(Read part 1 here)

In California, we no longer have an Election Day, but an Election Month.  And that month begins today, May 10, the first day that county election officials we be mailing June 8 Primary Election ballots to the more than 5.8 million registered voters who have signed up as permanent vote-by-mail voters.  And these voters will be able to cast that ballot by return mail anytime between now and June 8.

Last week I posted an article on incumbent challenges, but most of the action in this Primary Election will be in the two congressional districts, 10 even-number state senate districts and 29 assembly districts – total of 41 – that are OPEN SEATS – an open seat being districts that the incumbent is not seeking re-election due to term limits, running for another office, or retiring.  Because of gerrymandering, winning the Primary for the vast majority of these candidates is tantamount to winning the seat in November.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s AB 2492, scheduled to be heard today in the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee, would change the definition of change of property ownership under the law resulting in increased property taxes on commercial property. But, the ultimate goal for many of those supporting the bill is to change all of Proposition 13, including the homeowner property tax protections.

Ammiano made no secret of his desire to "nuke" all of Proposition 13 in a press conference held last week. The assemblyman admitted he was pursuing his bill to change the law on commercial property first because he needed to attack Proposition 13 "incrementally." The public employee unions, which support Ammiano’s bill, to my knowledge have not disassociated themselves from his remarks. Representatives of some of those unions appeared at the press conference.

And there it was: at a GOP Senate debate devoted to the notion that the candidate who sounds craziest wins, Tom Campbell injected a little common sense.

He was the only one of the three contenders who thought that people on the government’s no-fly list – i.e., people the government thinks might be terrorist risks – shouldn’t be permitted to buy guns.

Yes, read it again. Tom Campbell has the totally, ridiculously radical view that possible terrorists shouldn’t be allowed to purchase weapons!

I’m excited about three good reports about job creation in Los Angeles.
Last week, a major international business chose L.A. City and County
to be its North American headquarters.  

Secondly, our signature
entertainment industry posted very positive numbers compared to last
year.  

And finally, L.A. County and the University of Southern
California appear to be close to establishing a biotech park around the
USC Health Sciences campus in Boyle Heights.  All three stories
represent major economic breakthroughs for our region.  

Well, at least he admitted it.

In a press conference yesterday, surrounded by his tax and spend friends, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano said he intends his bill to increase property taxes on California’s struggling businesses (AB 2492) as the a first step toward completely destroying Proposition 13. 

Specifically, he reportedly said of the popular tax protection law, "If it takes an incremental approach, so be it … my tendency is to want to nuke it." 

Of course if Assemblyman Ammiano wins his aggressive war on California taxpayers, the state will find itself in a much more devastating situation than we are even in now. His latest salvo in the form of AB 2492 would result in billions in new taxes on Californians – billions he and other politicians can use to fund their insatiable habit of creating huge new programs the state can’t afford. 

It’s hard not to be sour about politicians these days, but I couldn’t help but be impressed while interviewing Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez last Friday night at a Zocalo Public Square event in Los Angeles.

The speaker’s sharp wit (to the point of irreverence) is perfect for such forums. He made the clearest case I’ve heard for measures to support manufacturing, particularly the sales tax exemption for equipment used in green manufacturing.

He also made an impassioned case for getting rid of the 2/3 supermajority for budget bills. A majority vote budget, he argued, would make the legislature, both majority and minority parties, more accountable. And it would reduce delays that hurt the state’s credit rating – and thus cost California scarce dollars. When I asked him why reform proposals in the legislature wouldn’t eliminate the supermajority for taxes, he said bluntly that the politics were too difficult.

The message that echoed through the meeting hall in Oakland at the second Governor’s Conference on Small Business and Entrepreneurship was that entrepreneurs and small business would lead the state out of its fiscal woes.

Small business is the engine of the economy, creates jobs, and will produce an economy to help overcome California’s difficult fiscal situation, many speakers said.

Governor Schwarzenegger, sitting in on a mid-day panel discussion on California’s economic recovery, asserted that, "Green tech is where the action is." Despite the recession, the governor said California continued to create jobs because of its emphasis on green technology.

I noticed during the recent healthcare debate, as with many political
debates, when Democrats run out of things to argue about they often
issue their ultimate insult: "Republicans are the party of ‘No.’"

They say that like it’s a bad thing.

What they fail to understand is that in politics – as in life – there is value in saying, "No."

Cross posted at www.cala.com

Are you surprised?

I guess I should not be, but there is still a little
of me that thought some legislators would get it. Clearly, they do not.

As the trial lawyers swooped down on Sacramento for their annual right
of passage, I truly thought there might be a glimmer of hope for legal reform,
but not this year and, quite frankly, probably not for a while to
come.Interestingly, the Consumer Attorneys of California had scheduled
its Lobby Day on May 4, the same day that the Assembly Judiciary
Committee was meeting in Sacramento. This is an important policy
committee that deals with all legislation related to legal reform.