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In a close election race against former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina, California Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer is facing new ethics complaints over asking teachers to send their students to work for her campaign. In an Oct. 27 letter to California education authorities, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA), a non-profit group urging lower taxes, said, “In abject ignorance of California state law, the political campaign of Senator Barbara Boxer has openly solicited teachers employed by [Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)] to urge their students to volunteer for her campaign.” The HJTA letter refers to a letter obtained by the...

Californians heading to the polls in November will vote whether to derail the state's landmark greenhouse gas emission law. Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced this afternoon that the measure to delay Assembly Bill 32, the 2006 law mandating the state reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, has qualified for the ballot. Proponents, who needed to submit at least 435,000 valid voter signatures to make the cut, reached the threshold for qualifying through the random sample process. The measure, called the California Jobs Initiative, calls for delaying implementation of the regulations until the state unemployment rate --...

Meg Whitman may not be fond of referring to herself as a Republican in her ubiquitous radio ads -- and Steve Poizner was the GOP guv candidate snuggling with the right-wing at the CPAC confab last week along with US Senate candidate Chuck DeVore-- but it was Meg who snagged some big time conservative love Monday when the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Group PAC endorsed her. Wrote HoJar prez Jon Coupal Monday: "High taxes and out-of-control spending have pushed California state government to the brink of bankruptcy, and we need strong leadership to put California back on track. Meg Whitman is...

You and every other Californian are being targeted by Sacramento politicians to pay more, much more, in taxes. On top of the just approved highest state tax increase in U.S. history, the politicians want you and your family to pay an additional $1,000 or more per year. To get your money, the politicians have placed Prop. 1A on the May 19 Special Election ballot. This giant tax increase is disguised as a "Spending Cap" and "Budget Reform." Prop. 1A is a TAX EXTENSION of the new taxes just approved — taxes that have already made us the highest taxed state...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Taking inspiration from a landmark 1970s tax revolt, a determined group of activists say the moment is right for another voter uprising in California, where recession-battered residents have been hit with the highest income and sales tax rates in the nation. And like Proposition 13, the 1978 ballot measure that transformed the state's political landscape and ignited tax-reform movements nationwide, they see the next backlash coming not from either major political party, but from the people. If the anti-tax crusaders can galvanize voter discontent, they hope to roll back the latest tax hikes, impose permanent, iron-clad...

IN MY OPINION (Column) In Hollywood, when a studio is having problems with a screenplay, they often call on a skilled writer known as a “script doctor” to improve portions of dialogue, pacing or, in extreme cases, even the story line. Hollywood veteran Arnold Schwarzenegger apparently is having problems with one of his own productions, Proposition 1A on the May 19 special election ballot, a measure that would cost Californians $16 billion in additional taxes. So our governor is trying to rewrite the script himself. But in politics, this function is called a “spin doctor.” Although Proposition 1A was put...

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Contact him through the organization's Web site, www.hjta.org. All right, Sherman, let's set the Wayback Machine for Feb. 16, 2004. Listen, we can hear Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger telling voters that Proposition 58 would basically take the politicians' credit cards away so that those big spenders would never ever get the state into this kind of trouble again. While Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine may be a fantasy recognizable to fans of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, the words of the governor were actually spoken. Californians listened, approved Proposition 58 and, based...

The pictures told the story. They were laughing, back slapping and sharing high fives all around. It could have been Butch Cassidy and the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang celebrating a successful train robbery. Only these were malefactors of another sort. They were members of the Legislature expressing their joy immediately after agreeing to make California taxpayers the most overburdened in the nation for at least the next two years. Lawmakers and the governor, who was equally eager to get his hands on the new tax revenue, sought to make the bitter medicine taste better by promising the new taxes were temporary --...

In perhaps one of the most brazen political moves in California history, Democrat leadership yesterday unveiled a budget proposal that would shred the California Constitution by raising billions of new taxes without the required two-thirds vote. The tax hikes in the proposal would include a 2.5% surcharge on anyone paying personal income tax, an additional three quarter of one percent sales tax, an oil severance tax and replacement of current taxes on gas with even higher “fees.” We have no idea who is providing legal advice to the Semocrats, but they should have been informed before launching this silly proposal...

In 2004, voters narrowly approved Proposition 63, the Mental Heath Services Act (MHSA), which imposed an additional 1% tax on personal income above $1 million. The funds generated from this “millionaire’s tax” were intended to expand county mental health programs. Taxpayer and business groups opposed the measure for a couple of obvious reasons. First, California is already a high tax, high spending state that didn’t need any more revenue. Second, as we predicted, Prop 63 would exacerbate California’s income tax volatility. Although the final vote for Proposition 63 was tallied more than four years ago, evidence suggests that California’s most...

