Tax Me, Please. Enough is Enough!

A Special Guest Editorial to California’s Capitol

By Gus Turdlock 

The hole is just getting bigger, now get rid of your shovels.   It’s time to get on with it. 

I pay a lot of money to the state each month in personal income taxes.  But I’m willing to pay more, assuming everyone joins me, to end this monumental standoff in the state Capitol.     Read more »

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Review of the Budget Bidding

The Schwarzenegger administration now pegs the state’s budget disaster at nearly $15 billion this year and over $41 billion if nothing is done between now and June 30, 2010. 

If the administration’s estimates are correct and, given the state of the state’s economy, it’s well within the realm of possibility, that would mean a gap between revenue and spending commitments of close to 40 percent of the state’s $103 billion general fund.     Read more »

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Air Board Approves AB32 Scoping Plan

Ignoring criticism from economic experts and the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the California Air Resources Board has unanimously adopted a plan to create the country’s most aggressive assault on greenhouse gas emissions.

(Editor’s Note: See post below for more information.)    Read more »

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Irate About Weight

Must have missed the proclamation officially designating us as the Gladys Kravitz society but how exactly does Oprah Winfrey being “irate about her weight,” as KCRA-TV glibly put it, constitute as important news about the world — particularly in a 20 minute or so broadcast. 

Whether Oprah Winfrey is 200 pounds or 20 stone seems slightly less weighty than the latest from Iraq or Afghanistan or Elk Grove, for that matter.    Read more »

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Quick Question…

Is there a name for the post-election phenomenon in which the posters and bumper-stickers of losing candidates swiftly vanish while those of the winner linger for weeks, sometimes months?

If not, there should be.

     Read more »

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AB 32 Scoping Plan “Biased” and “Incomplete,” Outside Reviewers Say

The state’s economic analysis justifying a multi-billion plan to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next 12 years is “flawed,” “biased,” as well as underestimates costs and overstates savings, according to six economists who critiqued the proposal. 

A separate assessment by the Legislative Analyst published Nov. 17, concluded that the California Air Resources Board’s AB 32 Scoping Plan contains an “inconsistent” and “incomplete” evaluation of costs and savings and fails to prove that by 2020 implementing the plan would create a slight economic benefit for the state.     Read more »

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Your Tax Dollars At Work

News Item: State of California Faces $28 billion Revenue Shortfall Absent Corrective Action, Legislative Analyst reports. 

Lawmakers came to Sacramento December 4, took their oaths of office, followed by celebratory lunches or gatherings then blew town. 

But they did take action: They introduced 90-some bills, resolutions and constitutional amendments. 

In the Senate, it’s new leader, Darrell Steinberg, placed the first measure across the desk of the upper house’s 2009-2010 session: A spot bill declaring the Legislature’s intent to offer universal health care for California’s kids.     Read more »

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A Point Well Taken

(Editor’s Note: This e-mail has been making the rounds.)  

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.   Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to all Americans as a 'Dividend'.   To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+   Our population is about 301,000,000 ± counting every man, woman and child.    Read more »

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SALT II It Ain’t But…

Recently, California’s Capitol had the privilege of moderating a panel comprised of GOP Assemblyman Roger Niello of Sacramento and Assemblyman Jared Huffman, a San Rafael Democrat.*

Since it was the 67th Annual Conference of the California Water Association a fair amount of time was spent discussing water – or the state’s lack thereof – and assessing the cut of Huffman’s jib given his appointment as the new chair of the lower house’s Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.    Read more »

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Enough Whimpering Already

There is much garment rending and teeth gnashing in the state Capitol over California’s fiscal condition. 

This fiscal year alone, which is nearly half over, there is at least an $11 billion gap between revenue and spending commitments. The governor predicts another $13 billion gap for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009.     Read more »

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