Right-leaners, continued ..... [Archive]

Corbon91

August 9th, 2005, 05:42 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

August 8, 2005

When Will They Ever Learn

Sometimes I really hate being right. Look at my website. On September 17, 2004 (“Oops, Government Does It Again”) and June 6, 2003 (“We’re From the Government and We’re Here to Help You”) both predicted massive increases in health care premiums and huge increases in the uninsured from continued regulation of health care financing, principally regulation of health insurance.

This week, the Insurance Commissioner, an advocate for socialized medicine, wrote a report, which he called “Priced Out,” showing that insurance premiums have increased 61 per cent, and the number of uninsured has increased to 6.6 million Californians. He blames insurance companies for this.

He is particularly upset at one insurance company who offers an insurance product to young people (18 to 30 year olds) with reduced benefits, high deductibles and low premiums. The product is wildly popular, giving young, healthy people protection against major medical problems at a price they can afford. These younger workers, who just last year were among the ranks of the uninsured, are now insured, and the Insurance Commissioner is mad.

Why?

I thought being insured was good. Well, the report says that those bad insurance companies are giving these workers a choice, buy cheap insurance without pregnancy coverage if you want. That is wrong, complains the Commissioner because those insurance companies should require young, 25 year old single men to pay for insurance coverage for pregnancy because young women get pregnant. Those insurance companies are cherry picking their customers, he claims, by getting these young, single (and usually healthy) men to buy this cheap policy.

Who is he kidding? One of the choices that every worker has is the choice to not be insured. If government raises the price of health insurance, these young men will simply choose to spend the money on their cars, and run the risk of getting really sick and not being able to pay. Then, if the bills get too high, they will just file bankruptcy, and you and I will eat the bill in our insurance coverage.

Those are the choices. Forcing coverage on people doesn’t result in more coverage; it will actually result in no coverage at all. More government regulation will continue to drive more people to the ranks of the uninsured because it will price them out of the market.

The recommendations of the Insurance Commissioner to mandate gold-plated health insurance policies for everyone are tantamount to a government order that everyone own a Rolls Royce. Sure the Rolls-Royce is a good car, but not everyone can afford one. If the government ordered that every car look and work like a Rolls, many people would have to go without a car, because the government-mandated car would be too expensive. Those who can’t afford the Commissioner’s mandated gold-plated health insurance policy will simply go without insurance.

The Insurance Commissioner is correct when he says that the number of uninsured in California has increased because the price of insurance has increased 61 per cent in the last six years in California. It is not greedy insurance companies that have caused the increase, however. It is the number of health insurance policy mandates (well in excess of twenty) enacted by government that have increased the price, and thus increased the number of uninsured. In California, we are all required to buy a Cadillac health policy, or have no health insurance at all. Many have chosen, for financial reasons, to have none at all.

The prescription for this problem by the Insurance Commissioner is more government. Government created the problem with more mandates, more regulation, and more bureaucrats. When will those in government learn that more government cannot fix a problem that more government created?

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Is There Any Solution To State’s Chronic Budget Deficits?

www.sacbee.com/content/po...6974c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/13334924p-14176974c.html)

08-01-05

Arnold Schwarzenegger sends two somewhat contradictory messages on the state's chronic fiscal crisis, as demonstrated by what he said when he signed the 2005-06 budget. "This is a bipartisan budget we can all be proud of because it is balanced, does not raise taxes or include new borrowing, pays down our debt and makes a strong investment for California today and for our future," Schwarzenegger said.

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Election Is Best Bet, Win Or Lose

www.sacbee.com/content/po...5109c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/13323030p-14165109c.html)

08-01-05

Thanks to his recent string of unforced errors and a free-fall in the polls, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting a ton of unsolicited advice these days, and much of it is bad. The worst idea yet is one that is dangerously close to becoming conventional wisdom among the pundits and political consultants who hover around the Capitol: Cancel the Nov. 8 special election.

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DMV workers charged in ID scam

www.insidebayarea.com/oak...ci_2915754 (http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_2915754)

08-05-05

Four DMV workers in Oakland took cash bribes from illegal immigrants and others in exchange for driver's licenses or state identification cards, federal prosecutors said Thursday. The workers, as well as four "brokers" who solicited customers for the scheme, have been charged with crimes punishable by decades in prison following an investigation by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, California Highway Patrol, FBI and Internal Revenue Service.

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California’s Long-Lost Welcome Mat

www.mercurynews.com/mld/m...269200.htm (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/12269200.htm)

08-01-05

Intel announced last week that tax and other incentives helped persuade it to pick Chandler, Ariz., as the location for a new $3 billion chip plant. The plant, a wafer fabrication plant, or fab, will create 3,000 jobs during construction and employ 1,000 once it's up and running. An additional 1,000 or so contractors may get jobs in activities related to supplying and servicing the facility, Intel says.

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Home-Buying Salary Gap Wider

www.dailynews.com/Stories...47,00.html (http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20950~2992447,00.html)

08-03-05

With prices continuing to rise, California households earn far less than the minimum salary needed to buy a median priced home, a trade group reported Tuesday. The median income across the state averaged $53,840 in the second quarter, $70,480 less than the $124,320 salary needed to qualify for a house priced at the median of $530,430, said the Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors. Statewide the gap widened 28.3 percent from the like period a year ago.

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Your Land Is Their Land, Part 2

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar...E1SBL1.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/08/04/EDG5LE1SBL1.DTL)

08-04-05

On July 1, Oakland took possession of two properties that housed two viable businesses -- Revelli Tires and Autohouse, which provided the livelihoods of John Revelli and Tony Fung -- by eminent domain so that a private developer can build apartments in the redevelopment zone. On Aug. 1, Oakland took possession of a parking lot about one block away -- on which owner Alex Hahn says he wants to build housing -- so that Sears can relocate its Auto Center to that lot.

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Pesticide Spin Belies Safety Record

www.cei.org/gencon/019,04744.cfm (http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,04744.cfm)

07-29-05

If you read the recent press the press reports, you might believe that returning your children to school this fall will place them at grave risk. The problem isn’t terrorism, kids with guns, or even deteriorating playgrounds and school buildings. Supposedly, it’s that herbicide used to kill poison ivy in the school yard, the bug spray used to control cockroaches in the halls, the disinfectants used in the cafeteria, or the gentile breeze carrying pesticides from a nearby farm into open school windows. At least that’s the suggestion in a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It rehashes data collected from federal medical surveillance efforts, such as data collected from telephone calls to various poison control centers. But the findings are anything but alarming. The data indicate that there are very few problems associated with pesticide use in or near schools.

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Conflicts Possible In Some State Pacts

www.sacbee.com/content/po...2941c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13351136p-14192941c.html)

08-04-05

An investigation by the state department in charge of procuring goods and services found several possible conflicts of interest among the workers who make contracts, including one that resulted in the contract being canceled and rebid. The investigation was part of a wide-ranging review by the Department of General Services in response to the revelation this spring that a department employee involved in a California Highway Patrol motorcycle contract worked on the side as a disc jockey for the winning bidder.

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TAXATION LEGISLATION WATCHLIST

Compiled by Assemblyman Ray Haynes

08-05-05

This list of bills has been compiled by Assemblyman Ray Haynes’ office as a legislative service for those individuals interested in tax legislation. Updates to the Watchlist are done monthly, or more frequently as activity dictates. Quoted material comes from the actual text of the bill itself. Session Resumes 8-15-05 and ends 9-16-05.

AB 6 (Chan, D-Oakland) Personal income tax increases. Increases the tax burden on small business by increasing the personal income tax rate to 10 and 11 percent and the alternative tax rate to 8.5 percent. Passed Asm Rev & Tax on 5-19-05 on a 4-3 vote. Passed Asm Appropriations on 5-25-05 on a 13-5 vote. Did not meet 6-6-05 deadline for passing off the floor of origin. Could become a two-year bill. OPPOSE

AB 342 (Baca, D-San Bernardino) Perchlorate fee. Would charge a fee on products using perchlorate, a rocket fuel, to fund treatment of drinking wells contaminated by the chemical. Held in Asm Rules, likely dead. OPPOSE

AB 655 (Leno, D-San Francisco) Entertainment tax. Adds a one percent surcharge to all admission prices for “entertainment venues” in the state in order to fund the California Arts Council. In Asm Arts, Entertain, Sports, Tourism, & Internet Media committee, could become a two year bill. OPPOSE

AB 799 (Leno, D-San Francisco) Vehicle License Fee. Would let San Francisco increase vehicle license fees. Undoubtedly, if it passes, other counties will follow suit. Passed off Asm floor on 6-2-05 on a 42-35 vote. Passed Sen Tranportation and Housing on a 9-2 vote on 6-21-05. Currently in Sen Rev& Tax, no hearing set. OPPOSE

AB 940 (Chu, D-Montery Park) Death Certificate fee. Would eliminate a 2006 expiration date for a $2 death-certificate fee that pays for a state DNA database. Passed off the Asm floor on a 68-9 vote on 6-1-05. Passed Sen Public Safety on 6-0 vote on 6-21-05. Currently on Sen Floor, could be voted on any time. OPPOSE

AB 1103 (Karnette, D-Long Beach) Would have originally imposed a $7 fee on every new bicycle sold in California to promote a statewide recycling program. Was amended to mandate that each bicycle sale be accompanied by a notice that bicycles could be recycled. In Asm Natural Resources, could become a two-year bill. OPPOSE

AB 1407 (Oropeza, D-Long Beach) Fuel tax. Would have increased taxes by adding 5 cents per gallon to off-road diesel. Amended 5-31-05 to require the State Air Resources Board to report to the Legislature on the efficacy of imposing a fee of 5 cents per gallon of off-road diesel fuel as a means of generating revenue to fund projects to mitigate past, present and future harm to public health resulting from off-road diesel fuel in the state. Passed Asm floor on 6-2-05 on a 43-34 vote. In Sen Enviromental Quality, no hearing date set. OPPOSE

ACA 7 (Nation, D-San Rafael) Tax vote. Gives local governments unprecedented authority to enact a special tax with only 55 percent of the voters approving, instead of the two-thirds vote currently required. Passed Asm Local Government on 5-4-05 on a 5-2 vote. Currently in Asm Appropriations, no hearing date set. Could become a two-year bill. OPPOSE

ACA 13 (Harman, R- Hunting Beach) Local Taxes. Would amend the constitution to eliminate the requirement for a two-thirds vote to approve raising local fees to pay for flood-control projects. In Asm Local Government, no hearing date set. Could become a two year bill. OPPOSE

SB 564 (Torlakson, D-Concord) Cigarette Taxes: Imposes an additional 5 cent per cigarette ($1.00 per pack). The revenues collected from these additional taxes would be deposited in the California Healthy Children Trust Fund. Passed Sen Health on 6-1 vote on 4-13-05. In Sen Rev and Tax, no hearing set. Could become two year bill. OPPOSE

SB 656 (Romero, D-Los Angeles) Local taxes. Would give counties the authorization to impose an additional five percent tax on all alcohol from on-premise sales. In Sen Rev and Tax, no hearing set. Could become a two year bill. OPPOSE

SB 942 (Chesbro, D-Arcata) Cigarette taxes. Requires a 10 to 20 cent charge on each pack of cigarettes to help fund coastal cleanup efforts. Would raise appx $200 million annually toward a new Cigarette Pollution & Litter Prevention Fund. Passed Sen Environmental Quality on 4-25-05 on a 6-3 vote. Passed Sen Health on 4-27-05 on a 7-3 vote. Placed on Sen Appropriations Suspense on 5-23-05. Could become a two year bill. OPPOSE

SCA 8 (Simitian, D-Palo Alto) Parcel Taxes. If passed by voters would allow local school districts to approve a local parcel tax with a 55 percent majority rather than the two-thirds majority. Passed Sen Education on 7-3 vote on 3-20-05. Passed Sen Rev & Tax on 5-2 vote on 5-18-05. Passed Sen Elections, Reapportionment & Const Amend Committee on 4-1 vote on 06-15-05 Currently on Sen Floor. OPPOSE

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

www.leginfo.ca.gov (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov)

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula

or in the Capitol at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact State Senators: www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/se...nators.htp (http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp)

To Contact State Assemblymembers: www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/a...t7text.htm (http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm)

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

August 22nd, 2005, 04:46 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

August 22, 2005

Tiny Textbooks?

Miniaturization is cool. Laptops are cooler than desktops. Tiny flip phones are cooler than the older, larger cell phones. Blackberries and Sidekicks combine the coolness of laptops and tiny phones. Mini Coopers are in, though I’m not quite sure why. Even personal miniaturization in the form of anorexia appears to be cool---at least if the covers of People and US magazine are a good barometer.

But much like anorexia, the quest for miniaturization can sometimes be harmful and shortsighted. A bill that recently passed the floor of the Assembly is a perfect example. AB 756 by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg would require school textbooks to be miniaturized. In much the same way as the bill a few years ago that would have had textbooks selected by weight rather than content, this bill would prohibit school boards from approving textbooks that are more than 200 pages long.

Really!

Of course, this is in direct conflict with the legislature’s previous mandates that created a long list of content standards that require the coverage and inclusion of many topics, ideas, and of course, “diverse” viewpoints in every subject. It also contradicts the trend in textbook selection that highly values lots of pretty pictures, human interest stories, trivia, large and colorful print, cartoons, and other devices designed to hold the attention of our ADD-addled children and avoid the long stretches of boring text that will put them to sleep.

Jackie Goldberg’s vision is that the new textbooks would merely contain the basic highlights of the required content standards and then students would be directed to web addresses where students could find more detail and analysis of their own.

As a former Los Angeles school board member herself, Ms. Goldberg ought to know that not every family has a computer hooked up to the internet. There are also far more families with two or three or four children in school than there are with two or three of four computers to serve them, so they could all do their homework at the same time. Then when you consider how many children are doing their homework on soccer fields and in the hallways of gymnastics and karate studios, you quickly see how the idea becomes unworkable. Even if a child has easy access to a computer, one hour of homework can quickly turn into four hours when you log on the net to do it. Even as an adult it is difficult to stay focused on the task at hand when there are so many interesting diversions and distractions available with just the click of a mouse.

There are several predictable results from this bill if it becomes law. Teachers will no longer be able to assign many classical novels in literature classes. Children will be very unlikely to actually seek out the supplemental on-line material and will instead rely on what will essentially be the “Cliff’s Notes” version of the dumbed down textbooks we already have. Also likely is that textbook makers will have to break one large textbook into two smaller ones, at an increased cost to schools. Two hundred pages are simply insufficient for many subjects. In a normal school year that is only a little over a page per school day that could be assigned. Publishers will end up creating fall and spring semester texts separately, to the benefit of nobody.

I know miniaturization is cool, and I know with the latest health crisis being childhood obesity, everyone wants to figure out how to reduce the size of objects and people alike. But the answer to bloated and unhealthy children is not bulimia, and the answer to bloated and unhealthy schools isn’t anorexic tiny textbooks.

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Batting .400 May Be Great In Baseball, But Not In Educating Kids

www.sacbee.com/content/po...4096c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/13422804p-14264096c.html)

08-16-05

A baseball player who batted .400 - getting four hits in every 10 turns at the plate - would be hailed in the media and rewarded with a fat contract. But a school system that performs at the .400 level - just 40 percent of its youngsters demonstrating proficiency in academic tests - is failing badly and should be traded for something better. Unfortunately, the latter is California's situation, and sitting behind the gross numbers, there is an even darker reality: More than two-thirds of Latino and African American students are not gaining proficiency in English language skills and mathematics.

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Keep Cutting Comp Costs

www.pe.com/localnews/opin...5d556.html (http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_14_ed_comp3.355d556.html)

08-15-05

Steady declines in workers' compensation costs continue to buoy California employers -- and the economy. That said, stressed-out businesses could still use more relief. Three rounds of reforms that started in 2003 are wresting savings from workers' comp, the insurance businesses must buy to cover on-the-job injuries. Premiums dipped by nearly 15 percent in the six-month period that ended in June; the state expects another 5 percent drop in January.

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Latinos Work To Shore Up Border

www.latimes.com/news/loca...california (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-latinos14aug14,1,4145132.story?coll=la-news-politics-california)

08-15-05

Lupe Moreno knows the immigrant struggle. She has lived all her life in Santa Ana, a gateway community for Mexican immigrants. Her father helped smuggle them into the country; her former husband sneaked in illegally. Now Moreno is part of the growing movement to stem the flow of illegal immigration. "I want people to know that there are Latinos who are law-abiding," she said. "We need to protect our borders."

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Some Doctors Say They’ll Quit Medicare

www.signonsandiego.com/un...17cma.html (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050817/news_1b17cma.html)

08-17-05

Some California physicians will stop accepting some or all Medicare patients if a scheduled reduction in payments takes place, according to a survey released yesterday by the California Medical Association. Medicare payments to physicians are supposed to be cut 4.3 percent in 2006 and continue to drop for several years. Physicians want Congress to change the formula that determines their payments from one based on the gross domestic product to one that is based largely on medical costs.

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Off-Roaders Being Shortchanged, Parks Audit Finds

www.signonsandiego.com/un...froad.html (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050818/news_1n18o ffroad.html)

08-18-05

In a blistering report, California's auditor revealed yesterday that the state Department of Parks and Recreation has spent millions of dollars collected from off-road enthusiasts with little to show those who put up the money. Auditor Elaine Howle found that the state has committed $38 million to buy three parcels of land that "offer little or no" benefit to the off-roaders who pay registration fees and state gas taxes.

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Bills Tighten Sex-Offender Tracking

www.sacbee.com/content/po...9432c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13428131p-14269432c.html)

08-17-05

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled sexual predator legislation Tuesday that he said would give California "the strictest laws and the toughest penalties for the worst crimes." Among other things, two bills he's sponsoring would require first-time sex offenders to wear a global positioning device for life so their whereabouts could be tracked. If Senate Bill 588 and Assembly Bill 231 don't pass this year, Schwarzenegger said, he'll support a comparable ballot initiative filed by the measures' sponsors, Sen. George Runner and his wife, Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, both Lancaster Republicans.

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Ballot Measure Could Put End To Gerrymandering

www.dailybulletin.com/Sto...24,00.html (http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~23127~3013524,00.html)

08-17-05

The state Supreme Court put the redistricting initiative back on the Nov. 8 ballot, and by doing so restored the special election’s relevance. The chance to reform California’s self-serving gerrymandering, and put some degree of integrity back in the process, would make the election worthwhile. In Friday’s ruling, the court majority agreed that Proposition 77, which would change the way political districts are drawn, should be allowed on the November ballot. The ruling was entirely sensible.

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Illegal Immigration Legislation Watchlist

August 17, 2005

This list of bills has been compiled by Assemblyman Ray Haynes’ office as a legislative

service for those individuals interested in business legislation. Updates to the Watchlist are

done monthly, or more frequently as activity dictates. Quoted material comes from the actual

text of the bill itself. Session ends September 9, 2005.

