alone, one cannot survive long emotionally, nor make the contacts necessary for ultimate success, without a community of fellow writers for emotional support, feedback on technique, and – what everyone wants most – referrals.

The key word for this upcoming election is: TURNOUT. With Democrats holding a 13-point voter registration edge over Republicans in California it will take a strong Republican turnout and/or a correspondingly weak Democratic turnout to push Republican candidates across the finish line first.

National polls indicate that enthusiasm is on the Republicans side in this election. The USC/LA Times poll a few weeks ago indicated that Latinos, a core Democratic support group, were less than eager to vote when compared with other groups the poll tested.

The conventionalhttps:> wisdom https:> in Sacramento is that the budget approved early Friday morning is held together by wishful thinking and accounting gimmicks, not to mention Rosy Projectionshttps:>.

Nobody can deny that the next Governor will be faced with an extraordinary challenge to balance his or her first budget. After all, the Legislative Analyst has said https:> that "well over two-thirds of the Legislature’s 2010-11 budget solutions are temporary or one-time in nature."

Cross posted at calwatchdog.com.

One of the weird things about the last gubernatorial debate is that Jerry Brown was more sensible on Prop. 23 than Meg Whitman.

Meg’s position doesn’t make any sense at all. As she explained, she opposes Prop. 23, which would suspend AB 32 until unemployment dropped to 5.5% for a year. AB 32 is, of course, the Jobs-Killing Act of 2006https:>, and is supposed to reduce global warming, which is a hoaxhttps:>.

Read full article here.

I saw that Jerry Brown on Tuesday night when he said that he would oppose suspending AB32, the state greenhouse-gas law about to go into effect. "You create uncertainty," Brown explained. "You create doubt for investors."

I think Whitman had it right when she argued for a suspension of the measure in light of the state’s 12.4 percent unemployment rate. Whitman explained, "It’s not fair to the employees in manufacturing, trucking, packaging, all the other industries, to drive those jobs out of state." Amen.

I’m not sure how far away these absentee ballots come from, but if Howard Jarvis has one I think I know how he’d mark his ballot for governor.

In last night’s debate, Jarvis made a guest appearance on the back of a question on his prodigy, Proposition 13. Jerry Brown pointed out, accurately, that Jarvis voted for Brown for governor because Brown had worked at implementing Prop 13. Brown also said Jarvis did an ad for Brown. Also true; but at the same time, Jarvis was also cutting an ad for Brown’s opponent, Attorney General Evelle Younger, for defending Proposition 13 in court.