Free Republic

It's easy to dismiss the dramatic fall of Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer as the failings of an addict. But it was much more than that. A system - our political system - created her. Our political system allows one person, like state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, to run for a statewide office, collect millions of dollars in donations and then bestow those funds like a kingmaker in lower-level races - like a county supervisor's race. Our system here in Alameda County allows one party - the Democratic Party - to declare for the rest of us who should be in...

Two years ago, when Jerry Brown was trying to reclaim the governorship he had left 28 years earlier, he often said that his age, maturity and lack of political ambition would allow him to succeed where others had failed. Brown said he would patiently attack the state's political issues, especially the deficit-ridden state budget, and "I will tell the truth in ways (that hadn't occurred) in years past." Those "years past" included his own first governorship, when Brown developed a reputation for saying whatever sounded politically advantageous at the moment, regardless of how it may have differed from what he...

Over the coming months of gestation about taxation, California voters will be inundated with claims, counterclaims and other forms of propaganda. We still don't know how many major tax proposals will be on the November ballot. It'll be at least one, but whether it's the one that Jerry Brown, other Democratic politicians and labor unions want, or the one that civil rights attorney Molly Munger and the PTA want, is still unknown. Most likely, it'll be both. Brown, having merged his original tax proposal with one pushed by a left-wing coalition, now wants to hike sales taxes by a quarter-cent...

Gov. Jerry Brown urged the Legislature on Friday to "man up" and make spending cuts, acknowledging the state budget deficit is likely larger than he previously thought. The Democratic governor, in an interview on Bay Area talk radio station KGO (810 AM), said the deficit is "probably bigger now" than the $9.2 billion he estimated earlier this year. "We're trying to be as prudent as we can," Brown said. "That's why the Legislature has to man up, make the cuts and get some taxes and we'll make it." Democrats this year have resisted Brown's proposed cuts to social services and...

As state leaders hope for a surprise uptick in revenues this spring, state Controller John Chiang reported Tuesday that California lagged last month by $233.5 million, or 4.2 percent. The state missed its target most in corporate income taxes, which were $125.8 million (8.2 percent) off the mark. Income taxes and sales taxes were each less than 2 percent behind Gov. Jerry Brown's revenue forecast. For the fiscal year that ends in June, the state is now trailing Brown's expectations by nearly $1.1 billion, or 1.9 percent.

Gov. Jerry Brown has agreed to extend the labor contracts of four state worker unions, pushing aside a potential obstacle to his quest for a tax increase later this year. The agreements affect roughly 24,000 state employees working under deals that expire July 1, extending their current terms for one more year. The governor's deals with labor are "mind-numbing," given the state's $9.2 billion deficit, said Senate GOP leader Bob Huff. The Diamond Bar Republican and three other GOP leaders last month put their names on a budget proposal that included cutting state workers' pay by about 5 percent. "It's...

Less than a week after Gov. Jerry Brown started using robotic telephone calls and mailers to gather signatures for his ballot initiative to raise taxes, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association plans to launch its anti-tax campaign today on the conservative "John and Ken" talk radio show. The taxpayers group this morning posted a red banner on its website inviting viewers to join a "Don't Sign the Petition" campaign. The banner links to a campaign website opposing Brown's effort to raise the state sales tax and income taxes on California's highest earners.

Imagine you sign a contract to put down $9,000 on a $340,000 house situated on a beachfront in Laguna with a closing date of 12 months from now. Then imagine that a few months later, the seller tells you he has some changes to your contract. Your beachfront Laguna house will be located in Brawley, instead. And instead of $340,000, your house in Brawley will cost you $980,000. Just a technical change in the contract, the seller says. And, oh, by the way, your sale won’t close in 12 months, it’ll take a bit longer, 26 months instead of 12...

With a lower price tag and speedier plan to start zipping bullet trains up and down California, Gov. Jerry Brown's ambitious new high-speed rail proposal is still wobbly on one vital ingredient: billions and billions of dollars. The state still has no guarantee on where it will come up with about 80 percent of the funding needed for a project that high-speed rail leaders announced Monday will cost at least $68 billion. But bullet train backers are now touting a new wild card .. Anywhere from $2 billion to $14 billion a year could be in play for high-speed rail,...

Gov. Jerry Brown's administration vowed Thursday to continue pushing forward elements of the federal health care overhaul in California, even if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes it down. If the court does rule the federal law unconstitutional, state Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley said California should at least consider enacting its own universal health care legislation, including requiring every Californian to buy insurance. "I think that we should be committed to making this system more rational than it is today, and improving the health of the people of California," Dooley said in an interview. "If we ask the...