AB 332 (Bogh, R-Yucaipa) Arrests policy: immigration. Provides that it would be state
policy that no law enforcement entity or any local governing body may adopt an ordinance, rule,
or order, or otherwise implement a policy, that prohibits law enforcement officers from initiating
action to discover a person's alien status or that prohibits a law enforcement officer from
arresting or booking a person for entering the United States of America illegally.It would
prohibit rules like Special Order 40 in LA from being implemented by local officials. Failed
Passage in Asm Public Safety. Could be brought up again next year. SUPPORT

AB 589 (Emmerson, R-Rancho Cucamonga) Higher Education: Nonresident Tuition.
Excludes students without legal immigration status from eligibility for an exemption from non-
resident tuition, which is currently available to them. Failed passage in Asm Higher Education.
Could become a two year bill. SUPPORT

AB 772 (Chan, D-Oakland) Sb 437 (Escutia, D-Norwalk) Healthy Families. Would create
the Healthy Kids Insurance Program (HKIP). Would permit expansion of eligibility for health
care coverage to those with household incomes up to 300% of the federal poverty level (FPL is
$18,850, which would mean anyone with a yearly income under $56,550). Would make various
legislative findings relative to the importance and benefits of health insurance coverage for ALL
children, and states the Legislature's intent to ensure that EVERY CHILD IN CALIFORNIA
can get health insurance; Would provide for accelerated Medi-Cal eligibility for any child
enrolled in school using such criteria as a student who is eligible for reduced price or free meals.
AB 772 Passed off Asm Floor on a 49-27 vote on 6-1-05. Passed Sen Health on an 8-3 vote on
6-29-05. Passed Sen Banking Finance and Insurance on a 6-4 vote on 7-13-05. Curently in Sen
6-29-06. Appropriations. SB 437 Passed off Senate Floor on a 25-15 vote on 6-1-05. Passed
6-29-07. Asm Health on a 10-3 vote on 6-28-05. Currently in Asm Appropriations. OPPOSE

AB 934 (Wyland, R-Vista) Proof of citizenship to vote. Requires a person to provide proof of
citizenship in order to register to vote. Requires a person to provide proof of identity in order to
vote. Failed passage out of Asm Elections and Reapportionment, reconsideration granted.
SUPPORT

ACA 6 (Wyland, R-Vista) Public Benefits to Illegal Immigrants. Constitutional amendment
to bar public benefits (such as Welfare, Medi-Cal, free college tuition) to illegal aliens. Failed
passage in Asm Judiciary on 7-5-05. Could become a two year bill. SUPPORT

ACA 20 (Haynes, R-Murrieta) Immigration Enforcement. Would create the California

Border Patrol, an agency which would have the authority to enforce all federal immigration laws.

It would cost about $300 million a year, but would save us between $8 and $10 billion a year in

services given to illegal immigrants. Failed to pass out of Asm Judiciary, could become a two

year bill. SUPPORT

SB 60 (Cedillo, D-Los Angeles) Driver’s licenses for illegal aliens. Would establish a class of

driver’s licenses that permit driving in the state of California, even though they could not be used

as identification for official federal purposes (such as boarding an airplane). Would supposedly

be in compliance with the Real ID Act, passed by Congress. Passed off the Senate Floor on a

22-16 vote on 6-2-05. Passed Asm Transportation on a 7-5 vote on 6-27-05. In Asm

Appropriations. OPPOSE

SB 226 (Cox, R-Roseville) Proof of identity for voting. This bill requires a voter to present
proof of his or her Identity and proof of residency before receiving a ballot to vote. Failed
passage in Sen Elections, granted reconsideration. Could become a two year bill. SUPPORT

SB 694 (Morrow, R-San Jaun Capistrano) Costs of illegal alien students.

Requires that a new category be added to the attendance report to indicate how many pupils are
citizens, and how many pupils failed to provide evidence of citizenship and legal residence. The
intent of this legislation is to create a better understanding of the effects of illegal immigration on
public education. Failed passage in Sen Ed, reconsideration granted. SUPPORT

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

www.leginfo.ca.gov (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov)

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula

or in the Capitol at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact State Senators: www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/se...nators.htp (http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp)

To Contact State Assemblymembers: www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/a...t7text.htm (http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm)

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

August 29th, 2005, 06:00 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

August 29, 2005

Invasion Of The Money Snatchers

They are everywhere, and they are after you and your neighbors. They want your money, they want your property, and they want to invade your home. They are the money snatchers.

This week, those money snatchers tried to pass a bill on the Assembly floor which would have allowed them to tax you on your yard sales. Current law requires businesses that engage in retail sales to collect the sales tax on those sales, but exempts "occasional sales" from sales tax liability. If you sell occasionally, you don't have to ask for permission from the government (by getting a seller's permit) to sell. The reason for that rule is that the state really shouldn't require anyone who has a yard sale to get a government permit to sell their old shirts and dirty bird cages. Recently, the Board of Equalization started trying to tax occasional sales by saying you could only have two yard sales a year. That regulation is not consistent with the spirit of the occasional sales exemption in law, so the board wants a law to justify its intrusion. That law is SB 607, introduced by Senator Debra Bowen (D-Redondo Beach) which would allow tax auditors to invade your home if you have three garage or yard sales, or sell three items, which net you $1,200 or more in a year.

Talk about intrusive. In essence, tax auditors could be reading Pennysaver magazine, or following those flimsy signs on telephone poles on Saturday morning to find out if you are collecting the sales tax on that box of junk in your garage that you have been trying to get rid of for years. If you sell $1,200 worth of stuff at a yard sale in three different sales, you will have to get a seller's permit, or suffer the wrath of the state. To get a seller's permit, you would have to fill out an eight page form telling the government your social security number, your bank information, the average monthly sales, how much of those sales are nontaxable, keep the records of those sales for four years, file another tax return with the state, and notify the BOE anytime you don't want to have a garage sale anymore.

And what if you don't? You will be invaded by the money snatchers. They will enter your neighborhood in search of those evil yard sale tax cheats. People who want to sell their broken lawnmowers or old refrigerators (or even torn and dirty shirts), would be required to fill out stupid forms every time they sit out in their front yards--or the Tax Gestapo would be after them.

They are insatiable. They cannot invade your life enough, or get enough of your money. They want you to fill out their forms, and disclose the details of your life and finances to them. Anything to get your money is justified, and anything to justify their job is appropriate. Unfortunately, many in the Legislature want to help them in this pursuit.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson noted a number of complaints in the Bill of Particulars detailing the abuses of King George justifying the revolution. Among them: "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance." If only Jefferson could see California now. Those swarms of officers, sent to harass us and eat out our substance have become the money snatchers, stopping those evil tax cheat housewives who are trying to make a few extra bucks to feed their families by holding an occasional yard sale to clean out the garage, or get rid of clutter no one wants anymore. Want to know just how bad it has gotten? The evidence is before us – they even want to tax your yard sale. Enough is enough.

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Border Emergency Amendment Offered

tinyurl.com/7t98l (http://tinyurl.com/7t98l)

08-25-05

A group of Republican lawmakers on Thursday said they will introduce legislation to give Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger the power to declare a state of emergency along the state's border with Mexico, calling illegal immigration a growing threat to public safety. The news conference by four Southern California legislators came as Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez traveled to Mexico to meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox to discuss immigration and other border issues.

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Lockyer Holsters Ammo-Coding Measure

www.signonsandiego.com/un...llets.html (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050824/news_1n24bullets.html)

08-24-05

Attorney General Bill Lockyer has shelved a novel gun-control measure that would have required manufacturers to stamp microscopic serial numbers on all handgun ammunition sold in California. Sen. Joe Dunn, a Garden Grove Democrat carrying the legislation for the attorney general, said he needed more time to resolve a heated debate over how much the potentially landmark tracking system would cost and who would pay for it.

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It’s Do-Or-Die Time For Big Bills

www.dailybulletin.com/Sto...37,00.html (http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203%7E21481%7E3020637,00.html)

08-22-05

Some of the year's biggest bills, including measures to legalize gay marriages, allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses and raise the minimum wage, face do-or-die hurdles this week as the Legislature heads toward adjournment. The bills are among more than 375 measures that need to clear either the Assembly or Senate appropriations committee this week to have a chance to be sent to the governor before lawmakers wrap up their 2005 session, probably on Sept. 9 or 10.

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$166,000 Raised To Fight Initiative To Recall Judge

www.sacbee.com/content/po...2816c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13461807p-14302816c.html)

08-23-05

Opponents of a recall drive to unseat a Sacramento Superior Court judge over a controversial ruling raised more than $166,000 at two private receptions and won the support of hundreds of lawyers and judges, election records show. "That is a lot of money for a local race," said Roger Salazar, democratic political consultant. "It shows the amount of muscle that is there. It gives an indication that these folks were not taking the challenge lightly," Salazar said.

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After-School Program Bill Still In Limbo

www.insidebayarea.com/oak...ci_2962318 (http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_2962318)

08-22-05

Remember Proposition 49? Don't feel bad. At least one state senator had to ask, "Which one is that?" It's the one that will cost California $550 million for after-school programs every year until the end of time — or until it's repealed by voters. But first, it has to kick in. In 2002, state voters approved The After School Education and Safety Program Act — Arnold Schwarzenegger's pre-gubernatorial initiative, his first foray into formal politics.

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Don’t Let Politicians Fool You; Redistricting Is Essential

www.fresnobee.com/columni...2775c.html (http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/boren/story/11118176p-11872775c.html)

08-22-05

No matter what the politicians tell you, redistricting matters. That's why so many of them are working so hard to block a reform of California's system of drawing legislative and congressional boundaries. Fixing this system should be done because it's the right thing to do. But you wouldn't know that by listening to the over-the-top rhetoric coming out of the mouths of reform opponents. Their tactics are clear: confuse and confound the public on redistricting.

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Homeowners Are Outraged By Threat Of Demolition

www.signonsandiego.com/ne...place.html (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050824-9999-1n24displace.html)

08-24-05

The debate over the government's right to take private property prompted by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling hovers at the very doorstep of Jody Carey and Dennis Wood, who live in a 1,000-square-foot house at the edge of a canyon in City Heights. No sooner did they buy the property for $260,000 last year and spend $200,000 rebuilding it – complete with a built-in beer keg tap in the kitchen, two limestone-trimmed spa bathtubs and maple floors throughout – than they received a notice from a little-known agency that their home and 187 others nearby might be demolished.

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Don’t Kill The Messenger

www2.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_2966745 (http://www2.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_2966745)

08-24-05

The initial results of the state's first spate of exit exams weren't good news for some school districts. For example, the Los Angeles Unified School District showed that nearly one-third of the Class of 2006 - the first class subject to the state's new graduation requirement - had yet to learn the basic skills required for success as a graduate. Those results reflected a sad state of education, the very reason, indeed, that the test was implemented.

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Your Land Is Their Land, Part 3

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar...EC5O31.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/25/EDGFREC5O31.DTL)

08-25-05

When he first ran for Oakland Mayor in 1997, Jerry Brown painted a picture of the city he would like Oaktown to become. Brown's We the People Web site posted "Oakland Ecopolis: a Plan for a Green Plan" -- presented a new vision for Oakland. Under Brown, Oakland would not clamor for "mere economic growth," which causes environmental degradation. If elected, Brown would promote green jobs -- for artisans, gardeners, sailboat craftsmen. "A baby smiles and a flower grows," read the plan. Scratch that. Make it: A baby smiles, a flower grows, and city officials try to evict local artisans.

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Doing More With Less

tinyurl.com/a8nxy (http://tinyurl.com/a8nxy)

08-25-05

Charter schools - public schools allowed to operate without the heavy state regulations typical of the school system - are doing more with less. That's the conclusion of a report released yesterday by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based education reform think tank. The study, "Charter School Funding: Inequity's Next Frontier," reports that "[a]cross 16 states and the District of Columbia - which collectively enroll 84 percent of the nation's 1 million charter school students - charter schools receive about 22 percent less in per-pupil public funding ... than the district schools that surround them."

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That '70s Show At The Pump?

tinyurl.com/bc5jr (http://tinyurl.com/bc5jr)

08-26-05

Disco. Earth Shoes. Pet rocks. Eight-track tape players. Jimmy Carter. Please, let's not go back to the 1970s. They're trying to in Hawaii, imposing gasoline price controls that well could bring back that horror of the 1970s, gas lines. "The only state with higher average prices than California, the Aloha State will put into effect next week a new state law slapping a ceiling on gas prices," reported the Aug. 25 Sacramento Bee.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

www.leginfo.ca.gov (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov)

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula

or in the Capitol at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact State Senators: www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/se...nators.htp (http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp)

To Contact State Assemblymembers: www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/a...t7text.htm (http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm)

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

September 12th, 2005, 09:34 AM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

September 12, 2005

Of Cabbages and Kings and Kooks

Do you wonder what is your Legislature is doing? I feel like I’ve fallen through the Looking Glass. They are doing everything but what needs to be done.

It is the last day of session, and you are hours away from being safe from the intrusive hand of government. But before they dismiss session your Legislature has to inflict as much damage as possible. The last week of session is always insane, with the Legislators violating all of their own rules, breaking numerous laws, ignoring the Constitution, and doing whatever it takes to get what they want, no matter what the people of this state want.

This week, the Legislature argued about what kinds of foods were natural or nutritious, whether illegal aliens should get driver’s licenses, whether men could marry men, and whether or not rich movie producers should get welfare.

Of course, none of these issues had anything to do with the real problems of California. Our houses cost too much, our freeways are overcrowded, our budget is out of balance, and we are running out of water, gasoline and electricity. Yet the Legislature has expended hundreds of hours, spent hundreds of millions of dollars, used up hundreds of thousands of pages of paper, (killing tons of trees) to accomplish absolutely nothing of consequence for the people of this State.

We argued about whether cling peaches were nutritious for our children. The Democrats said there is too much sugar. We should only use fresh fruit so our kids won’t get fat. They wanted to spend 10 cents per student per day to make sure each student ate at least one piece of fruit. I’ve got an idea, why don’t we spend that 10 cents on a telephone call to their parents and ask them to buy an apple for their child, and make sure they eat it. Why spend government money on it, or debate about what specific fruit they ought to eat? Perhaps the time could have been better spent discussing what how to actually improve our failing educational system.

Hours were spent arguing about driver’s licenses for illegal aliens. Now that was rich. Foreign nationals break our laws, and the response of the liberals in our Legislature is to give them a driver’s license and $4 to $5 billion welfare per year. And then we wonder why our borders are out of control. History has no meaning for these folks. Have they forgotten that this was why Governor Davis was recalled? Did they not hear you when you signed petitions to qualify a referendum to repeal it the first time it was signed?

Next, we argued about whether men could marry men (or women marry women). Over and over, they stressed it was about ‘love.’ The fact that nearly 62% of the people in this state voted for Proposition 22 to define marriage as between a man and a woman is irrelevant in their eyes. We don’t know what this will do to marriage, or to our children, or to our society in general, but that didn’t stop the Legislature from passing it. Fix our freeways, not today. It’s more important to pass same-sex marriage. Fortunately, the Governor has at least indicated he’ll veto this one.

And let’s not forget that we gave welfare to rich movie producers. Now, I like tax breaks as much as the next guy, but giving movie producers tax dollars seems a little over the top. It takes care of a bunch of liberals in Los Angeles, but doesn't do a whole lot for the rest of us. So much for our pro-business Legislature. I guess you just have to be the right kind of business. Everyone else can go to Nevada if they want to be profitable.

Cling peaches, illegal aliens, gay marriage, and movie producer welfare. These are the things that your Legislature thinks are important to you, these and thousands of other intrusive, socialistic bills, which find new ways to take your money and redistribute it to their political supporters, keeping them in power.

That is your Legislature at work. While the Governor is busy trying to fix the state budget, control the government unions, break the liberal’s power in Sacramento, and improve education, the liberals are trying to figure out how to mess up California even more. Soon you will be able to sleep well, they won’t be in Sacramento, at least not until next January, when I assure you the process will repeat itself.

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I would recommend that individuals contact the Governor and ask him to veto SB 60

Call: Phone: 916-445-2841 FAX: 916-445-4633

To send an Electronic Mail please visit: www.govmail.ca.gov (http://www.govmail.ca.gov)

Assembly Passes Illegal Immigrant Driver License Bill

www.signonsandiego.com/un...legis.html (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050908/news_7n8legis.html)

09-08-05

Handed an opening by a conservative Congress and President Bush, Assembly Democrats yesterday challenged Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign legislation that would extend driving privileges to illegal immigrants. In another high-profile development, Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, abruptly shelved legislation that would have temporarily blocked government officials from condemning homes to make way for commercial development because it lacked support.

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I would recommend that individuals contact the Governor and ask him to veto AB 849

Call: Phone: 916-445-2841 FAX: 916-445-4633

To send an Electronic Mail please visit: www.govmail.ca.gov (http://www.govmail.ca.gov)

Bill Heads To Governor

www.ocregister.com/ocr/20...665273.php (http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/09/07/sections/news/news/article_665273.php)

09-07-05

California lawmakers became the first in the nation Tuesday to pass a bill legalizing gay marriage, sending the measure to an uncertain fate with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Four Democratic Assembly members who had abstained on the bill in June – including Tom Umberg of Santa Ana – changed their minds and voted in favor of AB849 Tuesday, giving the legislation 41 votes – the bare minimum it needed to pass.

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I would recommend that individuals contact the Governor and ask him to veto AB 48

Call: Phone: 916-445-2841 FAX: 916-445-4633

To send an Electronic Mail please visit: www.govmail.ca.gov (http://www.govmail.ca.gov)

State Senate Passes Bill To Increase Minimum Wage

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar...EK3NE1.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/08/BAGBFEK3NE1.DTL)

09-08-05

The state Senate passed a bill Wednesday to increase the minimum wage by $1 over the next two years and tie future increases to the pace of inflation, though it faces a likely veto by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Senate passed the bill on a mostly party-line 26-13 vote with just one Republican, Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, supporting it. The Assembly approved the minimum wage increase in June, so the measure now heads to the governor's desk.

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If Proposition 76 Fails, A Tax Hike Could Be Next

www.sacbee.com/content/po...4290c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/13533697p-14374290c.html)

09-08-05

Almost lost amid all the hurricane news last week was an important admission from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that could loom larger as the year draws to a close. The Republican governor, who pledged as a candidate to balance the budget without raising taxes, conceded that he might have to reconsider that position if voters reject Proposition 76, his budget reform measure.

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Faster Traffic Fix

www2.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_3009169 (http://www2.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_3009169)

09-08-05

For commuters and state legislators alike, it's time to get moving on the 405 Freeway. We need traffic relief, as promised in the $130 million federal appropriation for a northbound diamond lane through the Sepulveda Pass. But that funding is in jeopardy if the state can't get construction started by 2009. And while Los Angeles commuters are mired in traffic, Sacramento politicians are mired in politics.

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As Membership Declines, State Unions Face Historic Political Test

www.sacbee.com/content/po...2585c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/13521782p-14362585c.html)

09-06-05

Forty years ago, a third of all California workers belonged to unions. Membership dropped sharply, however, as the state's post-World War II industrial economy peaked and then began to decline, and as a hybrid, service-and technology-based economy began to develop. By the mid-1970s, less than a quarter of California workers belonged to unions, according to the nation's most authoritative labor database.

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Gas Gimmicks

tinyurl.com/982wj (http://tinyurl.com/982wj)

9-06-05

Hurricane Katrina's blast through the Gulf Coast's oil wells and refineries has rattled California's already jittery drivers. But panicked reaction will not lower prices, whether it's through a gasoline boycott or state regulation of the petroleum industry. Katrina's effect on California's fuel supplies will be indirect. The Gulf Coast is a hub of U.S. oil refining and production, and receives more than half the nation's oil imports.