Seems that Governor Schwarzenegger wants to help out his old Hollywood friends with millions of dollars in tax breaks. He makes a case that lower taxes on film and television companies will reverse the trend of runaway production. Currently, California is losing out to at least 40 other states and Canada that are luring away production companies with very attractive tax incentives. Five years ago, 66% of feature film production took place in California. Last year this was reduced to just 31% and the governor wants to help an industry that supports about 250,000 employees. While a non-critical evaluation might...

It is no surprise that fiscal conservatives in California are appalled at the breathtaking assault on taxpayers proposed by Governor Schwarzenegger. Both activists and elected leaders – usually Republicans – have responded with either derision or laughter (with perhaps some expletives mixed in). Given that the Governor could find not a single legislator from either party to carry his last budget, it is safe to assume his latest proposed mix of cuts and revenue enhancements will receive similar treatment at the Capitol. But his proposal to expand the sales tax to include a number of services has another problem: As...

Jarvis Taxpayers Association Endorses Proposition 11 The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has announced the endorsement of Proposition 11 to stop the conflict of interest of lawmakers drawing their own districts and choosing the voters they want to help ensure their reelection. "The current system fixes elections so that fewer than five percent of state representatives face a challenge to their reelection," said HJTA president Jon Coupal. "This has resulted in a climate where lawmakers do not have to be accountable to voters for effectively addressing problems like on-going budget deficits and out-of-control spending." Proposition 11 will take the power to...

Even in the best of times, the three major bond proposals on the November ballot would merit a thumbs down. Propositions 1A, 3, and 10 would put taxpayers another $16 billion in debt to fund some dubious projects. Proposition 1A spends $10 billion as a down payment on a massive bullet train project. Promoters, which includes the company responsible for Boston's infamous "Big Dig" disaster, claim the project can be completed for about $50 billion. However, a just released study by transportations experts, which includes a former president of the High Speed Rail Association and a former member of the...

The State Capitol is hemorrhaging red ink. The non-partisan legislative analyst's office (LAO) has released a report showing that the revenue shortfall from the budget just passed in August could exceed $10 billion. Fortunately, the governor and the Legislature established a modest $4 billion reserve or the deficit would be much higher. How did we get into this mess? If this seems like déjà vu all over again, you're right. It's been just seven years since then Governor Gray Davis, who inherited a budget surplus, began to run up massive state deficits which were largely responsible for his being recalled....

As the stalemate over the budget continues into its seventh week, taxpayers are troubled over mischaracterizations in the mainstream media about who is responsible. The negative attention is focused on Senate Republicans who are being portrayed as the obstructionists. But viewed fairly, their position is both reasonable and mainstream. They want to see a balanced budget -- rather than saddle future generations with a massive debt load – and they want to ensure that the $42 billion dollars of bond financing for infrastructure just passed by voters last November is actually spent on infrastructure. Moreover, the position which these Senators...

Senate leader Don Perata has a plan to provide all uninsured working Californians with Health Insurance at an estimated cost of $5 billion to $7 billion without a tax increase. Okay... The Perata plan would force businesses that do not provide health insurance, and their employees, through a payroll deduction, to pay into a state agency that would attempt to negotiate for "affordable" coverage. When paying taxes, workers would have to show proof of medical insurance. This is just plain wrong on so many levels -- let me count the ways. A plan that is estimated to cost $5 billion...

The writer is an attorney and president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Now that football season has begun, optimistic fans dream of winning the big game and a world championship. Coaches devise game plans that will keep the opposing team off balance and maximize their chances of victory. For the unlucky teams who don’t have the best talent, deception and misdirection plays are the only chance they have to succeed. The same is true in the California Legislature. The beginning of games on the gridiron also signals the end of games under the Capitol dome, where politicians seek to...

In some countries the use of eminent domain can be a life or death issue. Last June, in the small village of Shengyou, China, six people were killed and 50 injured in a bloody clash between farmers and hundreds of armed thugs sent by government operatives to seize their land. This was just one of thousands of disputes over land appropriation that take place each year in China Fueling these conflicts is the ambiguous nature of property ownership in China. The rights of farmers who hold land collectively are not made clear under Chinese law. Although farmers can acquire property...

That ominous shadow that is now darkening the Golden State is being cast from a massive "infrastructure" bond trial balloon. Although an exact amount has not been announced, the Capitol is abuzz with numbers that would make Bill Gates blush. Insiders from both the Schwarzenegger administration and the Democrat controlled legislature have suggested that a "megabond" of $50 billion, or even $100 billion, is possible. Backers of this monstrous debt issuance claim that the proceeds would be used to rebuild California's infrastructure of roads, levies, dams and other critical "brick and mortar" needs which no one disputes have been horribly...