Free Republic

If county voters are feeling pinched by stagnant wages and a plummeting economy, it didn't show at the polls Tuesday. Sales-tax increases and school bond measures appeared headed for victory in communities across the county, with some winning by wide margins. In addition to choosing a president and deciding a host of divisive statewide issues, voters in the San Diego region were asked to consider 13 separate tax measures to finance all kinds of public services. The high-profile Proposition A, which would have taxed most property owners $52 a year for enhanced fire protection, was falling short of the two-thirds...

The dozen measures on California's Nov. 4 general election ballot would cost taxpayers – and their children and grandchildren – $78.9 billion over the next 30 years, a Bee analysis has found. That includes $33.2 billion for four bond proposals, $30 billion for drug rehabilitation programs and another $15.5 billion to ensure a minimum amount of state funds for local jails and other law enforcement programs. On the plus side, if the drug rehab program worked, it could save taxpayers $32.5 billion and reduce the overall ballot's potential cost to $44.4 billion. But that's still a daunting price tag in...

Your trusty FlashReport Publisher has been to every State GOP Convention since 1988 and I can tell you that as far as these events go, this one is perhaps one of the most sparsely attended gatherings to which I have ever been. Why is the attendance so low? First and foremost, it is a weekend in August, which traditionally is vacation time for many people. That has been a factor with a number of people who told me ahead of time that they would not be here. But the "I'm on vacation" cases do feed into a bigger set of...

The largest bond measures approved by California voters since 1972 have all come within the past decade: - Proposition 57, 2004: $15 billion for deficit financing, allowing the state to refinance its deficit and close future budget shortfalls. - Proposition 55, 2004: $12.3 billion to pay for new school buildings and upgrade existing ones. K-12 schools were eligible for $10 million, while higher education received the rest. - Proposition 50, 2002: $3.4 billion to fund water quality and safe drinking water projects, coastal protection and the CalFed Bay-Delta Program. - Proposition 47, 2002: $13 billion to fund construction of public...

Facing a midnight deadline, the state Assembly was called back into session Wednesday to consider placing at least part of a massive public works bond proposal on the June ballot. The session was called shortly after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and leaders from both parties met for about an hour in a last-minute round of negotiations. Steve Maviglio, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said the Assembly was to consider placing two measures on the June ballot: a $10.4 billion bond to build schools and upgrade universities, and an undetermined amount to repair the state's fragile levee system. "We...

After months of negotiations, an $11.7 billion transportation and infrastructure plan to repair roads, ease traffic, strengthen levees, and expand affordable housing is coming together in the Senate. A similar proposal, with new school construction funding, will be unveiled in the Assembly in January. Both houses hope to get their proposals ready within two weeks, when the new legislative session gets under way. And Gov. Schwarzenegger's own plan, which Capitol sources say may be pared down from its original $50 billion price tag to $35 billion and may be phased in over time rather than in one lump, is scheduled...

<p>TULARE, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked farmers Wednesday to support Propositions 57 and 58, the bond initiatives he has championed as the best way to save the state from fiscal insolvency.</p> <p>Schwarzenegger took his campaign to pass the bond measures to the World Ag Expo, the nation's largest farm equipment show. He was joined by representatives of the state's largest farm groups - the California Farm Bureau Federation, the Nisei Farmer League and the Western Growers - to tout the benefits of Propositions 57 and 58.</p>

<p>FRESNO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday gave Fresno the hard sell on a $15 billion bond that is at the heart of his economic recovery plan for California, saying if voters fail to approve the ballot measure on March 2, it will mean "Armageddon cuts" to the state's budget.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget is perilously linked to a variety of bond issues that could fail at the ballot box and in the Legislature, toppling his financial rescue plan and further damaging the state's battered credit ratings, Wall Street analysts warned Friday.</p>

<p>SAN JOSE - The mystery of "Rosebud" is solved.</p> <p>The secret donor who gave $1 million to the campaigns to pass California's last two parks bonds is Caroline Getty, a Southern California heiress to the Getty oil fortune and a longtime environmental philanthropist.</p>