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Migden At Her Worst

www.sacbee.com/content/op...0198c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/13529420p-14370198c.html)

09-07-05

A few years ago when Carole Migden took over the job of running the Assembly's Appropriations Committee, it didn't take long to see how little patience she had with the public. Short and curt to the point of being insulting, Migden killed some bills and rammed through others, all with atmospherics more appropriate for a boxing gym than for a dignified hall of democracy. After a few years away from the Legislature, the San Francisco Democrat is back, this time in the Senate, where she runs that body's Appropriations Committee with the same grace and charm she displayed in the Assembly.

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'Living Wage' Laws Don't Help Low-Income Families

Loss of other benefits offsets higher wages

Written By: Craig Garthwaite, Budget & Tax News, The Heartland Institute

www.heartland.org/Article...rtId=17673 (http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=17673)

09-01-05

In July, Sonoma, California passed an ordinance requiring certain employers to pay $11.70 an hour with health benefits or $13.20 without health benefits, indexed to the consumer price index.

The ordinance applies to companies with a city service contract worth at least $10,000, nonprofits with city contracts of at least $75,000, and companies that receive city loans or economic assistance worth at least $100,000.

But a new study of "living wage" laws indicates the Sonoma City Council's decision may not help those the law is intended to benefit.

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Blight? Yeah Right

www.signonsandiego.com/un...d9top.html (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050909/news_lz1ed9top.html)

09-09-05

The city of San Diego, with its much-admired downtown ballpark and Horton Plaza projects, has long been the poster child for the wise use of eminent domain: the right of government to seize private property, with just compensation, for what it deems public benefit. But after two outrageous stories in two weeks, a pair of local government bodies may find themselves held up as poster children for eminent domain's misuse – and deservedly.

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’Gutless And Amend’

tinyurl.com/84kcq (http://tinyurl.com/84kcq)

9-08-05

The California Assembly’s self-proclaimed “historic” vote on gay marriage Tuesday epitomized many of the things that are wrong in state government and in this final free-for-all before the first year of the legislative session ends. Rather than dealing with the substantive economic and governmental issues that should be the primary concern of state legislators, the lawmakers were consumed with a divisive social issue.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

www.leginfo.ca.gov (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov)

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula

or in the Capitol at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact State Senators: www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/se...nators.htp (http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp)

To Contact State Assemblymembers: www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/a...t7text.htm (http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm)

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

September 19th, 2005, 07:27 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

September 19, 2005

Crime And Punishment

Want to know what is really wrong in Sacramento? Witness Mark Leno—the Chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee. He is the one person in the Assembly most responsible for our policy towards crime and punishment and he was appointed to that important post by our Democrat Speaker, who was elected by the Democrat majority in the Legislature.

He appeared on national television this week, and said that he did not believe that possession of child pornography should be a felony in this state. Never mind that some child was sexually molested and abused in the making of that despicable material. Never mind that some criminal made lots of money off the commission of that sexually violent behavior. Never mind that the person who possesses the material made the molestation possible by buying the material. Nope, never mind all that. Mark thinks it shouldn’t be a felony.

His reasoning you ask? Here is his quote from the interview on the Bill O’Reilly show:

O’Reilly: Child pornography - you don’t think should be a felony?

Leno: First offense, I don’t believe it. Because we have a flawed three strikes law in California. We’re the only state in the nation that can send someone away for life for a nonviolent or non-serious offense. And until we fix that in our three strikes laws, I’m reluctant to make new felonies for just about anything.

What is wrong with this statement? First, it assumes that there is something wrong with putting someone who possesses child pornography away in jail for the rest of their life. Child molestation is a violent felony; making and possessing child pornography is aiding and abetting the molester. Under the law, the accomplice to the crime (in the case those who aid and abet the crime) is guilty of the same crime as the one who commits the crime. It is not hard to justify a life sentence for child molestation—and just as easy to justify a life sentence for making, selling and possessing child pornography.

However, let’s assume that life for child pornography is too harsh, what is wrong with sentencing someone to life if it is their third strike, even if it is “nonserious or nonviolent?” Under California’s current law, no one can go to jail for life unless they have already committed two serious or violent felonies. Two victims of the worst kind of crimes—robbery, homicide, rape, mayhem and the like—already exist. Why do we have to wait for a third victim before we as a society conclude that the perpetrator ought not live among the good people any more?

Lawrence Singleton raped and cut off the arms of a college student a few years ago, and left her for dead on the side of the freeway. She didn’t die so he only got fifteen years, and with our lenient good time/work time credits at the time, he only served about ten years. When he got out, no one in California wanted him, so he moved to Florida, which has a weaker three strikes law. He stole a baseball cap, and then stole a camera. Under California’s law, after stealing the camera, he could have been sentenced to life in prison, and people like Mr. Leno would cry about the camera thief and how unjust it was that he would spend the rest of his life in prison.

Except Singleton then killed a woman. Now he is in jail for the rest of his life in Florida, but a woman had to die to get that to happen. If that woman lived in California, she would still be alive—and that is why our three strikes law is right, and why people like Mr. Leno are wrong. This stuff isn’t rocket science, it just requires a little common sense—something in short supply in Sacramento.

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Governor Can’t Please Everybody On License Issue

www.sacbee.com/content/po...7899c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/13567427p-14407899c.html)

09-15-05

Driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, a controversial issue that helped fuel the recall of former Gov. Gray Davis, has also trapped his successor in partisan crossfire. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can't quite win the trust of either side on a matter that stirs strong emotions. One reason is that he keeps trying to make everyone happy, and on this issue, that's impossible. Maybe it is time for him to take a simple, principled stand and be done with it.

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The Ugly Truth About Sacramento

www.ocregister.com/ocr/20...669609.php (http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/09/12/sections/commentary/commentary/article_669609.php)

09-12-05

There's a reason for the old cliche that if you like to eat sausages or have any respect for a nation's laws, you ought not see either one being made. I've never toured a slaughterhouse, but I have watched a few legislative sessions, most recently last week in Sacramento. It was an ugly sight, watching legislators ram through hundreds of bills in the final four days before recess.

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San Francisco Gun Ban A Losing Proposition

sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...llwell.DTL (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/09/14/cstillwell.DTL)

09-14-05

If there's anything Americans have learned from the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it's that there are times when the government is simply unable to protect its citizens. The looting of nonessential items, robberies, carjackings, murders and rapes that overtook New Orleans as chaos gripped the city demonstrated what can happen when the government loses control. Countless stories were told about unarmed citizens who were defenseless against the criminals who preyed upon them. Only those who were armed were able to fend off the encroaching violence. In such cases, self-defense is all that's left, which is perhaps why gun sales rose exponentially in Louisiana right after the disaster. The fact that police and military units in New Orleans later began confiscating those weapons does not bode well for the city's remaining residents. If the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has its way, law-abiding residents could find themselves at the mercy of criminals in the event of a similar disaster. Given that the Bay Area is ground zero for earthquakes, it's not a very good idea to take away residents' capacity to fend for themselves. But Proposition H, a measure on the November ballot that seeks to ban handguns in San Francisco, would do just that.

******************************

Sanctuary Cities: A New Civil War

Illegal Immigration Focus II

www.claremont.org/project...ities.html (http://www.claremont.org/projects/local_gov/Newsletter/sanctuarycities.html)

By Edward J. Erler, The Claremont Institute

09-07-05

The ghost of John C. Calhoun still stalks the land. Calhoun, of course, was the leading architect of nullification—and secession. Almost everyone believes the issues of nullification (the doctrine that federal law can be negated by state laws) and secession were resolved by the North's victory in the Civil War and the passage of the Reconstruction Amendments. But nullification has once again reared its hoary head, this time in the guise of "sanctuary cities."

SANCTUARY POLICIES: Across the nation cities from New York to Houston to San Diego forbid city officials—including police—from inquiring into anyone's immigration status or cooperating with immigration officials. The police may not stop or detain persons solely due to their immigration status or even inquire into their status while making routine traffic stops or misdemeanor arrests. These policies have, in effect, created safe havens for illegal immigrants, including criminal aliens.

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Eminent domain bills are stalled - except one for casino tribe
www.sacbee.com/content/po...3211c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13572792p-14413211c.html)

09-16-05

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this summer that governments could seize homes and other property to facilitate private development projects, it touched off a political firestorm throughout the nation - including California - and fueled demands for new barriers to misuse of governmental "eminent domain" powers. California's version of the debate centered on the aggressive use of eminent domain - or the threat to use it - by city redevelopment agencies to assemble land for hotels, auto malls, big box retailers and other projects. Although California law says that redevelopment powers can be invoked only to combat "blight," local officials have been quite creative in their application of the term. And when the Supreme Court declared that "there is no basis for exempting economic development from our traditionally broad understanding of public purposes," it seemingly validated those aggressive redevelopment efforts.

******************************

Pension Mess Isn’t Unique To San Diego

www.signonsandiego.com/un...sions.html (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050911/news_1n11pensions.html)

09-12-05

It may be cold comfort for a disgraced city, but San Diego isn't the only place in a pension pickle. Public retirement systems in Orange County, Los Angeles County and other parts of California are sliding deep into debt for some of the same reasons behind the San Diego mess – fattened benefits, the whims of Wall Street and mismanagement by elected officials. "San Diego is not unique," said state Assemblyman Keith Richman, a leading advocate of pension reform. "It's only one example of what's happening across the state."

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'Jessica's Law' Needed To Protect Children

www.bakersfield.com/opini...2061c.html (http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/community_voices/story/5602842p-5582061c.html)

09-16-05

As far as I am concerned, the punishment for raping a child can never be strong enough. Even life in prison is too good for a monster who sexually assaults a child. That view is shared by most Californians. Unfortunately, our state laws aren't as severe as they should be when it comes to punishing predators that sexually abuse children and ruin the lives of so many innocent people. That is why I support the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act, a measure sponsored by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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Greenhouse-Gas Suit Tossed Out By Judge

www.sacbee.com/content/ne...3223c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/13572850p-14413223c.html)

09-16-05

California's pioneering lawsuit to cap global warming gases from coal-fired power plants as distant as Kentucky and Florida was tossed out of federal court Thursday on jurisdictional grounds. U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska in Manhattan ruled that the case brought by state Attorney General Bill Lockyer and prosecutors for seven other states and New York City raised sweeping questions of public policy best resolved by Congress and the president, not the courts.

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Legislator Drops Proposed Cure For ‘Chief’s Disease’

www2.dailybulletin.com/op...ci_3028896 (http://www2.dailybulletin.com/opinions/ci_3028896)

09-15-05

Upset by outlandish pension schemes for government employees? It's worse than you thought. A year ago, the Sacramento Bee published a fine series of articles, "Chief's Disease," describing outright pension thievery among the upper ranks of the California Highway Patrol. As a result, a Northern California politician, Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, stepped forward with tough legislation to correct the problem.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

www.leginfo.ca.gov (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov)

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/se...nators.htp (http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp)

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/a...t7text.htm (http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm)

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

September 26th, 2005, 05:31 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

September 26, 2005

Reform Is Necessary

In January, the Governor issued a challenge to the Legislature's Democrats – change how you do business, or I will change it for you. The Democrats yawned. They were sure that Schwarzenegger would cave. The Democrats had been in charge before he got there, and they would be in charge long after he was gone.

But a funny thing happened, Schwarzenegger didn't cave. How could that be, they asked, he knows we are in charge. Schwarzenegger said tough, change is necessary. He said he would qualify initiatives, call a special election, and get the people to bring about change. The Democrats didn’t believe he would dare do such a thing.

To insure his failure, the Democrats got their union boss buddies to start picketing Schwarzenegger, who laughed at their endeavors. I actually attended a meeting where he said "You think a couple of union goons with picket signs is going to change me, you have got to be kidding. We are going to change this town." He ran out his initiatives and got them qualified.

The Democrats were shocked. He was supposed to give up. He wasn't supposed to qualify those initiatives. He wasn't supposed to call the special elections. They were outraged at his defiance toward their self-ordained authority.

So they went to their union boss buddies again, and had those unions run commercials on television. They were certain this would back him off, give up, and cancel the special election.

He didn't. He called their bluff. They called him to negotiate. They indicated if he would allow them to change term limits, they would consider giving him a small portion of what he wanted. They said he could declare victory, but things would stay the same. He said no. He wanted real change.

They continued the attacks. Despite plummeting polls, the Governor didn't flinch. Now, he is fighting back. This week he began his response.

His reform agenda is simple--control the public employee unions that control Sacramento, make sure spending matches revenue, make sure teachers teach, and make sure that the legislature actually responds to the people that elect them, and not to the special interests in Sacramento.

Proposition 74 reforms the tenure system, the system that gives bad teachers a lifetime job, before we can figure out that they are bad teachers. Proposition 74 says--let's give teachers tenure after 5 years (instead of the current two), so school districts can figure out if they are bad before they give them a lifetime job.

Proposition 75 says union bosses cannot force state and local workers to pay them money for political causes the bosses like, but the workers don't. Today, every state and local government employee is forced to pay the union boss money, just like the Communist party members in the old Soviet Union, as a condition of having a government job. As an example, the California Teachers Union has already assessed its membership additional dues sufficient to raise $50 million to fight these initiatives, whether the member agrees or disagrees is irrelevant. Proposition 75 says no – the union boss has to get the employee's written agreement before he or she can spend their dues on some liberal cause. That only makes sense. It is the employee's money, and forcing them to pay for something they don't like is just plain wrong.

Proposition 76 says the state cannot spend more than it takes in. Well, duh, as my daughter would say. It also says that the Governor can cut any program if the money doesn't come in. That is smart.

Finally, Proposition 77 says judges not politicians, will draw legislative districts. Politicians like to draw districts that guarantee themselves jobs and power. The idea is that judges will be a little bit more fair--since their job won't be at stake. It may not be perfect, but it is better than the current system.

One thing we know, the current system doesn't work. Reform is needed now. The Governor's ideas make sense. They are at least worth a try.

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Don’t Give Them Our Preschoolers

www.ocregister.com/ocregi...686133.php (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/abox/article_686133.php)

09-23-05

In the 2004-05 school year, 197 Orange County schools failed to meet "adequate yearly progress," according to federal guidelines requiring 20 percent to 26 percent of students at each school to score proficient in math and English. Those aren't exactly overreaching standards. And yet, in Anaheim, the district missed federal targets for all but five schools. Similarly, in Santa Ana, 45 of 55 schools failed to make federal goals for math and English.

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Gay Groups Turn Up Heat On Governor To Sign Marriage Bill

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar...ER5DE1.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/21/BAG7RER5DE1.DTL)

09-21-05

Gay rights groups in California are increasing the pressure on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the same-sex marriage bill passed this month by the Legislature, which he has vowed to veto. On Tuesday, Equality California -- the group backing the bill sponsored by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco -- organized events across the state where children of same-sex partners delivered 40,000 signed postcards to the governor's various offices in red wagons.

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Foundation Sues To Block Dues Hike For Political Action

www.mercurynews.com/mld/m...720842.htm (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/12720842.htm)

09-23-05

An anti-union group filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to block the powerful California Teachers Association from raising dues to fight four ballot measures pushed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The class action suit -- prepared by the National Right to Work Legal Foundation on behalf of six instructors, including Sunnyvale elementary teacher Judith Liegmann -- alleges the $60-per-member increase is an involuntary loan and violates their free speech rights.

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Pension Fallout Nigh

www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_3038276 (http://www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_3038276)

09-19-05

Years of bestowing lavish pensions and benefits on public employees has left dozens of the state's largest agencies with billions of dollars in unpaid liabilities that experts warn could start a cascade of bankruptcies, service cuts and tax increases. According to a Daily News review of agencies in Los Angeles and across the state, California's largest public agencies face setting an extra $108 billion aside in the coming years to pay for promised retiree pensions, health care and workers' compensation claims.

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Governor Should Veto Attempt To Dilute Exit Exam

www2.dailybulletin.com/op...ci_3049566 (http://www2.dailybulletin.com/opinions/ci_3049566)

09-22-05

Here's an easy pop quiz. For simplicity's sake, we'll make the questions true or false. 1. A 12th-grader who can't pass a basic skills test in 8th-grade math, after six tries, deserves a high school diploma anyway. 2. A 12th-grader who can't pass a basic skills test in 10th-grade English, after six tries, deserves a high school diploma anyway. 3. It's OK to look the other way at social promotion in schools, because holding some students back a grade might make them feel bad.

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Pombo Redrafts Species Law

www.contracostatimes.com/...692819.htm (http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/12692819.htm)

09-20-05

Calling one of the nation's strongest environmental laws a failure, U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo on Monday introduced legislation to eliminate critical habitat and completely overhaul the 1973 Endangered Species Act. The bill, the most significant attempt to rewrite the act since the late 1990s, would require compensation for landowners when endangered species protections restrict their use of property and demand more scientific certainty before major decisions are made to protect wildlife.

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Ballot Spot Sought For ID Theft Crackdown

www.sacbee.com/content/po...4169c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13593332p-14434169c.html)

09-20-05

Rebuffed by the Democrat-controlled Legislature, Republican state Sen. Charles Poochigian of Fresno is circulating petitions for a statewide ballot measure that would impose long prison sentences for stealing credit card and Social Security numbers. The California Identity Theft and Personal Information Protection Act will qualify for the November 2006 ballot if Poochigian - who plans to appear in the same election as a candidate for attorney general - collects enough signatures by a February deadline.

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Extensive Energy Plan Likely To Get State OK

www.mercurynews.com/mld/m...710859.htm (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/12710859.htm)

09-22-05

In a move that could offer Californians some relief from rising utility bills, state regulators are expected today to approve the largest energy conservation plan in U.S. history. The new plan is projected to save 1,500 megawatts of electricity statewide by 2008 -- the same amount that three new power plants would produce. In terms of global warming emissions, the California Public Utilities Commission estimates the reductions are equivalent to removing 650,000 cars a year from California highways.

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37 Schools Forced To Make Changes

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar...EQDG11.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/20/BAG1LEQDG11.DTL)

09-20-05

Thirty-seven Bay Area schools have missed federal test-score quotas seven years in a row, making them the first in the region to undergo forced restructuring under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. That seventh year of failing to get enough students performing at grade level means the schools are no longer on probation; this year they're deemed flat-out unacceptable. A statewide list of schools forced to restructure is due to come out today.

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Governor Speaks Up On Abortion

www.sacbee.com/content/po...8717c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13597862p-14438717c.html)

09-21-05

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he supports the primary aim of a ballot initiative that would make most abortions for minors illegal without prior notification of the girls' parents or guardians, saying he'd "kill" someone who took one of his own daughters for an abortion without informing him. "I have a daughter," Schwarzenegger said in an interview with The Bee. "I wouldn't want to have someone take my daughter to a hospital for an abortion or something and not tell me. I would kill him if they do that."

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Restoring An Essential Freedom

www.ocregister.com/ocregi...678755.php (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_678755.php)

09-19-05

While rushing to adjournment, the California Legislature passed hundreds of bills that richly deserve to be vetoed. A couple that should be signed restore essential freedoms that can serve as avenues of accountability. A little background. Back in 1996, when Pete Wilson was governor, state prison bureaucrats imposed severe limits on the ability of reporters and other media people to conduct interviews with prison inmates.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

www.leginfo.ca.gov (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov)

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/se...nators.htp (http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp)

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/a...t7text.htm (http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm)

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

October 24th, 2005, 07:52 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

October 24, 2005

A Pertinent Question

Just why do we have government employee unions?

