Fox and Hounds Daily Says Goodbye
With this article, we end publication of Fox and Hounds Daily. It has been a satisfying 12½ year run. When we opened in May 2008, our site was designed to offer an opportunity to those who wished to engage in public debate on many issues, especially in politics and business, but found it difficult to get placed in newspaper op-ed pages.
Co-publishers Tom Ross, Bryan Merica and I have kept F&H going over this time investing our own time, funding, and staff help. Last year at this time we considered closing the site, however with an election on the horizon we decided to keep F&H going through the election year. With the election come and gone, and with no sense of additional resources, we have decided to close the site down.
Fox and Hounds will live on, at least, with my articles collected in the California State Library.
On a personal note, I have spent over 40 years in California policy and politics. There have been some incredible high moments and some difficult low points. It pains me that politics too often is a blood sport, frequently demonizing the motives of opponents and using the legal system as a weapon in public discourse. At Fox & Hounds, we tried to adhere to the practice of giving all a voice in the debate, yet keep the commentaries civil and avoided personal attacks.
F&H offered the opportunity to publish different perspectives (even ones that criticized my writings!). We had success as indicated by the Washington Post twice citing Fox and Hounds Daily one of the best California political websites and many other positive affirmations and comments received over the years.
Tom, Bryan and I want to thank our many readers and writers for being part of our journey. The publishers of Fox and Hounds Daily believe that we added value to California and its people. We hope you agree.
Abstain on Initiatives in 2014
Californians of means, and their interest group, have a problem. They are addicted to initiatives.
They think ballot initiatives will solve the state’s problems. They have thought this for more than 100 years. Most of the time, their initiatives lose and cost people time and money. Their initiatives that win typically only make solving those problems more complicated. All the initiatives – and ballot measures, and court decisions, and gubernatorial and legislative decisions – have served to constrain our policymakers in ways that makes it nearly impossible to tackle big problems.
But still Californians of means persist. Initiatives are being threatened on all sorts of subjects for 2014. And there is talk of reform initiatives – fundraising bans and even initiative reform itself – for next year.
Expansion of Prevailing Wage to Private Industry Says California is Not Open for Business
Recently, there’s been relatively good news on the economy. Home prices are increasing and the stock market continues to grow; signals that we may finally be starting to recover from the Great Recession.
As a result, California’s robust private sector can continue to build and hopefully grow upon its long history of ensuring that employees have good, high paying jobs in a variety of industries. Outside of the private sector, California has always ensured that public employees and employees working on public projects are paid a fair wage and have good benefits.
Ensuring that employees have good wages and benefits is paramount to the success of any business. Small business owners have always had the flexibility to ensure that their workforce is paid a good wage.
Legislative Goals are not only about Changing California
The California legislature has set out on a bold path not only to change the direction of the state’s culture but also to influence the country as a whole. For decades, California has been known as a bellwether state—what happens here first will be followed elsewhere. Many Sacramento politicians in the majority party have their eyes on the larger goal of changing the country.
From environmental laws, to immigration to education and even sexual orientation, California pols are challenging the country’s norms.
While critics charged that AB 32’s carbon-limit regulations would have little effect if the rest of the country, indeed other countries, do not go along, California lawmakers pushed ahead. When the usually friendly-to-California Obama administration said that education funds would be withheld if California voted to change student-testing requirements, the state pols shrugged and approved the bill anyway.
Attack of the Killer Privacy Initiative
What do you get when a former State Senator and a trial lawyer team up? Possibly one of the worst potential initiatives to come along in quite some time. And yet, that is exactly what former State Senator Steve Peace and San Diego trial lawyer Michael Thorsnes are pushing. (You may recall that Senator Peace co-produced and co-wrote the 1978 cult classic, “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.”)
On August 2, they submitted a request to the Attorney General’s office for the California Personal Privacy Initiative. Their proposed initiative would add new privacy protections to the state constitution and more specifically, it would establish standards for the collection of personal information by government and commercial entities.
8,000 Job Applications
Our political leaders are often pulled in many directions. The exception is during a crisis. During the great recession and glacially moving recovery, we heard many elected officials declare a jobs crisis and the creation of jobs as the top priority.
Lately however, I have become concerned that our leaders at the local, state and federal levels have come to the conclusion that our economy is out of the woods and that other issues should take priority. Yes, locally there are exciting visions on the horizon such as the steady growth of Silicon Beach and continued construction downtown. But the need to maintain a crisis mentality about job creation came into sharp focus this past week when The Boeing Co. announced that C-17 production will come to a halt in 2015 and the unemployment rate in Los Angeles County increased to 10.1 from 9.9 percent.
San Diego County Proves Prop 13 No Problem When it Comes to Govt. Revenue
When it comes to gathering sufficient property taxes, Prop 13 is no problem at all – except for profligate spenders. Look at the history of my San Diego County – a history that pretty much reflects the history of property taxes in the urban/suburban counties that hold over 85% of California’s population.
According to the SD County Tax Assessor, in 1977 – the year BEFORE Prop 13 took effect (when everything was working great, according to Prop 13 critics) – our countywide property tax revenue was about $639 million. In the 2012-2013 fiscal year, our county treasurer reported real estate property tax revenues of $4.630 BILLION. For every property tax dollar collected in 1977, the county in 2012-13 collected $7.25.