When Gov. Jerry Brown reached a tax compromise with the California Federation of Teachers and liberal activists, apparently their "Millionaires' Tax" slogan was included in the deal. Brown launched a new campaign website today whose front page calls the proposal a "Millionaires' Tax" even though it contains a quarter-cent sales tax increase and starts hiking income taxes at $250,000 for single filers and $500,000 for couples.

In a show of good faith one year ago, legislative Democrats slashed Medi-Cal, cut universities and reduced welfare grants to slice the state deficit 13 weeks before the constitutional deadline. But this year Democrats are refusing to go along with Gov. Jerry Brown's most controversial reductions, spurning his demand to have cuts in place by March. They oppose Brown's plan to halve the amount of time that unemployed adults can receive welfare-to-work benefits and to slash grants to children. Assembly Democrats have voted against his proposal to cut scholarship aid for 26,000 low-income students through higher grade requirements for Cal...

Future state workers would say goodbye to the prospect of getting paid more than Gov. Jerry Brown under legislation pushed by a Republican state senator. Senate Bill 1368, by Sen. Joel Anderson, would set the top salary available to state workers and officers at the $173,987 annual paycheck currently approved for the state's top executive. "Salaries should be tied to the actual duties and responsibilities of the position," the Alpine Republican said in a statement. "Only highly paid bureaucrats can rationalize why their responsibilities are of greater importance than the Governor of a state with 38 million citizens." The cap...

Does Jerry Brown ever haul his almost 74-year-old body out of bed in the morning, look in the mirror and ask himself why he ever had the notion of running for governor again, three decades after leaving the job? If he did, he'd probably never admit it. But Brown 2.0 clearly has found that governing California in the 21st century is more difficult than the scenario he painted for voters in 2010 – that his experience and professionalism would succeed where others had failed. Last year, he excoriated Republicans for not allowing voters to decide whether taxes should be raised...

Gov. Jerry Brown likes to talk about "loyalty to California." For Brown, that means that public people should put aside their partisan interests to do what is best for the Golden State. Last week, Brown failed his own loyalty test. He agreed to a deal to put a tax-increase measure on the November ballot when he has to know that the new measure exacerbates California's dysfunctional finances. Brown's been trying to get a measure on the ballot ever since he was elected. This year, he proposed a "temporary" tax-increase measure for the November ballot. The five-year Brown plan would have...

Two days after Gov. Jerry Brown announced a compromise ballot measure to raise taxes, California's top budget analyst said today that the measure will generate $2.2 billion less next year than Brown has estimated. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office estimated in its review of the measure that the tax increase would generate $6.8 billion in fiscal 2012-13. Brown had estimated raising some $9 billion. The tax initiative, a compromise Wednesday between the Democratic governor and the California Federation of Teachers, would increase the state sales tax less than Brown originally proposed, but include a larger tax increase on California's highest...

During a stream-of-consciousness speech to a gathering of police chiefs this week, Jerry Brown noted that during his first governorship, personal income taxes generated about a third of the state's revenue, but since have become a dominant source. The result, he continued, was "more volatility" in the state's revenue, which resulted in "a more or less constant state" of deficits. That's absolutely correct. When income taxes spike upward, politicians and voters squander windfalls on difficult-to-lower spending, and when they plummet – as they always eventually do – the state is then left with multibillion-dollar gaps. Brown told the top cops...

After a months-long feud with his most liberal allies, Gov. Jerry Brown compromised Wednesday to eliminate a rival tax initiative for the November ballot. The new proposal Brown forged with the California Federation of Teachers and left-leaning activists would rely more on taxing the rich to raise an estimated $9 billion for California's budget. The Democratic governor tried with little success to knock CFT's rival tax on millionaires off the November ballot. With a negotiating window closing fast because of the election calendar, state leaders and the teachers group struck an eleventh-hour deal to put their unified plan before voters....

Gov. Jerry Brown sounded resigned to facing competition with his tax proposal on November’s ballot in comments he made Monday to the Police Chief’s Association and to reporters afterward. Proponents of two other proposals, the California Federation of Teachers’ so-called Millionaire’s tax and wealthy civil rights attorney Molly Munger’s broad-based tax for schools, have rejected Brown’s entreaties to back off and are actively gathering signatures to get on the ballot. That’s forced Brown to take his case to the public, arguing before editorial board meetings and various groups that his is the only plan that tames the deficit and seeks...

California's high-speed rail project has been plagued with cost increases, delays and political shenanigans since 2008, when voters authorized $9.9 billion in bonds to help pay for it. Unsurprisingly, recent weeks have brought more of the same. The independent Legislative Analyst now says the state must repay more than $700 million annually if bonds are sold to build an initial 130-mile Central Valley route. Ultimately, the plan would link San Diego and San Francisco. But to get $3.3 billion in federal funds, train authorities agreed to put the first tracks where populations are sparse, rather than in densely populated areas...