We all know the story of the rise of unionism in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Our country was being run by robber barons, the capitalist exploiters, who would abuse children for profit, and allow people to die in substandard working conditions while they sat in the lap of luxury. Unions rode in on their white horse, forced industry to reform, saved lives, protected paychecks, and, in general, restored harmony in a world dislocated by the industrial revolution. Unions fought the evil employers, pushed for labor reforms, minimum wages, safe workplaces, and, through their tireless effort, made sure that people received a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work in a safe work environment. Government employees were hired to enforce these rules, and, faced with the prospect of jail time, the evil capitalist reluctantly acceded to the government control.

At least that is how it is taught in the government schools, which are run by the government employee unions.

Even assuming that life was as bad as the unions say it was in the private sector before forced unionism, why did we ever have government employee unions? Was it because the government was an evil employer, putting people to work in an unsafe work environment for unfair wages, or, was it just a way for union bosses to extract money from unwilling employees in order for those bosses to corrupt the political system? Were those Democrats, who claimed to be for the working man when they formed the government employee unions, so evil as employers that a union was necessary to protect the government worker from their power, or was it just that the Democrats wanted to form the union so they could have a steady supply of campaign cash in order to maintain their control over the levers of government power?

I think most people would agree that something is seriously wrong with our current government employee unions here in California. In the Gray Davis years, they overreached, grabbing for exorbitant wage increases and excessive pension benefits, using their forced union dues to give millions of dollars to Gray Davis and the Legislative Democrats, in order to force the state, school districts, cities, and local governments of all types to unionize and pay their unionized employees wages beyond what the taxpayers could afford. In 1998, the California government pension system, CalPERS, was $60 billion over funded. By 2003, the Democrats had increased government pensions so much that taxpayers had to borrow $2.5 billion a year to keep the pension system solvent. During that same time, those unions contributed over $30 million to those Democrat politicians. Forced union dues (contributed to willing left wing legislators) bankrupted the state in two budget cycles, taking it from a $12 billion surplus to a $28 billion deficit. The number of state employees, paying these forced union dues, increased 47,000 in these two years. The government employee unions have corrupted the whole system.

Now they are spending the money they forcibly extract from their members to trash the Governor, spending almost $100 million of the money they steal from these government employees. But why do they exist? Is a government job so unsafe, so underpaid, that only a union can protect the government employee, or is the system a sophisticated extortion scheme designed to keep left wing politicians in power in Sacramento?

This much we know, government employees make about 25 percent more than their private sector counterparts, and get benefits that are without equal in the private sector. They have ideal working conditions, and legally protected job security. They don’t need a union to protect them from an unscrupulous employer.

So, why do these unions really exist? I don’t know, maybe you can tell me.

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If Economy Slows, Chronic State Deficits Could Become Full-Blown Crisis

www.sacbee.com/content/po...4915c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/13732079p-14574915c.html)

10-18-05

California has been unable to balance its state budget for five years, running up tens of billions of dollars in official and unofficial debt to cover its deficits. No matter how much money the economy pours into state coffers, the state - more or less automatically - spends more than it receives. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants voters to pass Proposition 76, which would impose some limits on annual increases in state spending and empower him and his successors to make unilateral spending reductions when revenues fall short of projections.

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Even Best Pack Rat Might Get Snared By Franchise Tax Board

www.sacbee.com/content/po...3767c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13741835p-14583767c.html)

10-20-05

I am a pack rat - but not, I have just learned, pack-ratty enough for the state of California. Susan Stuart knows this firsthand. Imagine her surprise when a notice arrived last February from the Franchise Tax Board, saying the Walnut Creek legal secretary owed at least $5,856 in unpaid income taxes, including huge penalties, from 1985 and 1986. That's 20 long years ago.

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Living La Vida Limited

www.ocregister.com/ocregi...721355.php (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/article_721355.php)

10-19-05

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would like to put a trapdoor on the budget to keep state spending from growing without restraint, and he believes Proposition 76 would do the trick. It very well might. If the governor's "Live Within Our Means" act had been enacted in 1990, California would be spending nearly 10 percent less this fiscal year, according to a Register analysis. That's $11.3 billion of a $117.5 billion budget. Over 15 years, the state could have eliminated nearly an entire year's worth of spending.

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Court Backs Immigrants’ Labor Rights

www.latimes.com/business/...s-business (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-comp19oct19,1,3963179.story?coll=la-headlines-business)

10-19-05

Illegal immigrants hurt on the job are entitled to workers' compensation benefits, a state appeals court panel has ruled, upholding California's policy of granting workplace rights to undocumented employees. Torrance coffee roaster Farmer Bros. Co. had sought to deny workers' comp benefits to an injured employee who was in the country illegally. The company argued that federal immigration laws superseded the state's system for treating victims of workplace injuries.

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Laws Don’t Scare Those Who Steal Identities

www.fresnobee.com/columni...0333c.html (http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/mcewen/story/11373427p-12120333c.html)

10-20-05

For criminals, identity theft is like winning the lottery. It's safer and more profitable than robbing convenience stores; everyone with a bank account is a potential victim. Reach into a mailbox, drain a credit line and laugh like a hyena while watching the Citibank ad featuring the pool-cleaning old woman whose identity has been assumed by a clever thug. Here's the better-than-a-Christmas-bonus part: Unless you've fried your brains on meth or crack, the odds of getting caught are almost nil.

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State’s Students Near Bottom In Math, Reading

www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_3132792 (http://www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_3132792)

10-20-05

California's fourth- and eighth-graders continue to rank near the bottom in reading and math proficiency compared with students nationwide, according to a national report card released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Education. State education officials said California's poor showing had more to do with its vast numbers of English-learning students - the most in the nation - than a faulty education system.

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Power Problem

www.ocregister.com/ocregi...719380.php (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_719380.php)

10-18-05

The last thing California needs is another electricity crisis. But Proposition 80 would make it more likely. Prop. 80 would expand the authority of the Public Utilities Commission to regulate energy providers; would ban consumers served by big utilities such as Edison from contracting directly with independent energy companies, or electric service providers; and would require utilities to produce 20 percent of their electricity from wind, solar or other renewable sources by 2010.

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Ballooning pension costs unchecked

Pension cost pileup tied to change in rules

www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_3145242 (http://www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_3145242)

10-24-05

Changes in a national accounting guideline a decade ago helped set the stage for California's ballooning pension liabilities by obscuring the long-term costs of providing the richest benefits in the nation, a former CalPERS consultant says. Under changes by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, pension funds can amortize the cost of retroactive benefit increases over 30 years and public employee unions can negotiate to defer salary increases in favor of better pension benefits. But the shifts meant officials often were unaware of the full costs of their decisions, Citrus Heights accountant Marcia Fritz wrote in a Sept. 30 letter to the board. That's because complex actuarial calculations are simplified to a percentage increase in the government's contribution to pensions for only the first few years. "Within a year after the rules took effect (in 1998) , public employee unions successfully lobbied for changes in funding policies that enabled them to receive increased pension benefits at younger retirement ages for their members and mask the costs to decision-makers," wrote Fritz, who has worked with Assemblyman Keith Richman on pension reform proposals.

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Tighten Border, Doolittle Says

www.sacbee.com/content/po...3766c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13741832p-14583766c.html)

10-20-05

Rep. John Doolittle has introduced legislation to end a "catch-and-release" policy that has turned tens of thousands of non-Mexican immigrants loose in the United States pending hearings that they then typically skip. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing Tuesday that he, too, wants to end the policy and "return every single illegal entrant - no exceptions."

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Plugged In – California Lags In Number Of Wired Colleges

www.sacbee.com/content/bu...3849c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/13741972p-14583849c.html)

10-20-05

When it comes to wired college campuses, California makes only a passing grade, according to an Intel Corp. list released last week of the top 50 college campuses with the best wireless networks. Only four schools - California State University, Monterey Bay (No. 12), Azusa Pacific University (No. 30), Mills College (No. 32) and Occidental College (No. 37) made the cut. The list was dominated by Midwest schools, with Ball State University (Indiana), Western Michigan University and the University of Akron (Ohio) finishing first, second and third, respectively.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

www.leginfo.ca.gov (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov)

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/se...nators.htp (http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp)

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/a...t7text.htm (http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm)

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

October 31st, 2005, 04:49 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

October 31, 2005

Living In A Chemically

Induced Dream

It must be nice to be a left wing ideologue. Facts don’t matter. Apparently, the chemically induced dreams of their youth are the defining aspects of their lives. If facts or common sense contradicts chemical stupor, too bad.

In the last two weeks, two separate reports have sought to justify the actions of the socialists in the state government by minimizing the impact of their policies. One report, by the Legislative Analyst Office (LAO), claimed that a 43 percent drop in crime between 1994 and 1999 could not be explained by the adoption of “Three Strikes” in 1994. The other implied that the slow job growth in California was not affected by California’s hostile business environment. We don’t need to change, both reports say, we should adopt more socialist policies. These reports are obviously the result of some college chemical flashback.

First, the LAO claims in its report, “A Primer, A Report on the Impacts of Three Strikes,” that the 1994 “Three Strikes” law may not have reduced crime in California. Although crime rates fell by ten percent in the three years before three strikes, and 43 percent in the five years after three strikes, it claims that those facts don’t necessarily prove that “Three Strikes” has worked.

What? A 400% difference is not enough? What do they want? Do they want the answer handed to them on tablets from Mt. Sinai?

Common sense tells us that if the state locks a bad guy away, he cannot commit more crimes until he is released. Research data tells us that 70% of the crimes in this country are committed by 7% of the criminals. “Three Strikes” tends to catch more of those 7% and put them in jail, and keep them there. The result? The crime rate goes down…except in the eyes of a liberal. Liberals claim that a strong economy, more effective law enforcement techniques, and a decline in handgun use reduced crime, not “Three Strikes.” The only problem with their conclusion is that this same scenario occurred before “Three Strikes”—without any reduction in crime.

Next, the Public Policy Institute wrote an article, “Are Businesses Fleeing the State?” and concluded that they are not. Between 1991 and 2003, “less than one-tenth of one percent of the total number of jobs” was lost, according to this report. The fact that nationally we added jobs, and in California we lost jobs during this same period, is lost on these “nonpartisan” experts.

Once again, common sense tells us that a business will locate where it can maximize its profit. If taxes are higher, the business loses money. If regulations prevent the business from operating efficiently, the business loses money. Since price is set by the market, a business from a more expensive state will make less profit. This is fact. Lose too much money for too long, and POOF – you’re out of business. In fact, the report concludes that most of California’s job losses resulted from the death of California businesses, not from relocation. In other words, many who were dumb enough to stay in California went bankrupt. So, according to the report, it is not relocation, but stupidity and hence, bankruptcy that cost California jobs. This is some poor consolation to the people who lost their jobs and their businesses.

Common sense has to play a role in public policy. It doesn’t matter what chemicals you ingested in college, criminals who are in jail don’t hurt good people, and businesses create jobs in places that help them maximize their profit. Left wing platitudes don’t change those facts of life. Apparently, some of our left wing friends can’t abandon their youthful drug-induced fantasies, but we can’t allow those fantasies to affect our laws today. It’s time for a reality check.

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’Borrow And Spend’ State’s Answer To Budget

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar...FCA5N1.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/23/BUGEMFCA5N1.DTL)

10-24-05

California boasts one of the world's largest economies, but the state's reputation is tarnished by a tax system that is often volatile, by a budget process that tends toward gridlock and by a habit of borrowing when it can't balance the books All of which helps explain why California has the lowest bond rating of the 50 states -- a dubious distinction it might soon surrender to Louisiana, which can blame its predicament on natural -- not politically inflicted -- causes.

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Fees piling on home costs

Rising charges for permission to build may put a chill on new home market

www2.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3145146 (http://www2.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3145146)

10-24-05

The difference between building a new house in Beaumont and building one in Ontario isn't just a matter of location. For the company building and selling that house, it's a matter of thousands of dollars. Development impact fees -- charged by cities to home builders to pay for infrastructure such as streets, sidewalks and sewers -- are often costs that home buyers do not see. But they still feel the fees' impact, since those costs usually are passed on in the form of higher home prices. And that can be a problem, say business leaders. "California is in a statewide home affordability crisis," said Carlos Rodriguez, vice president of the Baldy View chapter of the Building Industry Association. "We really want to do everything we can to make sure we don't price families out."

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Tax Law Casts Doubt On Stem Cell Royalties

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar...FDK8J1.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/25/MNGTFFDK8J1.DTL)

10-25-05

The billion dollars in royalties that voters were told could flow to the state if they passed California's $3 billion stem cell research funding initiative in 2004 may turn into an empty promise. Researchers and business groups are raising a host of reasons the state should claim no portion of the revenue from inventions produced under the stem cell program created by Proposition 71.

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Lawmakers Call For More Illegal Immigrant Prosecutions

www.pe.com/localnews/inla...5c1b2.html (http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_smuggle27.c15c1b2.html)

10-27-05

Frustrated because they say federal attorneys aren't prosecuting enough criminal illegal immigrants, California Republican lawmakers are seeking a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The 19 GOP members of the California congressional delegation have signed a letter to Gonzales saying many illegal immigrants who are arrested and deserve jail time are instead released because of a lack of resources to prosecute them.

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Young futures on the line
This year's seniors must pass the state's exit exam to graduate, and time is running out for 4,643 local students
www.sacbee.com/content/ne...6235c.html (http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/13794563p-14636235c.html)
10-31-05

Within the next few months, a staggering number of California high school seniors may see their worlds come crashing down. They are the guinea pigs in a tough new state experiment: the California High School Exit Exam. So many now are at risk of not graduating, it would take 60 high school campuses to seat them all. A practice that's gone on for decades will come to an end. Principals no longer will hand diplomas to students who can barely read, write and calculate. This spring, for the first time, seniors who can't pass the exam will not be allowed to graduate.

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Voters Face Bonds, Taxes, Silliness

www.ocregister.com/ocregi...727135.php (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_727135.php)

10-24-05

The governor's reform package of propositions, and its opponents, are grabbing the headlines and the advertising dollars in the Nov. 8 special election in California, but there are a number of local elections that governments are using to raise taxes, propose new school bond issues and make symbolic statements on a variety of issues. Probably the most-watched race is the mayoral election in San Diego.

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Act Fast – Or The State Will

www.latimes.com/news/loca...california (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-unclaimed27oct27,1,1461463.story?coll=la-headlines-california)

10-27-05

Millions of Californians have made hefty contributions of cash, stocks, even antique jewelry, to state coffers without knowing it. That's because lawmakers have been raiding the state's unclaimed-property cache and using the proceeds to help balance the budget. About $896 million in unclaimed property was turned over to the state for safekeeping last year under a 46-year-old program designed to protect forgotten or abandoned assets. Less than $239 million of that was eventually claimed; most of the rest was dumped into the state's general fund.

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Doing battle with cheap labor
Longtime workers often find themselves forced out of the market
www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3165324 (http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3165324)

10-30-05

Robert Boyd isn't tarring roofs like he used to. The 62-year-old expatriate from Liverpool, England, says he's waging a losing battle with illegal day laborers. The Upland man, who's run his own business for 22 years, has been fixing leaky roofs since before he came to the United States. From the day he turned 16, and ever since completing a five-year apprenticeship in his trade, he's dedicated his life to construction. "I know what I'm doing and I do good work because I've been trained to do it," Boyd said from his seat at the Black Watch Pub in Upland, where he was watching a soccer match on television one recent day. "They are paying these guys $12 a square to roof ... and then when they mess up the job, I get called in to fix up their mess," he said. Research released late last year by the Center for Immigration Studies reveals that unemployment among native-born workers grew by 2.3 million, while employment among immigrant workers increased about the same amount.

******************************

Mortgage Defaults On The Rise

www.latimes.com/business/...s-business (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-default28o ct28,1,7986216.story?coll=la-headlines-business)

10-28-05

Mortgage defaults in California rose for the first time in more than three years during the third quarter, as slower price gains and riskier loans gave struggling homeowners less margin for error, data released Thursday showed. A separate report released Thursday showed other signs of a cooling housing market, as inventories of unsold new homes nationwide rose to a record. During the July-September quarter, lenders sent default notices to 12,568 California homeowners, a 3.5% increase from a year earlier, according to DataQuick Information Systems, a La Jolla-based research service.

******************************

Teachers' union bucks reforms

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar...FEFC01.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/30/EDGB8FEFC01.DTL)

10-30-05

FOR THE FIRST TIME since the war over bilingual education in the 1990s, some teachers are prominently challenging the California Teachers Association as it spends tens of millions of dollars to defeat Propositions 74 and 75 and other reforms backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. I still expect a majority of California's roughly 325,000 teachers to side with the CTA on election day, Nov. 8. Many are in political lockstep with the CTA, while others are too afraid of getting the cold shoulder in the teacher's lounge. Yet recently, a group of California teachers joined a lawsuit against the CTA after powerful union insiders voted to charge teachers $180 in extra dues -- without a vote by teachers -- to fight Arnold. Meanwhile, two teachers signed a mass e-mail that hit CTA for spending $50 million in dues on pure politics. Prop. 74 requires that a teacher have five years of classroom experience instead of two before earning lifetime tenure. Prop. 75 requires government unions, such as the CTA, to get written permission to use members' dues on its political views. The measures are deeply intertwined. Prop. 74 is a long overdue reform that the CTA is spending millions to sink; Prop. 75 would require the CTA to ask teachers if it is OK to spend their millions of dollars to sink such reforms. Voters appear open to both measures, and newspapers are beginning to endorse one or both.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

www.leginfo.ca.gov (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov)

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/se...nators.htp (http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp)

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/a...t7text.htm (http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm)

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

dec5

November 6th, 2005, 07:02 PM

:lol I haven't been here for months...... I am so proud of GW
just continueing his mission inspite of the liberal attacks on
him......the man is incredible....and he will prevail in Iraq and
the middle east!!

The economy is at a Robust 3.8%!!
The weak cases on Libby an Delay is making the Liberals go crazy.
And Iraq will have it's final vote in December......

Fantastic.......!

moxie

November 7th, 2005, 02:50 AM

The weak cases on Libby an Delay is making the Liberals go crazy.

Don't know just how you know personally that these cases are weak, since they haven't gone to trial yet. Are you a prosecutor or lawyer with special knowledge/expertise? Or are you just repeating something you heard from a source whose one agenda is to bash liberals, no matter what the subject?

As a liberal, I am not "going crazy" over these cases. I hope if these men are innocent, they will be acquitted. And if guilty, I hope they're convicted. Beyond that, there is nothing to "go crazy" about.

Corbon91

November 7th, 2005, 06:27 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

November 7, 2005

The Unarmed Gladiator

The despotic Gray Davis managed to run up a $34 billion dollar deficit, tripled the car tax and signed a bill into law that would have granted drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Californians then took the first step towards reform by recalling Davis and electing Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Under Schwarzenegger’s leadership, the deficit has been remarkably reduced, drivers’ licenses for illegal aliens was repealed, and subsequent attempts vetoed, the illegal car tax was repealed and workers compensation laws were changed to encourage businesses to stay in the state. Although he was empowered with a mandate by the people, he was not given adequate tools to accomplish needed reforms. His Propositions will give him tools to aid his reform effort.

