Free Republic

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- Reflecting on lessons learned on a two-day trip to the Lone Star state, Assembly Republicans said Thursday California needs to follow Texas' model of lower taxes and fewer regulations and legal hurdles to keep the economy growing. GOP lawmakers led a delegation of California representatives to meet with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, and spoke to business owners about why they left California last week. Assembly Minority Leader Connie Conway of Tulare said the trip affirmed her caucus is on the right track with a package of bills she says would help California companies thrive....

"The taxpayers gave and they also took away. On one hand, the people said by a majority, 'Give us a budget.' On the other hand, they said, 'Don't pick my pocket.'" This was Jerry Brown's verdict on California voters' picks on ballot measures delivered at his post-victory press conference Wednesday. In passing Proposition 25, which allows the Legislature to pass a budget with a simple majority vote, the people made it easier for Sacramento to pass a budget. But in approving Proposition 22, which prohibits using funds dedicated to local services to close the state's budget hole, voters made it...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman on Tuesday told the San Jose Mercury News editorial board that "Fresno looks like Detroit. It's awful." According to the Mercury News website, Whitman was commenting on Fresno's economic state and the effect of recession on the region, and the former eBay CEO's campaign said as much in a statement released this morning. "It was clear in the interview that Meg was talking about the economic duress in Fresno and the awful pain that results from record high unemployment," Whitman spokesman Andrea Jones Rivera said in an e-mail. "Meg knows that Fresno cannot be left...