Free Republic

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...

For six years in a row, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation (HJTF) have published the California Piglet Book to spotlight waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayers' dollars. Modeled after the Pig Book, an annual analysis of Federal spending conducted by CAGW, we have found the state Piglet an excellent method of embarrassing California officials into better performance and a higher respect for the public's money. In a target rich environment, this year we have chosen to focus our attention on the misuse of public transportation dollars. An examination of public transportation projects commonly reveals...

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....

California taxpayers forked out $10.2 billion for public employee pensions in 2003-04 and are likely to face even greater liability in future years, according to a study released Monday. The study prepared for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association by the Center for Government Analysis at Newport Beach analyzed 130 public pension systems statewide and found taxpayer outlays doubled from 1997-98 to 2003-04. "State and local governments are going to have to put more money into these systems and that means less money for police, less money for teachers, less money for schools, less money for roads, less money for parks...

SACRAMENTO - Just weeks after voters rejected a controversial measure to reform eminent-domain laws in California, taxpayer advocates have returned with a similar measure they say will protect property owners from some government seizures. The measure, sponsored by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, would still allow governments to seize private property for public purposes but would prohibit seizures for private development. The measure is similar to Proposition 90, which voters rejected earlier this month, but differs in a few key aspects. For one, Proposition 90 had a provision - not included in the Jarvis measure - that critics said would...

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...

Compared to prior years, the resolution of the 2006-2007 California state budget was a relatively benign affair. True, it was still late, as the constitutional deadline was June 15th. But like the line from the first Pirates of Caribbean movie, this constitutional provision has always been treated more like a “guideline,” not a firm rule. (This alone tells us a lot about the fidelity to constitutional principles held by our ruling elites). The budget was passed, happily, before the beginning of the fiscal year which started on Saturday. That has not happened since the year 2000. And there is more...

The California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights endorsed "The Homeowners and Private Property Protection Act," sponsored by Senator Tom McClintock, Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association on Friday. The ballot measure has companion bills before the State Legislature. SCA 20 and ACA 22 are sponsored by Senator McClintock and Assemblyman LaMalfa, respectively. As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's Kelo v. New London decision, nearly every state in the country is considering legislative reforms, including California. However, California private property rights activists have not been assured that meaningful reforms will be passed by the California...

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...

California’s property owners, incensed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Kelo decision, are going on the offensive with a ballot initiative that aims to limit the government’s sweeping eminent domain powers. But powerful developers who benefit from the status quo are sure to put up a fight. The California Property Owners Protection Act would eliminate the state and local governments’ ability to take personal property for non-public uses. Public uses would be strictly defined as the building of roads, parks, and public edifices. Non-public uses include the transferring of an individual’s land to another person or private entity. The initiative,...

A loosely knit band of Silicon Valley's wealthiest is back with a new scheme to increase the burden on property tax payers. This group is mostly the same billionaire boy's club members that spent $60 million in 2000 on a successful campaign to make it easier to increase property taxes for school bonds, while vigorously defending tax breaks for their own industry. Since then, local districts have successfully passed more than $39 billion in local school bonds, but for these hi-tech industry elites, it's not enough. Now they have filed a new tax hiking initiative that would hit every 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...

When Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected in 2003, Republicans were hopeful he would restore the credibility of their party. Since Pete Wilson's reelection in 1994, the party had been in steady decline for nearly a decade-losing every single statewide office, and mired hopelessly in the minority in both legislative houses. Schwarzenegger built early momentum during his first year in office. But after the November 2004 election, Schwarzenegger and his advisors hatched an ambitious agenda, which would be laid out in the State of the State address in January 2005. The agenda would amount to a declaration of political war on many...

We have a saying at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association: "We can't lead where our members don't want to go." This is an acknowledgement that support for our work comes from member dues and that affiliation with this taxpayer organization is voluntary. If dues-paying members are not convinced that HJTA is working to advance their interests as taxpayers, they won't be dues paying members for long and the organization will wither. Needless to say, we are motivated to pay close attention to their concerns. Let's contrast this approach with that of the leadership of our state's public employee unions. First,...

State Treasurer Phil Angelides' proposal to sell or lease idle state property and use the money for higher education has drawn fire from a taxpayers organization. A bill in the Senate Appropriations Committee would establish the California Hope Endowment, which would enact Angelides' idea of taking about $5 billion in state land and putting it in a trust. With a 6 percent return, the trust would generate $300 million for outreach, counseling, help with college preparation and scholarships, the treasurer asserted last week. "One of the biggest needs facing our state is to educate a work force who can compete...

<p>The first rule of politics is to tear down your opponent. That might not be fair, but, regrettably, it is just a fact of campaigning in modern democracies. When your opponent is a candidate, you conduct "opposition research" to dig up dirt. But with an initiative, it is more difficult to make it personal.</p>

Bond Issue's Foes Losing Steam Some who opposed Prop. 57 weeks ago now urge voters to pass it. Others say there is not enough money to fight the governor's power. < snip > Only weeks ago, fiscal conservative legislators Ray Haynes and John Campbell argued passionately against the plan to borrow $15-billion, and then they voted against it. Now they support it and are urging Californians to vote “yes.” A half dozen other Republican Assembly members who voted with them are doing the same, along with most of the state’s anti-tax, anti-borrowing crowd — from the Howard Jarvis Assn. to...

CALIFORNIA COMMENTARY (Column) Most Politicians Don’t Understand Where Money Comes From By JON COUPAL (The writer is an attorney and president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.) The California Primary election is less than two months away and voters will face critical decisions about the future of the Golden State. On the ballot will be both Governor Schwarzenegger’s fiscal recovery proposals as well as Proposition 56, which would rip the heart and soul out of Proposition 13. The election is also the first step in the winnowing process that will determine state representatives for the 2005/2006 legislative session. This particular...

<p>Rescue California, the campaign committee funded by Rep. Darrell Issa to gather signatures for last year’s recall campaign, has morphed into “Rescue California… from budget deficits” and will sponsor a spending limit initiative that it hopes to place on the November ballot. The measure is largely patterned after a limit authored by Assemblyman John Campbell and Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and offered as the most conservative alternative during December’s debate over spending limits and reserve requirements. It would cap spending growth at the rate of population growth and inflation, with half of any revenue above that amount going toward an accelerated repayment of Schwarzenegger’s $15 billion bond, if that passes in March. The other half would go to a new budget reserve that could reach 10 percent of the general fund. Excess monies after that would be split between school construction and sales tax reductions.</p>

Metropolitan News-Enterprise IN MY OPINION (Column) Another Tax Increase Initiative: When Will It Stop? By JON COUPAL (The writer is an attorney and president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.) During and after the recall campaign, Arnold Schwarzenegger repeatedly stated that he would raise taxes only as a last resort in case of major catastrophe. With major fires and an earthquake behind us and still no tax increase, he apparently meant what he said. This has left the tax-and-spend lobby fuming. It has also left them with the initiative process as the only realistic mechanism to pursue their big government...