A friend and I were talking about the special election, and my friend was recounting the problems with the initiatives. Take Proposition 74, my friend said it didn’t do enough. It wasn’t the end-all solution. It wasn’t perfect.

OK—so it isn’t perfect, I said, but it is something. We both agreed that the school system is broken. We both agreed that significant changes were needed. We just couldn’t agree on every aspect of a solution. Then it hit me. Any change has strengths and weaknesses. Of course, when the defenders of the status quo have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend, they can point out the weakness, and there is no one to point out the strengths. I think people understand that something is wrong, and that there is something right about reforming tenure. They are just not sure that this is the right reform.

Well – we’ve got to do something. If we let “perfect” become the standard in this election, we will hand the defenders of the status quo a victory from which we will never recover.

Yes—there are flaws in Proposition 74, but it is a step in the right direction. Making teachers wait three more years before they get a permanent lifetime job is not a bad thing. Making them prove that they are competent won’t fix the entire problem, but it is a start.

The same is true with the other initiatives. My right-to-work friends don’t like Proposition 75 because it only affects the dues portion of the payments that government employees are forced to pay unions. That is only about two or three dollars a month. The other $30 to $40 a month, what is known as the agency fee, is required to be paid, and no one can get out of that. The state should eliminate the whole thing, my friends say. In fact, the big lie being told by the unions in the anti-75 campaign is that employees who quit the union still have to pay that union 90% of what they would have to pay if they were members of the union. Some just believe it is stupid not to join.

Well, yes, we should get rid of the agency fee as well, but let’s start somewhere. Requiring some permission to use dues for political purposes is a good start, and we’ve got to do something if we are going to break the power of the unions in Sacramento.

Proposition 76 suffers from the same criticism. I personally want a hard spending cap. Proposition 76 doesn’t have a hard spending cap. But it has spending limits and controls. That is something, and it is certainly better than what is in place today. And no—it doesn’t give too much power to the Governor. It just requires the Legislature to act, to do its job. That is a good thing. The Legislature got us into our fiscal problem. They need to act to get us out.

Proposition 77 has flaws too. Will retired judges be subject to political pressure when drawing the lines for the Legislature and Congress? Of course, but they won’t be drawing the lines that determine their own money and power. The current system allows those who benefit from the system to draw the lines for their advantage. At least the judges are one step removed.

Two years ago, California was drowning in debt. The People of California elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to fix California. But, he was sent to Sacramento without the tools needed to fix the problems. Even actor Russell Crowe in “Gladiator” was given a sword to fend off his foes. Give Schwarzenegger the ability to start reforming California. Are the Propositions perfect? No – but they are better, and Sacramento needs better.

******************************

Beyond Shameless

www.signonsandiego.com/un...d3top.html (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051103/news_lz1ed3top.html)

11-03-05

If polls are accurate, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could go zero for four in his initiative reform push in next Tuesday's special election. But polls have been wrong before, so voters who want to pull California back from the precipice should not be discouraged. The words of 18th-century British statesman Edmund Burke come to mind: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

******************************

Eminent Domain- Political Hot Potato In O.C.

www.ocregister.com/ocregi...750646.php (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_750646.php)

11-04-05

When the topic of eminent domain comes up, many Orange County politicians quickly distance themselves. Placentia City Council members pledged last year not to take homes or businesses for economic development reasons in the city's Old Town area, adjacent to a major redevelopment project. Anaheim's City Council is considering a 2006 ballot measure to ban use of eminent domain for private projects. And Supervisor Chris Norby says a state constitutional amendment is the best way to limit the power to public projects. Thursday's House bill, he said, would allow too many exemptions. "Eminent domain should only be used for public use - to build freeways, schools, post offices - not to build big-box stores and car malls," he said.

******************************

Immigration Changing Education System In California

www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3169998 (http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3169998)

11-01-05

Veronica Zavaleta does not speak English. Her children do. The 31-year-old mother of five cannot read or write. She scans her children's homework with frustration the words are meaningless symbols that leave her feeling frustrated and helpless. Zavaleta, an immigrant from El Salvador, has a third-grade education. At an early age, she was forced to leave school in order to help support her family. Because of this, watching over her children's education has been a struggle.

******************************

California Must Face Need For A Natural Gas Terminal

www.mercurynews.com/mld/m...069180.htm (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/13069180.htm)

11-03-05

California runs on gas, natural gas. Half the electricity used in the state is generated by burning it. Millions of people heat their houses and cook their meals with it. Consumption of natural gas is up 20 percent since 1980. The California Energy Commission figures usage will grow 12 percent more in the next decade. Growing demand and limited supply create higher prices. Prices have doubled since 2002. They're expected to rise 50 percent this winter.

******************************

Parents Should Be Notified

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar...FHKD61.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/11/03/EDG9UFHKD61.DTL)

11-03-05

The logic doesn't work. By definition, minors who get pregnant are less mature than those who do not -- in general, they belong to the subset of teens who have sex but don't use birth control at all or correctly, as opposed to teens who either use birth control consistently or abstain from having sex. So it doesn't make sense to have laws, like those in California, that give the least responsible teens more rights than are accorded a responsible teen who wants a tattoo.

******************************

Reshaping Pensions

www.pe.com/localnews/opin...6b249.html (http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_01_ed_pensions2.16c6b249.html )

10-31-05

A better economy has eased some of the pressure on California's public pension funds, but that does not erase the need to reform an overly generous retirement system. A new contract with one small employee union offers a useful template for the state to start curtailing costs. The pact, announced this month, is with a union that represents about 3,400 state workers: attorneys, administrative law judges and hearing officers.

******************************

In Harm’s Way – State Bureaucracy Has Overlooked Criminal Doctor

dailynews.com/opinions/ci_3169611 (http://dailynews.com/opinions/ci_3169611)

11-01-05

Doctor Laurence Reich should probably not be practicing medicine. The osteopathic physician was convicted of sexually exploiting two female patients three years ago. Yet he continues to work five years after the complaints were made because the process to determine whether he should retain his license is mired in bureaucracy. In other states, a conviction would result in an automatic and immediate revocation of a license. But in Reich's case, the hearing that might decide his fate has been put off for three years.

******************************

High Court Lets Coastal Panel’s Legality Stand

www.signonsandiego.com/un...cases.html (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051101/news_1n1cases.html)

11-01-05

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday took up three Western state cases, dealing with the California Coastal Commission, prison libraries and immigration rights. In the immigration case, the Supreme Court agreed to clarify the rights of longtime illegal immigrants to seek permission to stay in the U.S. Justices will decide if a provision in a 1996 federal law that tightened restrictions on illegal immigrants applies to people in America when the law took effect.

******************************

Toll-Counting Follies

www.contracostatimes.com/...049915.htm (http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/opinion/13049915.htm)

11-01-05

Once again, state agency has demonstrated that California government is inept when dealing with computer technology. It is alarming that the state that plays a major role in developing technological innovations has such difficulty implementing them. The latest ineptitude is with the FasTrak system on Bay Area bridges. It is designed to track vehicles with electronic devices as they go through toll booths and then bill motorists.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

www.leginfo.ca.gov (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov)

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/se...nators.htp (http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp)

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/a...t7text.htm (http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm)

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

November 14th, 2005, 09:15 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM
By Assemblyman Ray Haynes
November 14, 2005

The Fourth Annual Nosey Awards
Protecting individual liberty is the most important thing a legislator can do. Exercising power is easy; restraining the exercise of power is hard. Legislators therefore have a tendency to exercise power in strange and intrusive ways. The “Noseys” were designed to call attention to the stupid exercise of power in the California Legislature.

The 2005 Nosey Award Winner is:
1. AB 1677(Koretz) Correctional Condoms Act: This bill provides for the legalization of, and distribution of contraband in our states correctional facilities, by allowing any non-profit or health agency to freely distribute condoms and dental dams to inmates (Just what is a dental dam?). With the understanding that sex between inmates is a crime, this bill’s stated purpose is to prevent disease. What this strange bill DOES NOT DO, is provide for the disposal of the potentially hundreds of thousands of used condoms. Who gets stuck with that job? Would our Correctional Peace Officers be relegated to the duties of a peep show custodian?

To be fair, the bill does state that it isn’t intended to encourage illegal sex acts between inmates. This begs the question; for what purpose are these prison prophylactics to be used? Inmates often indulge in a practice known as “gassing”, which is the act of using their own bodily fluids as a weapon. An Officer may be exposed to inmates’ blood, urine, feces and semen as an inherent job hazard. Now, with a condom, the inmates have a “water balloon” delivery system.

This bill is the hands down winner for the bill that tries to do the work of the lesser good, while simultaneously avoiding the root cause of the problem.

Runners Up
2. SB 607 (Bowen): Taxing Yard Sales. When the Socialists in Sacramento aren’t doing dangerous things like coddling pedophiles or trying to give drivers licenses to illegal aliens, they try to do really dumb things like taxing yard sales. Would you expect anything less from your legislators who have tried to pass a “Soda Tax” and force our building codes to include the principles of “Feng Shui?”

3. AB 17 (Koretz): Tobacco: the low hanging fruit of the politician; This bill seeks to create a crime for smoking in what is arguably the most outdoors one can get; the beach. Now we have no smoking indoors and no smoking outdoors. When smoking is outlawed, only outlaws will smoke. Now, if we could only outlaw all of those darned seagulls…

4. AB 163 (Bermudez) Splitting Hairs: This bill sought to clarify issues regarding the practice of hair threading; one form of trimming eye brows. The Legislature, after an abnormally long committee debate, tried to tell people just exactly what constitutes incidental eye brow hair cutting. Not willing to let well enough alone, the bill also sought to add another redundant step in the cosmetology licensing process. Strike another blow for the hair police. Vetoed by the Governor.

5. AB 418 (Koretz) “A little hair of the dog”: They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Why not let dogs engage in cosmetic surgery? Why pass AB 418, which would have outlawed dog ear cropping? Not only a job killer, “nosing” into the long established practices of the American Kennel Club, this bill reminds us that while politicians aren’t willing to tackle the real problems that affect the working people of California, they are perfectly willing to invent them.

6. AB 178 (Koretz) Up in Smoke, “fire safe cigarettes”: By adding more harmful chemicals to the ingredients in cigarettes, which are already rumored to be unhealthy, Mr. Koretz hopes to prevent smokers from setting themselves on fire. This bill will create yet another price hike and additional regulations impacting both the manufacturer and consumer. This bill will now be law. No word on how it affects “fire-safe medicinal marijuana”.

7. AB 616 (Vargas) “Cigar Envy”: This bill sought to prohibit smoking in an outdoor area that is enclosed on four sides by a public building. Mr. Vargas’s willingness to have the taxpayers print a bill whose only function is to interrupt the relaxed atmosphere in the Governor’s signature cigar smoking tent, is a perfect model of the playground antics of an insulated Capitol establishment.

8. AB 756 (Goldberg) Lilliputian Learning: Miniaturization is cool. Laptops are cooler than desktops. Tiny flip phones are cooler than the older, larger cell phones. Even personal miniaturization in the form of anorexia appears to be cool---at least if the covers of People and US magazine are a good barometer. But much like anorexia, the quest for miniaturization can sometimes be harmful and shortsighted. This bill would prohibit textbooks longer than 200 pages. But then again, maybe they are on to something – I might support an amendment to limit all legislation to 2 pages!

9. AB 1103(Karnette) TOUR DE TAX: The legislature has long tried to figure out how to tax kids—and this year they did it. Tax cars, now tax bikes. Kids—welcome to a free society.

10. AB 651 (Berg, Levine) State Sponsored Suicide: This bill sought to provide a state sanctioned means of ending a life with the help of a health care provider. Rather than using the will of government to find solutions to things such as healthcare, eldercare and such, we have now fully surrendered to our legislative demons and have agreed to just give up. As a well known actor once proclaimed, “Soylent Green is people!” And you thought eugenics was passé!
The Legislature is no longer in session, so you are safe again for now. But I’m sure you can’t wait until next year to see just how nosey the Legislature can get.
******************************
A Setback, Yes – But Schwarzenegger Must Redouble Reform Efforts

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/13834765p-14675298c.html

11-09-05

As Californians decided the fate of Arnold Schwarzenegger's "year of reform" ballot measures Tuesday, a cable television network aired "Conan the Barbarian," the 1982 muscles-and-mayhem flick that launched his extremely successful movie career. A metaphor? A harbinger? An analogue? An omen? Schwarzenegger may have suffered a serious political setback Tuesday - pre-election polls and partial voting returns indicated that his two major ballot measures would be rejected and two others were dicey at best - but he's been there before, stumbling badly in his early forays into bodybuilding and movies before achieving stunning success.
******************************
Massive State Bond Possible

 At a cost some peg at $50 billion or more, Schwarzenegger seeks an infrastructure program reminiscent of the Pat Brown era.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sacto14nov14,0,6247774.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Corbon91

November 14th, 2005, 09:16 PM

11-14-05

SACRAMENTO — Coming off a losing campaign to curb state spending, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is promoting a statewide public works program that may be financed by a bond sale so large it would dwarf previous state borrowings. The governor hopes to join with Democratic leaders and businesses to address Californians' growing frustration with clogged roadways, polluted water, hospital shortages, overcrowded schools and, in the wake of the devastation in New Orleans, inadequate disaster preparedness. Schwarzenegger is seizing an issue with wide bipartisan support in an effort to restore his image as a moderate, although his plan threatens to cause tension with some conservative allies who have long warned against more government borrowing.
******************************
No Pass, No Diploma – No Ceremony Either?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-exitexam7nov07,1,2139825.story?coll=la-headlines-california

11-07-05

Educators across California are grappling with what to do with nearly 100,000 seniors who could be denied diplomas next spring after failing the state's first-ever high school exit exam. At issue is whether students should be allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies, and whether to offer an alternative certificate in place of a high school diploma — and what currency such a certificate would have in the job market.
******************************
No Clemency For ‘Tookie’

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/06/EDGC3FII9H1.DTL

11-07-05

There must be a guidebook in the country's death rows about how to dodge the lethal-injection needle: In Texas, you find God and plead mercy; in the Bay Area and other havens for people who think they are enlightened liberals, you find a publisher. If you write books or poetry, all manner of journalists, authors and do-gooders will turn you into a saint who is doing some good for society.
******************************
Four Thousand Years of Price Control
by Thomas DiLorenzo, Ludwig von Mises Institute

http://www.mises.org/story/1962
11-10-05
Supply and demand have been allowed to work — at least in a limited way — in energy markets, resulting in ups and downs in gasoline prices. Strong demand coupled with regulatory supply restrictions that were worsened by several hurricanes caused gasoline prices to go up. Then as hurricane-damaged refineries were repaired, gas prices began to plummet. There have been no significant shortages, thanks to the absence of price controls, but Congress is working diligently to put an end to that outcome. Urged on by an economically ignorant public, Congress recently held one of its periodic Grand Inquisitions of oil company executives to demand an answer to the question: "How dare you profit from the American free enterprise system?" Accusations of "price gouging" — i.e. allowing market forces to set prices — abound, as do calls for price controls. They aren't always called "price controls," but some slick euphemism such as "anti-price-gouging legislation." It's the same thing.
******************************
Why charter schools work
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/bookreviews/article_738906.php

10-30-05

Interested in charter schools, as a parent, teacher or someone just curious? Then you need to read "Free to Learn: Lessons from Model Charter Schools," by Lance T. Izumi and Xiaochin Claire Yan. Charter schools operate within the public school system, but without most of the red tape. They are free to experiment and - most important - free to fail and be dissolved, replaced by something better. They have grown fast across the nation the past 15 years.
******************************
State, Local Pension Plans Are 'A Ticking Time Bomb Set to Explode'

Rising costs pose dire, imminent budget crisis, expert says
Written By: Sandra Fabry, Budget & Tax News, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=17833

10-01-05

In July 2005, Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski (R) signed legislation that will change the state's public pension system from a nineteenth century defined benefit plan to a twenty-first century defined contribution plan. That move comes as a first step toward addressing a massive shortfall in the state's pension fund. Alaska is not the only state in the nation facing pressing state and local pension system needs. Florida, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, and Oregon recently have undertaken similar reforms. Daniel Clifton, executive director of the American Shareholders Association (ASA), spoke about the problems the public pension system is facing, implications for taxpayers, and possible remedies and steps taken by states to alleviate the problems.
******************************
Counterfeit Drug Sales to Reach $75 Billion by 2010, Report Says

Written By: Peter Pitts, Health Care News, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=17948

11-01-05

On September 20, experts on regulation, security, and trade of illegal pharmaceuticals gathered in Washington, DC to discuss what they described as the global threat of illegal, cross-border drug trafficking. The international drug counterfeiting conference, organized by the Center for Medicines in the Public Interest (CMPI) and the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), brought together a panel of speakers from the United Kingdom and the United States. At the conference, CMPI released a new report projecting counterfeit drug sales to reach $75 billion in 2010, a 92 percent increase from 2005. Peter Pitts is director of Center for Medicines in the Public Interest and senior health policy fellow for the Pacific Research Institute. This article is adapted from his speech at the September 20 conference. The business of selling fake prescription drugs to unsuspecting consumers is a burgeoning, global industry. It represents a major public health risk for people around the world. Nearly $39 billion, or 11 percent, of global pharmaceutical commerce will be counterfeit this year. By 2010, that dollar number will nearly double.
******************************
California's Draconian Auto-Emission Standards Won't Reduce Global Warming

Written By: Jay Lehr, Ph.D., Environment News, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15732

10-01-04

California's state legislature is currently considering a proposal to limit carbon dioxide emissions from cars and trucks in hopes of staving off global warming. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has expressed support for the law and promised to fight any challenges by automakers or the federal government. The proposal stems from a law, AB 1493, signed by former California Gov. Gray Davis in 2002, that requires the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to set emission standards this year for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. In particular, CARB is required to produce regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. CARB recently issued its draft regulations and will present its final proposal to the state legislature on January 1, 2005. Schwarzenegger repeatedly stated in his campaign for governor that he supports AB 1493. Under CARB's proposed regulations, California consumers would pay several hundred dollars more for every vehicle they buy, as a result of the state's effort to cut tailpipe emissions from most new vehicles by nearly 30 percent over the next decade.
******************************
Migden Quits Senate’s No. 2 Post

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13830562p-14671262c.html

11-08-05

In an unusual move two months after she angered Republicans by voting on behalf of a GOP assemblyman to pass her own bill, Sen. Carole Migden said Monday that she will leave her leadership post in the Senate's powerful Appropriations Committee. Migden, a San Francisco Democrat and former assemblywoman, said in a statement that she instead has "decided to dedicate most of my waking hours" to working on state Controller Steve Westly's campaign for governor through June.
******************************
Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066
To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution is permitted and encouraged!

dec5

November 20th, 2005, 11:47 PM

DEAD OR ALIVE?
By Michelle Malkin · November 20, 2005 03:02 PM

There's another report out on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's demise--No End But Victory is following the latest story.

http://michellemalkin.com/

Let's hope it is true......;)

Corbon91

November 21st, 2005, 09:34 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

November 21, 2005

Education’s Newest Outrage

Call me a cynic, but I think the educrats plan it this way. They wait for challenges to pass, like Propositions 74 and 75, and then when they win, they literally spit in the voter’s face. The latest outrage—the effort of these educrats to avoid any accountability for doing their job.

By way of background, in 1999, in his first year as Governor, Gray Davis passed a milquetoast education package, intended to improve our schools. He also proposed a high school exit exam, a final test which would determine if the school district had actually done its job—that is—whether the student could actually read the diploma the school was issuing. Students can take it each year in high school, and only have to pass it once, but they have to pass it to get their diploma. Testing has always been about evaluating the adults who make money off of the education system, not about evaluating the students. If the adults were failing at their jobs, the students would be failing the tests.

And guess what—those students were failing. Although every other part of the Davis program was watered down by the power of the educrats in Sacramento, the high school exit exam survived intact. It remains as the only meaningful tool in the 1999 Davis reforms. And now it is a constant target of those educrats. From the day it was passed, they have tried every trick in the book to avoid the consequences of a meaningful exam.

The test was supposed to be a rigorous test of basic skills. Over 80 per cent of the students who took the exam failed when it was first administered, so the educrats panicked. Rather than change their behavior, or actually do their job, they convinced the Davis administration to lower the score necessary to pass the test. Now only forty per cent of the students who take the test fail.

That still didn’t satisfy the educrats. Every year since 2001, they have tried to eliminate the test. Failing that, they have succeeded in delaying the implementation of the test. It was supposed to go into effect in 2004, they delayed it to 2006. Now it is taking effect, and twenty per cent of the high school seniors may not graduate next June, because they have yet to pass the test. The failure of our school system will become clear next year, and the educrats are afraid their failure will be exposed.

So now they have pulled out their latest trick. They think they have found a loophole. Some community college districts, primarily Los Angeles and San Francisco (who have the largest proportions of failing students) think they can issue a diploma to a high school student without the requirement of the exit exam. The fact that the law required every high school student to pass the exam before they got a diploma, no matter who issued the diploma, is lost on them. They think they can bail out the K-12 system by issuing the diplomas themselves. They are becoming co-conspirators in the criminal negligence of the worst performing school districts in the state.

It is an outrage. The only losers are the students. If the failure of the K-12 system was actually exposed by the high school exit exam, the system would have to change, and actually teach the children how to read and write. The diploma ought to mean something, and the exit exam would give it some meaning.

But this is about money, not accountability. Parents might actually ask that someone lose their job for their children’s failure. We can’t have that. We have to hide the failure.

So the educrats are covering for each other. It is an outrage that cannot be allowed to stand.

******************************

Massive State Bond Possible

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sacto14nov14,0,6247774.story?coll=la-home-headlines

11-14-05

Coming off a losing campaign to curb state spending, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is promoting a statewide public works program that may be financed by a bond sale so large it would dwarf previous state borrowings. The governor hopes to join with Democratic leaders and businesses to address Californians' growing frustration with clogged roadways, polluted water, hospital shortages, overcrowded schools and, in the wake of the devastation in New Orleans, inadequate disaster preparedness.

******************************

Funds for jailing illegal immigrants still falling short

http://www.dailybulletin.com/opinions/ci_3224329

11-17-05

Congressional authorization last week to repay states $405 million in 2006 for the costs associated with keeping illegal immigrant criminals locked up was welcome news. It's the largest allocation for such costs in four years $100 million more than last year and it shows that federal lawmakers realize they have some culpability in allowing the unchecked flow of people across our borders.

******************************

Health plans allow picking, choosing

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3212300

11-14-05

The future of health coverage may look more like the Home Shopping Network than "ER." In a fast-growing trend that advocates call consumer-driven health care, buyers can choose tailor-made coverage and higher deductibles from insurers that let them be choosier about doctors, drugs and hospitals in an attempt to curb the soaring cost of health insurance.

******************************

Rosy fiscal news, but ...

http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3226203

11-17-05

State fiscal experts said Wednesday that for the first time in five years, California will not need to cut spending or eye tax hikes to balance next years budget but warned the state is still overspending and faces fiscal land mines. Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill urged Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers to essentially ignore the one-time boon of a large reserve-fund carryover and continue trimming expenditures to bring spending and revenue into balance. The books will balance in fiscal 2006-07 only because a $5.2 billion reserve from the current budget will cover a $4 billion operating shortfall next year.

******************************

Services cut for students as high-pay jobs boom

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/14/MNGDFFO1641.DTL

11-14-05

The University of California may have cut student services and maintenance, but not the number of high-paid jobs created over the past two years. Payroll records show that 2,275 university employees earned more than $200,000 last fiscal year, up 30 percent over two years. The number of employees making at least $300,000 annually climbed 54 percent to 496 last year. Some employees got raises. Others were hired or promoted to new posts with increased salaries.

******************************

Pensions vs. layoffs - Unions have rare chance to be part of solution

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051116/news_lz1ed16top.html

11-16-05

Mayor-elect Jerry Sanders has a singular mandate to solve San Diego's pension crisis by reining in the unbridled costs of lucrative retirement checks for city workers. Throughout the campaign, Sanders could not have been more plain about his plans to stem galloping pension costs by restraining the city's payroll, which is consuming an escalating share of the budget. Payroll costs drive pension costs, because retirement benefits are pegged to a worker's highest one-year salary. One of the most powerful ways to reduce the crushing pension burden is to check payroll growth.

******************************

Bid to punish judges has eye on state

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13870095p-14709539c.html

11-17-05

An initiative providing for the ouster and criminal indictment of judges who make bad decisions appears headed for a test vote in South Dakota next year and, if it succeeds there, will be attempted in other states, sponsors of the measure said this week. The Southern California-based sponsors of the Judicial Accountability Initiative Law (JAIL) have taken aim at what they call "black-collar crime" across the country. They already have their sights set on the 2006 ballot in Nevada, and they report related efforts in Idaho and New Mexico.

******************************

Sex Offender Held; GPS Tracked Him to a School

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gpsarrest18nov18,1,4396834.story?coll=la-headlines-california

11-18-05

A global positioning system used to monitor high-risk sex offenders resulted in the arrest of a parolee in Anaheim who had been in the parking lot of an elementary school, a doll shop and an amusement park for children, officials said Thursday. The arrest of Robert Dobucki, 43, comes three weeks after 40 parolees in Orange County were equipped with electronic ankle bracelets that are tracked via satellite by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

******************************

A schooling gap in our future – Demographic Changes

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/13162753.htm

11-14-05

California must do a better job of schooling its next generation of youth, or we will literally be poorer for it -- to the tune of thousands of dollars in per capita income and tens of millions of dollars in lost tax revenue to the state. This will happen as a generation of well-educated baby boomers retires and is replaced, in large measure, by undereducated minorities. While a nationwide challenge, it will be most severe in California, where the demographic shift will be the most stark.

******************************

Report: Contracts hold back schools

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051117/news_7m17hire.html

11-17-05

Imagine you're a manager and you have to fill two of every five openings with specific candidates or candidates from a predetermined pool, regardless of their qualifications and fit for the job. That's what principals in the nation's public schools are asked to do, according to a new report that faults union contracts for preventing administrators from hiring the best teachers.

******************************

Dueling studies offer pros and cons of sending kids to preschool

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/13870122p-14709567c.html

11-17-05

One election has ended, and campaigning for the next one already has begun. Today in San Francisco, supporters of the proposed "Preschool for All" initiative are scheduled to announce that they've completed gathering the signatures needed to place the measure on the June 2006 ballot…Supporters and critics are generating studies to stoke debate on the idea of a free, state-run preschool for all youngsters regardless of family income. Three reports released in recent weeks offer different views.

******************************

Free mansions for people of means

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/14/MNGDFFO0JJ1.DTL

11-14-05

University of California President Robert Dynes and his wife live in one of the East Bay's most impressive homes, a 13,239-square-foot mansion in Kensington with 10 acres of land, gorgeous Mediterranean gardens and sweeping views of the bay. An extensive staff meticulously maintains the estate at a cost of close to $300,000 a year. The best part for Dynes: like many other university presidents, he doesn't pay a cent.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

new_europe2006

November 24th, 2005, 02:09 AM

If Zarqawi was dead, there would've body parts found or some sort of evidence that proves he's already.

Corbon91

November 28th, 2005, 10:35 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

November 28, 2005

The Rosey Scenario

Each November, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) puts out a report on our “state of the current year budget,” that is the budget year we are in at the time of the report, giving us information on how much we’re spending and the revenues coming in. Then they give us a prediction of the next year’s budget. The report analyzes revenue and spending trends, and puts those trends in the context of the budget passed in June (or July or August or September, depending on the year), and how those trends should impact future year’s budgets. These reports are used by the Legislature and the Governor’s office in preparation for the January budget.

Indeed, these reports have been useful in the past as early warnings of impending budget disasters and as predictors of budget surpluses. They are not very useful as a policy tool (and the Legislative Analyst will admit that policy is the Legislature’s province, not hers) because they tend to take a pro-government position on most policy disputes. Some of it has to do with institutional bias, some of it has to do with the boss (the LAO is basically under the control of the Democrats, although it tries to keep a nonpartisan persona), and some of it is just the predilections of those who work there. In the end, however, the report has some serious value as an informational document.

This year that report predicts a $4 billion increase in revenue over last year’s budget predictions. The report then pronounced our budget deficit at an end. Cheers rose at that report throughout Sacramento. We have money again, the bureaucrats and leftists announced to the masses.

I cringed.

The last time the LAO predicted a $4 billion surplus, it at the same time advocated against a tax cut. I (along with others) called for a tax cut. I was told we didn’t have the money for that, and then the Democrats took the money and spent it on welfare programs. The surplus turned out to be almost $8 billion and a large part of that surplus was spent on big government programs. The next year, the LAO predicted another large surplus (which turned out to be almost $12 billion), and once again advocated against a tax cut. The Democrats again spent the money on social welfare programs, increasing total state spending from $57 billion to $79 billion in two short years. In defense of the LAO, it recommended against the spending increases in these salad days, but the Democrats took its advice on tax cuts, and ignored its advice on spending increases. Then the Davis collapse occurred and the state saw a $28 billion deficit.

Now spending is back on the table. With the deficit “gone,” the restraint on the Democrats is gone, and they are now free to indulge their natural inclination to spend on everything their hearts desire (except law enforcement and roads, which is what people want). With the recent election, they are going to claim they have a mandate to create a new deficit. The problem is that Schwarzenegger may believe them.

That is why I cringed. History is repeating itself, the only problem is that there are only about 20 people in the Legislature who were here in 1999-2000 when the last spending binge began, and 15 of them want to spend the surplus and then some. The Democrats will prove themselves more than willing to create the next deficit. If history repeats itself completely, some Republicans, eager to bring the bacon home to their district, will participate in the deficit creating business.

Taxpayers should fear surpluses, because that’s when government grows, and deficits are created. Then again, they should fear deficits, because that is when government demands tax increases. Maybe taxpayers should just fear governments

******************************

Golden Statement?

http://www.techcentralstation.com/111805F.html

11-18-05

Okay, so I was wrong. Last month I predicted that the four initiatives sponsored by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would carry during last Tuesday's special election. They did not. Mea maxima culpa. But what went wrong? And how can Arnold, and California conservatives, pick up the pieces? For one thing, strategy, tactics, and money played a large role in the defeat of the measures (all eight ballot initiatives went down, some by more than 30 points). The unions reportedly spent nearly $150 million in an effort to beat back Propositions 74 (which would have extended the minimum length of service before awarding public school teachers tenure), 75 (which aimed to require unions to obtain member consent before expending dues on political causes), and 76 (which would have capped state spending).

******************************

A Good Trend Or Bad – Legislature’s Lawyers A Declining Breed

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/13888402p-14727423c.html

11-21-05

How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb? Three - one to turn the bulb, one to shake him off the ladder and a third to sue the ladder company. It's just one of countless thousands, perhaps millions, of jokes about lawyers, the professionals we love to hate. The jokes are logged on Web sites and one even catalogs them by legal specialty. They reflect what those in the legal profession concede is a serious image problem: the declining esteem that the public holds for attorneys.

******************************

Take A Hard Look At Ways To Pay For Infrastructure

http://www.dailybulletin.com/opinions/ci_3234455

11-21-05

There was good news on the state budget last week, word from Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill’s office that high-running revenues will be enough to eliminate next fiscal year’s projected deficit. Word also emerged that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s team is looking at a huge – perhaps in excess of $50 billion – bond measure to fix the state’s sagging infrastructure.

******************************

The Elusive Dream

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_3236905

11-21-05

In this uncertain world, there's very little average working Americans can count on. There's little job security anymore, with workers and employers considering each other disposable. Pensions are fast becoming a relic of the 20th century. Even 401(k) accounts are not reliable, as Wall Street has proven from time to time. What's left is the gold standard, the piece of the American dream that has not yet let us down: Owning a home.

******************************

A Pack Of Trouble – Competing Tobacco Tax Proposals Split Health Advocates

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/22/BUGN3FS48L1.DTL

11-21-05

Health advocates have long supported the idea of increasing taxes on tobacco products, both to discourage consumption and to help pay for health care services. But two competing propositions that could be headed for the ballot next year, adding $1.50 to the price of a pack of cigarettes in California, have stirred up controversy among groups that are usually united against tobacco.

******************************

Knock, Knock, Knocking On Hell’s Door

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/11/20/EDG46FQCEN1.DTL

11-21-05

Clarence Ray Allen provides the strongest argument I've seen for the death penalty. Allen is slated to be executed on Jan 17. He ordered the death of several witnesses who had testified against him from prison while he was serving a sentence of life without parole for the murder of another witness. As a result, three innocent people are dead. They've been dead for 25 years. "This is probably the paradigm of a death-penalty case, in which really no lesser punishment would be appropriate," noted state Deputy Attorney General Ward Campbell last week.

******************************

Loophole Offers Hope After Failed Exit Exam

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13888397p-14727424c.html

11-21-05

Maybe California high school seniors who can't pass an exit examination in math and English this year won't lose their chance for a diploma after all. Though state law requires passage of the high-stakes test, there's an apparent, largely unknown loophole. "Clearly, it's something that legislators did not know about," said Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who added, "It's something I'm intrigued with."

******************************

Children Not Active Enough, Study Finds

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/13231630.htm

11-22-05

California schoolchildren are still out of shape when it comes to physical fitness. A statewide survey of student physical fitness released Monday found that only 27 percent passed all six tested categories of performance, with students performing most poorly in cardiovascular endurance. This year's results showed only minimal improvement -- 3 percent to 4 percent -- over last year among the more than 1.3 million students tested.

******************************

Plan to tax wealthy likely to encounter strong opposition

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/18/BAGLFFQBDJ1.DTL

11-18-05

Just two weeks after voters resoundingly rejected eight statewide initiatives, actor-director Rob Reiner announced Thursday that his $2.4 billion plan to provide free preschool for every California 4-year-old is ready to go on the June 2006 ballot. Reiner, surrounded by business leaders from across the state, told a San Francisco news conference that his group had collected more than 1 million signatures for the initiative, far more than the nearly 600,000 required to qualify a constitutional amendment for the ballot. The group plans to turn them in to county registrars next week.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

dec5

November 30th, 2005, 01:40 PM

Check it out.......the Lib left can't even tell the difference between
our troops and the British troops in their propaganda....:lol

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004007.htm

new_europe2006

December 10th, 2005, 06:04 PM

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/face_120405.pdf

Bottom of page 4 and top of page 5.

Kerry: "And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the-of-the historical, religious customs. Whether you like it or not..."

That's just bs that our soldiers are terrorizing civilians.

new_europe2006

December 10th, 2005, 06:07 PM

moxie

December 11th, 2005, 12:16 PM

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=C36A87B9-63A0-4CDE-AA91-B41571AFD3AF

(SAN ANTONIO) -- Saying the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.

This just goes to show you that the left wing is an even bigger enemy against the US than the Islamic terrorists.

Oh, really? The last time I looked, the left wing hadn't blown up anyone and/or killed anyone. And the last time I looked, U.S. citizens are allowed free speech and dissent, without being labeled an "enemy."

This country's Founders must be rolling in their graves ...
They fought to the death for the right of full and free discourse on any and all issues affecting this country.

new_europe2006

December 12th, 2005, 02:09 AM

Oh, really? The last time I looked, the left wing hadn't blown up anyone and/or killed anyone. And the last time I looked, U.S. citizens are allowed free speech and dissent, without being labeled an "enemy."

But the left wing is taking away freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, right to bear arms, right to private property, and states rights, which is far worse than anything al-Qaeda has done. Plus the left doesn't seem to mind persecuting against conservatives along with Islamic terrorists, so I'd say those two groups are in good company.

BTW, you just contradicted yourself when you said there's freedom of speech in this country and you can't label anybody an enemy. Guess what, I can say what I want as well and I can call the left wing a bigger threat to America if I want to and there's nothing you can do about it. :D

This country's Founders must be rolling in their graves ...
They fought to the death for the right of full and free discourse on any and all issues affecting this country.

But they didn't fight for the left to just dominate everybody's lives or to take away private property rights, or force businesses to hire people they don't like, or ban prayer in public schools, or banning nativity scenes in public places, or taking away the right to bear arms, or hate speech laws, or hate crimes laws, or shutting down industries, or forcing people to be tolerant of everybody.

Corbon91

December 12th, 2005, 09:59 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

December 12, 2005

Through A Glass Darkly

If you assume, as I do, that the purpose of the political process is to persuade people to entrust you with power, the solution to the losses the Governor faced in November is simple. It is also hard work. And it is the solution the Governor seems to be avoiding.

If I have any complaint with many of my Republican colleagues, it would be that they think they can outsmart, outwit, or outmaneuver the Democrats. They believe that if they can find just the right issue, or just the right tactic, they can slick their way into a majority in the legislature. They are wrong.

The press, the Governor, the pollsters, and many others are right when they say that a majority of Californians do not agree with the Republican agenda of smaller government, less taxes, more freedom, stronger families, and stronger communities. The liberals in this state start with that advantage in any election. Today, more people agree with them than agree with most of the Republican officeholders in this state.

However, it is a big mistake to then capitulate to that fact. The great thing about good ideas is that, while people may be misled for a while, they are not misled forever. They will follow those with good ideas when they are persuaded that those ideas are good for them personally and for society in general.

Polls represent facts. We may not like the facts, but they are important for assessing a successful political strategy. If the sole purpose of politics is to obtain power, then polls will drive policy. But, as Gray Davis discovered, people are fickle. If they think all a politician wants is power, they will deprive him of that power as quickly as they entrusted him or her with it.

That is why it is important to develop a cohesive political philosophy. There really are only two cohesive political philosophies available to anyone running for office. One is the collectivist theory (upon which socialism, fascism, and communism is based) and the other is the individualist theory (of freedom, free enterprise, and representative republics like ours). Each has a set of principles that cannot be violated, and there is no middle ground between the two. There is no “moderate” socialism, and no “moderate” freedom. A ruler either embraces one or the other as his or her guiding philosophy.

Then that ruler seeks to set about to convince people that his or her guiding philosophy is what is best for each citizen and for society in general.

I happen to believe that the individualist philosophy and the principles that surround it are what are best for society, and for every person in society. I also believe that I have to spend whatever time it takes persuading a majority of the people in this state that my philosophy, and the principles that implement it, are the right ones for them. I will obtain power when I have convinced enough people to agree with me. I can’t trick them into believing me, I can’t market them into believing me; I can only convince them. And that takes work.

I won’t win by hiring a collectivist from the other side, and trying to use that individual to implement my agenda freedom and free enterprise. I will only win by talking to enough people, in groups, or one on one, to change enough minds, to get a majority.

Ronald Reagan got it. He had enough faith in his ideas that he did not take his special election loss of 1973 as a signal to capitulate to the Democrats, or to get one of their operatives as his chief aide. He just got to work changing minds. He saw with a remarkable clarity the job that he had to accomplish. And he changed the world.

******************************

As School Money Debate Resumes, We Should Look At Big Picture

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/13936547p-14773240c.html

12-05-05

California's perennial angst over financing education was the nucleus of the just-concluded ballot measure battle, with the California Teachers Association accusing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of shorting schools by $3 billion as part of a successful strategy to undermine his public standing and thus destroy his four measures. While the CTA emerged victorious from this latest clash, the years-long debate over school finance is far from resolved.

******************************

Gasoline Fee Proposed To Reach Emission Goals

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/13367202.htm

12-09-05

A group of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top environmental advisers said Thursday that to achieve the ambitious plan the governor signed in June for reducing greenhouse gases, California may need to charge a new fee on gasoline -- perhaps more than 2.5 cents per gallon. The fee, which some have already begun blasting as a new tax, would pay for corporate incentives and other programs designed to reverse the state's burgeoning emission of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases.

******************************

State Consumers Still Cautious

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-calecon6dec06,1,6747892.story?coll=la-headlines-business

12-06-05

California consumers remain cautious about the economy amid persistent high energy prices, steep housing costs and higher overall inflation, according to an index released Monday. Chapman University in Orange said its California consumer sentiment index rose slightly to 80 in the fourth quarter from 79.5 in the third quarter. But it was the third consecutive quarter that the index value was below 100, reflecting a higher percentage of pessimistic consumers.

******************************

Tennessee Foots Bill To Move Nissan

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-nissan8dec08,1,5364722.story?coll=la-headlines-business

12-08-05

Tennessee may not match California when it comes to beaches and celebrities, but it bested the Golden State when it anted-up to woo Nissan Corp. The Volunteer State used a relocation assistance package worth $197 million to persuade Nissan to move its North American headquarters from Gardena to the hills just south of Nashville, according to Tennessee's Economic and Community Development Department.

******************************

A Bid To Cross Enforcement Borders

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-enforce8dec08,1,3747085.story?coll=la-headlines-california

12-08-05

In an emerging trend, Costa Mesa leaders agreed Wednesday to clear the way for police officers to enforce federal immigration laws — a move some fear will having a chilling effect in the city's Latino community. The City Council voted to negotiate an agreement with federal immigration officials that would allow city police to check some criminal suspects to see if they are in the country illegally, a job now reserved for federal immigration officials.

******************************

Budget Shackles

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_06_ed_judges1.d75f007.html

12-12-05

California's courts have every reason to be worried about their funding being squeezed out by other priorities in the state's deficit-ridden budget. But that does not justify curbing public control over public-spending decisions. The California Judicial Council, which oversees the state's courts, last week approved a proposal for amending the state constitution Among other provisions, it would create a Prop. 98-like spending protection and hand judicial salary decisions to an outside commission.

******************************

Don’t Balance State Budget On The Wallets Of Smokers

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/13330815.htm

12-05-05

A good measure of the level of desperation on how to solve the state's funding woes is the number of new sin taxes in play. Less than a month after the November special election, two have already surfaced -- actually three if actor and director Rob Reiner's notion to soak the wealthy to pay for universal preschool qualifies as a greed tax. All of the proposals are for good causes.

******************************

Legislators Ponder Ways To Crack Down On DUIs

http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/editorial/story/5745072p-5762262c.html

12-06-05

Come Jan. 1 and persistent drinkers who insist time and again on drinking and driving will face the prospect of having their vehicles impounded if they keep up their bothersome habit. Effective Jan. 1, vehicles of repeat drunken drivers with blood-alcohol levels of 0.10 -- the legal level 0.8 percent -- will be seized at the time of arrest and impounded for up to 15 days. Since fatal crashes involving alcohol have risen six straight years in California, legislators continue to scramble to come up with proposed laws that would increase penalties for drunken drivers.

******************************

23% Hike In Foster Children Leaving Or Being Abducted

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3278826

12-05-05

When Krystina Kessler went to county officials in early 2003 to ask to be removed from her abusive home, she thought life was finally going to get better. But after being shuffled through a string of foster and group homes where she said she encountered violence and prostitutes, the 16-year-old decided she would be better off on her own and ran away from the system designed to protect her.

******************************

Power Surge

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_05_ed_powerplant3.7b843ff.htm l

12-05-05

Californians should not be fooled by the absence of rolling blackouts: The state's power supply remains in critical condition. So a proposal that sparks 500 megawatts of additional power is welcome news. The new $250 million plant, proposed by the Edison Mission Group for a site near Romoland, would be about two miles southeast of an 800-megawatt plant planned by Calpine and General Electric.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

moxie

December 13th, 2005, 07:02 AM

But the left wing is taking away freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, right to bear arms, right to private property, and states rights, which is far worse than anything al-Qaeda has done. Plus the left doesn't seem to mind persecuting against conservatives along with Islamic terrorists, so I'd say those two groups are in good company.

How is the left wing taking away freedom of religion? The left wing's position is that people have the freedom to practice religion as they choose (in churches, in their homes and on private property). But when a certain religion is promoted on public property, it infringes on the Constitutional rights of citizens who practice a different religion.

How is the left wing taking away freedom of the press? Certainly, the rise of such conservative media voices as FoxNews, the Washington Times, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, etc., etc., is evidence that no one is being stifled.

As far as taking away property rights, and states rights: When I first read the Supreme Court's controversial decision on eminent domain, it puzzled me because the justices in favor of the decision are generally viewed as being more sympathetic to the individual than to the corporation. (And it was a business, and not a government group, that wanted the private land.) But when I took the time to read the decision, I discovered what they actually had done was rule in favor of states' rights (which is usually a conservative position). This ruling said that the Supreme Court would not intervene in this case, because under the state's law, the business had the right to take the land. If the Court had ruled in favor of the individuals, it would have been legislating from the bench. And, as a result of this unpopular decision, local and state governments have been forced by their constituents to tighten the rules on eminent domain -- which is exactly what the Supreme Court intended to have happen.

Please furnish specific examples of how the left "persecutes" conservatives. Words of disagreement do not equate at all to persecution.

BTW, you just contradicted yourself when you said there's freedom of speech in this country and you can't label anybody an enemy. Guess what, I can say what I want as well and I can call the left wing a bigger threat to America if I want to and there's nothing you can do about it.

Never said you couldn't. You can label me an enemy, but that doesn't make you correct. However, there are indeed Constitutional limits to free speech. You can't deliberately speak a lie that could cause someone physical harm (such as shouting "Fire" in a crowded theater or, more recently, shouting "Bomb" in a crowded airplane) and you can't use libel against another private person (the rules are less strict when public figures are involved). If you do so, you might be subject to legal consequences.

But they didn't fight for the left to ... ban prayer in public schools, or banning nativity scenes in public places ....

The left doesn't ban prayer in public schools and Nativity scenes in public places ... the Constitution does. It's called "separation of church and state," and it's one of the principles that guided the Founders as they worked together to create this country. After all, most of the Founders came here to escape a country (England) where the government dictated a certain religion.
There are many, many places in the U.S. today where people can openly pray and display Nativity scenes. It just can't be done in a government setting (which includes public schools), unless we want to change the Consititution.

Krista

December 13th, 2005, 11:09 AM

But when a certain religion is promoted on public property, it infringes on the Constitutional rights of citizens who practice a different religion.

It doesn't take away anything from other relgions. The majority of americans are Christian. Other people are still allowed to worship in their own religion. And most religions have a God. "In God We Trust" doesn't say "In the Christian God we trust". etc.

Someone chewed out a worker at a doctors office for saying Merry Christmas, the other day. A woman called in to the radio station(not even a talk show, it was on a top 40 FM station) to say how she couldn't believe how crazy it was getting with everyone "offended". Live and let live. But our country's gov't was founded waaaaaaaay back with all of the things that are on public property. Now all of a sudden everyone has decided that is trendy to complain about it when it doesn't even affect them. Lets just keep boiling down everything til there isn't meaning to anything. Then we can walk around generically and live in a Brave New World.

dec5

December 14th, 2005, 02:52 PM

A Iraqi voter had some rather strong words on those who opposed GW Bush
and the liberation of Iraq:

Blunt words from Iraqi voter Betty Dawisha for the Cindy Sheehan Left (hat tip: The Political Pit Bull):

http://www.boomspeed.com/dec55/betty.jpg

"Anybody who doesn't appreciate what America has done, and President Bush, let them go to h@%l!"

Go, Betty.

Watch the video at The Political Teen.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004069.htm

Baylor

December 14th, 2005, 05:59 PM

I would think by now most of us would realize that the phrase "separation of church and state" is NOT in the constitution and is instead taken from a private letter of Thomas Jefferson's. The founders were not trying to create a country where all forms of religious expression were confined to the "private" sector, they were trying to create a country where the government didn't pass a law stating "You must be a member of (fill in the blank) church/religion" Many people like to quote the establishment clause while ignoring the free exercise clause. Having a nativity display on public property, singing Christmas carols and saying "Merry Christmas" are hardly stating "You must be a member of (fill in the blank) church/religion."

The fact is that the founders prayed before congressional meetings, had religious displays etc on public property said "In God we Trust" and had no problem with it. And they were the ones who actually wrote the constitution so I'm pretty sure that if anyone is misinterpreting it, it is the judges and the ACLU of the past 50-60 years or so, and not the founders themselves.

As for me, I will say "Merry Christmas" all season long and you'll never hear a "Happy Holidays" from me. The overwhelming majority of Americans celebrate Christmas - whether in a religious or Santa Claus (or both)- sense. Of course, when I know someone is Jewish I tell them "Happy Hanukkah" etc .. but this "Happy Holidays" nonsense is just that - nonsense. I mean really, do we then need to turn Martin Luther King Jr. day into "Civil Rights Leaders Day?" I mean, we don't want Rosa Parks or the thousands of others who fought for equal rights to be offended do we?

As a side note, dec5 - I saw that quote and loved it!!!!!

Baylor

dec5

December 15th, 2005, 01:45 AM

As a side note, dec5 - I saw that quote and loved it!!!!!

Baylor

I loved her too Baylor.....the woman has got spunk and really silences
the Michael Moore Bush hating crowd into shame.... She really slaps them into reality by showing that Iraqis really want democracy and belives in GW plan!!!..;)

And if you love her words...and courage......you definitely love
these pictures of brave Iraqis...!!!!

Very touching and uplifting to the soul!

http://www.dustinmhawkins.com/wordpress/?p=15

Viva GW Bush!!!!!!

new_europe2006

December 19th, 2005, 02:56 AM

How is the left wing taking away freedom of religion? The left wing's position is that people have the freedom to practice religion as they choose (in churches, in their homes and on private property). But when a certain religion is promoted on public property, it infringes on the Constitutional rights of citizens who practice a different religion.

Again, there is no "separation of church and state" mentioned in the Constitution.

How is the left wing taking away freedom of the press? Certainly, the rise of such conservative media voices as FoxNews, the Washington Times, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, etc., etc., is evidence that no one is being stifled.

That's b/c GW is in office. If it were a Dumocrap in office, there would be.

As far as taking away property rights, and states rights: When I first read the Supreme Court's controversial decision on eminent domain, it puzzled me because the justices in favor of the decision are generally viewed as being more sympathetic to the individual than to the corporation. (And it was a business, and not a government group, that wanted the private land.) But when I took the time to read the decision, I discovered what they actually had done was rule in favor of states' rights (which is usually a conservative position). This ruling said that the Supreme Court would not intervene in this case, because under the state's law, the business had the right to take the land. If the Court had ruled in favor of the individuals, it would have been legislating from the bench. And, as a result of this unpopular decision, local and state governments have been forced by their constituents to tighten the rules on eminent domain -- which is exactly what the Supreme Court intended to have happen.

BS. The constitution mentions the right to own private property, which is something nobody can touch.

Please furnish specific examples of how the left "persecutes" conservatives. Words of disagreement do not equate at all to persecution.

I just did but apparently they're not good enough for you.

Never said you couldn't. You can label me an enemy, but that doesn't make you correct. However, there are indeed Constitutional limits to free speech. You can't deliberately speak a lie that could cause someone physical harm (such as shouting "Fire" in a crowded theater or, more recently, shouting "Bomb" in a crowded airplane) and you can't use libel against another private person (the rules are less strict when public figures are involved). If you do so, you might be subject to legal consequences.

But guess what. I wasn't lying when I gave my opinion that Howard Dean is a traitor.

The left doesn't ban prayer in public schools and Nativity scenes in public places ... the Constitution does. It's called "separation of church and state," and it's one of the principles that guided the Founders as they worked together to create this country. After all, most of the Founders came here to escape a country (England) where the government dictated a certain religion.
There are many, many places in the U.S. today where people can openly pray and display Nativity scenes. It just can't be done in a government setting (which includes public schools), unless we want to change the Consititution.

Again, there's no separation of church and state clause in the Constitution. Try again.

new_europe2006

December 19th, 2005, 03:34 AM

I loved her too Baylor.....the woman has got spunk and really silences
the Michael Moore Bush hating crowd into shame.... She really slaps them into reality by showing that Iraqis really want democracy and belives in GW plan!!!..;)

And if you love her words...and courage......you definitely love
these pictures of brave Iraqis...!!!!

Very touching and uplifting to the soul!

http://www.dustinmhawkins.com/wordpress/?p=15

Viva GW Bush!!!!!!

Amen to that. If it were up to the left wing, she'd more than likely be in a rape room with one of Saddam's sons or tortured. France, China, Russia, Canada, the UN and Saddam Hussein would all still be profiting from the Oil-for-Food program. They're the ones who allowed for the shed of Iraqi blood in order to gain oil from Saddam Hussein.

new_europe2006

December 19th, 2005, 03:46 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/18/national/18cubans.html?ei=5065&en=a3d77d1ce60893b9&ex=1135486800&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

And the left claims Cuba is paradise? :lol :lol :lol :lol

It's real paradise when you don't have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, right to bear arms, or right to private property. NOT

Corbon91

December 20th, 2005, 12:28 AM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

December 19, 2006

This will be the last Memorandum of 2005. I want to

thank you all for your support over the last year, and

wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The Memorandum will resume on January 3, 2006

******************

Taxing The Weather

Last week, the Governor’s “Climate Action Team” released a report on how to stop global warming. Next week, we expect a report on how to stop earthquakes, tidal waves, the changing of the seasons, and the tilt of the earth.

Let’s start with the title of the government unit that issued the report: the “Climate Action Team.” That title suggests the arrogance of those participating. What climate action is the team going to take? I’ve got an idea, why don’t they get rid of the winter fog in the Central Valley, and those hot Palm Springs summers, that would be a climate action that would have some positive benefit to someone. The fact is the climate action team can’t take any action on the climate, because nothing we humans do affects the climate. Global warming, if it is occurring at all, is occurring because of natural phenomenon, not because you drove your kids to school last week.

Next, let’s look at the team’s suggestions to reduce “greenhouse gases.” (By the way, every time you breathe you emit greenhouse gases). First, the report recommended mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions. Second, the bureaucrats wanted a “public goods charge on petroleum products” (a gas tax for those of you who don’t speak bureaucrat). Third, the report said that the state should “reshape” its investment strategy (this by the folks whose current investment strategy led to an $8 billion deficit) to invest in businesses that create greenhouse gas emission reduction technology. Finally, these bureaucrats wanted to make sure we got credit for reducing greenhouse gases.

So, the way to solve global warming is to raise taxes. For goodness sake, is there no problem that the bureaucrats think could not be solved with a tax increase? Plagued by crime – raise taxes and start a preschool. Mental illness a problem – raise taxes on the rich. The globe gets too hot – raise taxes on gasoline.

Forget that the one organization that makes the most money off of gasoline is government, (today, government makes 44-55 cents per gallon of gas depending on the price of gas) they want more. Forget that a tax on gas will do absolutely nothing to reduce global warming. Give the bureaucrats more money; they will cure what ails ya.

In light of this recommendation, I have some suggestions for future studies and reports. First, we should form an “Earthquake Action Team” to study the cause of earthquakes. They could recommend a tax on all construction as a means of reducing earthquakes. After all, the more dirt we move, the more likely it is that we might disturb some fault, and cause an earthquake.

Next, we should form a “Tsunami Action Team,” to study the cause of tidal waves. That team might recommend a tax on all watercraft, since the more boats there are on the ocean, the more water is displaced, thus leading to higher tides and danger on shore.

How about a “Hurricane Action Team,” which would study the cause of hurricanes. The tax for that? A tax on helicopters. Can you imagine just how much wind is generated in order to lift one of those heavy machines off the ground?

I could go on and on, but the absurdity of their recommendations is obvious. I think if we are going to institute a system of mandatory reporting of greenhouse gases, we should probably start with reporting the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by blowhard-bureaucrats, who issue meaningless reports, the obvious purpose of which is to build their bureaucratic empire, and increase their power and control over our lives. If we actually limited those emissions, or taxed their reports, we might really accomplish something beneficial for all Californians.

******************************

Universal preschool is inviting universal disaster

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/04/ING6JG1BA81.DTL

12-04-05

Ideas that seem great in theory are often a disaster in practice. California's Preschool for All initiative being pushed by director-turned-child advocate Rob Reiner is just such an idea. This is not mere ivory-tower doom-mongering. This is what a sober assessment of a similar universal day care program in Quebec suggests. If Reiner's initiative is approved in June, individuals making more than $400,000 a year ($800,000 for families) will face a 1.7 percent tax increase to raise $2.5 billion to finance three hours of free preschool a day for all of California's 4-year-olds -- even the 62 percent who already attend preschool without universal subsidies.

******************************

Smog Fighters May Make Builders Pay

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-smog15dec15,1,1288781.story?coll=la-headlines-california

12-15-05

Convinced that sprawl begets smog, Central Valley air quality officials are expected today to become the first regulators in the nation to force builders to pay air pollution fees for new development. Builders would pay less if their new homes, shopping centers and office complexes were designed in ways that limited automobile use — by locating banks and dry cleaners closer to houses, for example, or linking bicycle trails and walking paths to schools and work centers.

******************************

Gerrymander Review

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_3303014

12-13-05

Californians of all political persuasions can welcome the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to rule on the legality of the political districts that Rep. Tom DeLay foisted on Texas in 2003. Because the political gerrymandering that's made Austin infamous is also rampant in Sacramento. Just look at our current system, designed solely to protect parties and incumbents no matter what it costs the public in terms of a government that actually represents the people.

******************************

Immigration Population Hits New High

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3303409

12-13-05

The number of immigrants in the United States reached a new high this year after the biggest five-year increase in American history, said a study released Monday by the Center for Immigration Studies. Nearly 7.9 million immigrants - about half of them believed to be illegal - settled in the U.S. between January 2000 and 2005, boosting the total number of immigrants in the nation to 35.1 million, the study said.

******************************

Partisans And Predators

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_12_ed_predators2.7d84456.html

12-12-05

Public safety should not be a partisan issue. Yet Democrats in the Legislature are being disingenuous about a bill that would toughen penalties on sex offenders and impose new strictures on where they may live. A Golden State version of Florida's Jessica's Law, named after murder victim Jessica Lunsford, is co-sponsored by the Antelope Valley's Sen. George Runner and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, both Republicans.

******************************

More Farmers Are Cashing Out Of Agriculture

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/12/MNGBNG6N2I1.DTL

12-12-05

After 40 years, California's main tool for preserving agricultural land is facing its biggest test as growth and sprawl smash against protected land. Since 1965, a state law called the Williamson Act has offered lower property tax rates in return for a 10-year commitment by the landowner to farm the parcel or use it for grazing.

******************************

Open The Car-Pool Lanes

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_886411.php

12-13-05

Orange County Transportation Authority Chairman Bill Campbell's suggestion that we might consider opening up car-pool lanes to non- car-poolers outside of rush hour is such a simple and sensible idea that it's surprising that Mr. Campbell, also a county supervisor, had to learn about it in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area, in an earlier incarnation as a state assemblyman.

******************************

Tobacco Tax Hike Alliance

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/14/BAGSTG7H7B1.DTL

12-14-05

Backers of two competing tobacco tax initiatives announced an agreement Tuesday to work together to support a $2.60 increase in the state's tobacco tax for the November 2006 ballot. If approved by voters, the measure would make California's tax on a pack of cigarettes the highest in the nation. The tax is now 87 cents and has not been increased since 1998. The détente averts a fight in which hospital groups tried to push a $1.50 tax increase while children's groups and anti-tobacco groups were planning their own $1.50 tax hike.

******************************

New Initiatives On Dues Donations Filed

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051215/news_1n15prop75.html

12-15-05

An Orange County lawyer filed two initiatives this week that could trigger another expensive battle over limiting the use of union dues in political campaigns, this time including restrictions on corporate money. One initiative filed by Mark Bucher is similar to a measure voters rejected last month, Proposition 75, which would have required the written consent of public employee union members to have their dues used for political campaigns.

******************************

Judge Clears Way To Finish Border Fence

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/state/article_886655.php

12-13-05

A federal judge on Monday lifted the final legal barrier to building a triple fence in the southwestern corner of the United States. The Sierra Club and other groups argued that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff lacked authority to waive environmental and other laws that have delayed completion of 14 miles of additional fencing in San Diego. In September, Chertoff waived all laws and legal challenges to building the final 31/2-mile leg through coastal wetlands to the Pacific Ocean.

******************************

PUC Proposes $2.9 Billion Solar Initiative

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051214/news_1b14solar.html

12-14-05

The California Public Utilities Commission yesterday proposed a $2.9 billion initiative to install solar electric systems on a million roofs over 11 years and in the process make the state among the largest solar markets in the world. The California Solar Initiative – which largely mirrors a plan that failed to win approval in the Legislature earlier this year – would initially provide subsidies of roughly one-third the cost of a residential rooftop photovoltaic system, which typically cost $16,000 to $25,000.

******************************

State Plans Medi-Cal Rate Pinch

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-medical13dec13,1,5457887.story?coll=la-headlines-california

12-13-05

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is planning to cut the rates the state pays doctors to treat the poor, a move medical groups warn would result in more Californians losing access to healthcare. The administration announced in a bulletin mailed to Medi-Cal providers Monday that it planned to temporarily cut reimbursement rates by 5% through 2006. The news comes at a time when the rates already are so low that many doctors refuse to participate in the program.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

new_europe2006

December 22nd, 2005, 09:24 PM

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,179532,00.html

It's about time they go back to work since it's not a high skilled job to begin with.

MKalltheway

December 22nd, 2005, 10:56 PM

im sorry you guys have to go thru this on the east coast:(...hang in there! i hope this doesnt happen in SF!

new_europe2006

December 23rd, 2005, 01:23 AM

im sorry you guys have to go thru this on the east coast:(...hang in there! i hope this doesnt happen in SF!

Me too. But I don't live in either one of those cities and I have a car so I should be ok.

Corbon91

January 4th, 2006, 12:23 AM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

January 2, 2006

The Minimum Wage Calamity

As the year begins, we find Sacramento once again considering raising the minimum wage. Only this time, Governor Schwarzenegger has indicated he might support a bill raising the minimum wage to $7.25 next year, and $7.75 the year after.

In the wake of high energy costs, high building costs, high liability insurance costs, and workers’ compensation reform that doesn’t reduce costs nearly as much as we need to, we cannot afford to drive up the costs of doing business in California even higher. Even if you do not pay the minimum wage to more than a handful of employees, the inflationary impact it has on the entire salary scale can be significant.

The current federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour. In California the minimum wage is $6.75 per hour. Left wing political rhetoric has succeeded in confusing the people into thinking that a ‘wage’ is an entitlement, not the price that the worker is worth in the marketplace for the job performed, the skills possessed, or the desirability of the worker to the employer. I think it is time we remind ourselves that wages are, in fact, a price paid for labor.

Everyone is familiar with the harmful economic effects of arbitrary government price controls in other aspects of the economy. Rent control results in fewer rental units. Price control on any goods results in fewer of those goods. Price control on labor results in fewer jobs.

It is an emotionally charged issue, which fails to take into account the ‘side effects’ of the law. If an employer has to pay an employee more than that employee produces for the company, the employer is losing money. So either the employee is fired, or the company goes bankrupt. Either way, the employee loses the job. This is government forced unemployment.

A forced minimum wage deprives the workplace of some lower skilled workers who would be capable of rendering beneficial services to an employer if that employee were allowed to be paid what his effort was worth, making that employee a productive member of society. The worker has been deprived of independence and self-respect which comes from self-support, even though he or she would otherwise be willing to do the work at a lower wage. Even worse, the best way to get a higher paying job is to do well at a lower paying job.

According to an analysis produced by the National Center of Policy Analysis, “The primary cause of low income, …, is no wages, not low wages.” They conclude that most of those who earn low wages are either teen-agers or other secondary earners spread rather evenly across the income distribution scale. According to a summary of their analysis, “While the single mother trying to support her child on a full-time minimum wage job is a better story, the 16-year-old hamburger-flipping student with college-educated and employed parents is a better fact.” Low-income families have a large number of people without jobs and without the skills to get a job. A mandated minimum wage forces them even further out of the job market.

Increasing the minimum wage increases the cost of goods and services, forcing many of the people who lost their jobs as a result of this government intervention to either pay higher prices, or do without. The government has deprived them of a job they could perform, and which would form the basis of further training to acquire higher wages, and has increased the price of goods that they might otherwise have been able to buy. All of this is sold to the public in the name of helping the poor. Some help!

Low-income families do not benefit from a minimum wage, and neither does the taxpayer. Once again we will consider increasing the cost to employers in California for a program that has never shown any legitimate long-term benefit to “the poor”, and that has far more often been shown to be a detriment not only to employers, but to the very “poor” the program is supposed to help. After all, you can only make the minimum wage if you have an employer who is providing a job.

******************************

Gov. Might Consider Tax Hike, Aide Says

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-taxes17dec17,1,2653593.story?coll=la-headlines-california

12-19-05

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top education advisor said the administration is prepared to consider raising taxes as part of a long-term solution to the problems plaguing California schools. The statement by California Education Secretary Alan Bersin came in a Dec. 1 speech to the California School Boards Assn. It was posted on the group's website Friday.

******************************

Recycled bills won't take 'no' for answer
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14035114p-14867096c.html
01-03-06
For the fifth straight year, Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg will push legislation to restrict use of "Redskins" or other "derogatory" Indian terms by school sports teams or their mascots.

For the fourth consecutive year, state Sen. Joe Simitian will seek to ban drivers from using hand-held cell phones.

State Sen. Gil Cedillo plans to unveil legislation to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants - after failing in seven previous bills.

******************************

Homeland Insecurity – Porous Border Stokes Terror Fears

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3325702

12-20-05

Juan Carlos is just another unsuspected face. He speaks English with only a slight accent. His fair complexion and light hazel eyes rarely garner him a second glance once he's crossed into the United States. He's a gang member. He's an ex-convict. And he's here illegally. "I don't want my picture taken," said the quiet Honduran, who was planning to cross the border for the fourth time when he was interviewed in March.

******************************

Retiree Health Care – The Other Pension Crisis

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/13989860p-14823243c.html

Just as unexpectedly robust revenues were beginning to allow budget-strapped state and local governments to breathe easier, new accounting rules force new worries. Beginning in 2007, the Government Accounting Standards Board, the federal body that sets the accounting rules for public agencies, will require state and local governments to disclose the cost of their health care obligations to retirees on their balance sheets.

******************************

Edison Says It Will Raise Power Rates

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-utility21dec21,1,4494411.story?coll=la-headlines-business

12-21-05

Electricity rates for more than two-thirds of Southern California Edison's customers will rise as much as 18% in the new year, the company said Tuesday. With winter starting today, the utility's 4.6 million residential and commercial customers can expect three increases in coming months. The company, a unit of Edison International in Rosemead, said soaring prices for natural gas, which fuels most of the state's power plants, were the main culprit.

******************************

Bill Will Give Locals More Control Over Sex Offender Homes

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3328267

12-21-05

Legislation that will give local government more power to prohibit and regulate group homes for addicts, parolees and sex offenders will be submitted next session by an Inland Empire legislator. Assemblyman Bill Emmerson, R-Rancho Cucamonga, intends to introduce a comprehensive package that will prevent a concentration of group homes in one area and give more notice to surrounding neighbors.

******************************

Group – Let Tax Pay For Bond

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14006613p-14839574c.html

12-22-05

A coalition representing road builders and union workers on Wednesday tossed a new element into the public discussion about a big infrastructure bond for next year's ballot: a recommendation that a 30-year, quarter-cent sales tax increase help pay for it. The California Alliance for Jobs called for a bond package of $30 billion to $40 billion for transportation and levee improvements next year, agreeing with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, state Treasurer Phil Angelides and legislative leaders that California is woefully behind on road, flood-control and other projects.

******************************

Feds Slug State’s Poor

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3331613

12-22-05

California's needy families will lose more than $550 million a year under a deficit-reduction bill approved Wednesday by the U.S. Senate, marking the first cuts to welfare, Medicare and other entitlement programs in nearly a decade. Vice President Dick Cheney cut short his Iraq trip to cast the tie-breaking vote on the controversial $39.7 billion package, opposed by California's senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats.

******************************

Tuition Equity

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_19_ed_tuition1.55b78e.html

12-19-05

Giving illegal immigrants the benefit of in-state tuition at California's public universities and colleges amounts to a subsidy for law breaking. A lawsuit to overturn a 4-year-old law and compensate out-of-state students for the disparity could prove an expensive education for the state. About 40 students -- all American citizens, all out-of-state residents -- sued the University of California, California State University and the state's community colleges on Wednesday, claiming the tuition break for illegal immigrants violates their civil rights.

******************************

Plan To Split L.A. Unified To Be Offered

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-breakup22dec22,1,3564475.story?coll=la-news-politics-california

12-22-05

State Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge) said he would introduce legislation next month to divide the Los Angeles Unified School District into several smaller districts. Richman is proposing that the 727,000-student district be reorganized into districts of no more than 50,000 students each by 2010. If approved, the plan could result in as many as 20 separate school systems.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

January 9th, 2006, 09:31 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

January 9, 2006

Mirror/Mirror

I am not a trekkie, but I do remember a Star Trek episode in which several members of the crew of the starship Enterprise entered an alternative universe. That universe was the mirror image of the “normal” universe, that is, it was exactly like the normal universe, but everyone in it had the exact opposite character of the people in the normal universe

We have entered that alternative universe in California.

I know that term limits and the recall have substantially diminished the experience in Sacramento, but anyone paying even the smallest attention to history can tell that Gray Davis lost his job because he (1) greatly expanded the government sector of California’s economy, (2) greatly expanded government debt, and (3) greatly expanded government authority over the private sector in the years 1999-2001. Those two years led to the energy crisis of early 2001, the collapse of the private economy (after a five year record growth) in 2001 and 2002, and the fiscal crises that led to the recall of Governor Davis. Governor Schwarzenegger got elected campaigning against these expansions, and promising to “clean house” in Sacramento.

In the alternative universe, as seen on the “Mirror/Mirror” episode in Star Trek, Schwarzenegger would be expanding government, expanding government debt and intruding on the private sector. And, indeed, he is.

Let’s look back in California history. In the late 1980’s, Governor Deukmejian, in order to get prison and freeway funding, gave away some very serious concessions to the leftists, vastly expanding state spending and increasing worker’s compensation benefits. In 1991, to accomplish his agenda, Pete Wilson was forced to increased taxes. The ensuing collapse in California’s economy was precipitous. From the Great Depression to 1992, California’s general fund revenue went up every single year. In the 1992-93 fiscal year, for the first time in modern history, California’s general fund revenue dropped in real terms, from $42.1 billion to $40.9 billion.

The state then repealed the upper income tax rate, cut other taxes, reformed worker’s compensation, reduced regulations, and the economy and state general fund revenue exploded, from $40.1 billion in 1993-4 to $79 billion in 2000-01. In 2000 and 2001, the state increased fees and regulations, increased workers’ compensation benefits, substantially increased the size of government, increased the minimum wage, increased environmental and workplace regulation, and did everything it could to interfere with the private economy. As a result, in the 2001-02 budget year, once again, general fund revenue dropped substantially, from $79 billion to $66 billion, leading to the largest budget crisis in the history of the state. Two years later, Gray Davis lost his job.

Now Governor Schwarzenegger, in light of his recent loss at the polls, and his sagging popularity, thinks that he needs to do something different in his job, so he has chosen to increase government debt and government regulation on business. He has already demonstrated a penchant for increasing environmental regulations. An increase in work place regulations, like the minimum wage, and an increase in government debt, is the next step down the road to economic collapse—again.

Governor Schwarzenegger looks back to Pat Brown as the builder of the California dream. Except Pat Brown did his building with little borrowed money, and Ronald Reagan defeated Brown because Brown was a big spender. I am concerned that now that we have entered into this alternative universe, some Democrat is going to assume the Ronald Reagan role, move to the right of Schwarzenegger on spending issues, and carry a broom to sweep him out of office.

In Star Trek, Kirk returned to the Enterprise when Spock was able to reverse the glitch in the transporter that sent Kirk and some of his crew to the alternative universe. Our problem isn’t caused by a transporter glitch. How are we going to get out of this universe?

******************************

Schwarzenegger May Be Putting Himself Into A Political Pitfall

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/14043035p-14874577c.html

01-06-06

Arnold Schwarzenegger, exuding equal measures of hubris and naiveté, has repeatedly set up himself and his governorship for failure - promising more than he could deliver, reneging when promises collided with fiscal and political reality, overhyping his modest accomplishments, and confusing Californians by abruptly changing his rhetorical tone. Having reaped what he sowed - a steep plunge in public esteem and massive rejection of his "year of reform" ballot measures - one might think that Schwarzenegger would approach the governorship more realistically.

******************************

Californians Moving Out

http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/14043114p-14874608c.html

01-06-06

If a moving company's statistics are any gauge, Californians left the state in high numbers in 2005, according to a survey released Thursday. United Van Lines said 55.7 percent of the interstate business they did in California involved people moving out of the state. It was the first time since 1995 that more than 55 percent of moves were out of state, the moving company reported.

******************************

Zoning Out Sex Offenders

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_offender01.32b4848.html

01-03-06

At least half of California's urban areas would become off-limits to registered sex offenders under a proposed ballot measure championed by Gov. Schwarzenegger and some Inland lawmakers, according to a Press-Enterprise analysis. Named Jessica's Law for Jessica Lunsford, a Florida girl authorities say was killed by a pedophile last year, the measure's most far-reaching provision would prohibit sex offenders from living within about a third of a mile of parks and schools.

******************************

One Lawmaker Tries To Keep Pension Issue Alive

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/14035164p-14867134c.html

01-03-05

Keith Richman clearly is a man who doesn't give up easily. But the Republican assemblyman from Northridge might simply be ahead of his time in trying to bring attention to one of the biggest policy problems of the era: public employee pensions. Richman authored the proposal embraced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a year ago this week and then abandoned by the governor after critics said it would have eliminated death and disability benefits for the survivors of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

******************************

Workers’ Comp To Be Revisited

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-comp3jan03,1,1723434.story?coll=la-headlines-business

01-03-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature achievement — his overhaul of California's long-troubled workers' compensation insurance system — may be headed to the repair shop. The leaders of the Democratic-controlled Legislature, prodded by complaints from doctors, lawyers, labor unions and injured workers, have put the Republican governor on notice that rolling back major elements of the recent workers' comp overhaul will be a top priority when lawmakers reconvene today.

******************************

Preserve Integrity Of High School Exit Exam

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/opinion/13528618.htm

01-03-06

After years of debate and delays, California will require high school students to pass an exit exam to earn a diploma this June. The purpose of the exam is to assure colleges and employers that a high school diploma means something more than four years of attendance and minimum grades. The exit exam is not difficult. It tests students on middle-school level math along with reading and writing at ninth- and 10th-grade levels.

******************************

Kia’s Not Just Whistling Dixie

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_923389.php

01-03-06

When the state's dominant Democrats talk about the business climate, they downplay suggestions that California's enormous regulatory burden and high taxes and cost of living are creating any sort of problem. People want to be in California, they argue, and they note that there is no mad rush of businesses leaving the state. No, California businesses are not fleeing the state in droves. Most can't leave.

******************************

Political License

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_03_ed_license3.cea2bd5.html

01-03-06

Granting drivers licenses to illegal immigrants was a bad idea in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. But State Sen. Gil Cedillo is convinced that 2006 "is the year" for his bill to become law. The Los Angeles Democrat is nothing if not tenacious, but his proposal is still unsound public policy. Cedillo's new confidence stems from Gov. Schwarzenegger's falling popularity.

******************************

50 Cent? Minimum Wage Hike Deserves A Bad Rap

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/abox/article_928207.php

01-04-06

California's economy is likely to take another blow. In tomorrow's State of the State address, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for an increase in the minimum wage. "[B]usiness lobbyists familiar with the plan confirmed that the governor would seek a 50-cent increase Sept. 1 and another 50-cent increase July 1, 2007," reported the Register on Dec. 31. Currently, the federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour, but the state minimum wage has been $6.75 since 2002, when it was increased from $6.25. The Schwarzenegger proposal would put it eventually at $7.75.

******************************

Smoke, Pay For Immigrant Health Care

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/06/EDGU9GHG0S1.DTL

01-06-06

Usually, I would wait until later in the year to protest a proposed $2.60-per-pack tax on cigarettes being pushed for next fall by the American Cancer Society and other powerful health associations. But it's such a rotten idea, I can't wait. (No, I don't smoke.) Huge new taxes on specific groups of people create weird backlashes -- in this case, probably skyrocketing sales of black-market cigarettes as smokers find creative ways to avoid this huge grab at their wallets.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

new_europe2006

January 10th, 2006, 12:12 AM

The Dow Jones closed today above 11,000, which is the first time since June 2001. It's all Bush's fault.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,181063,00.html

moxie

January 10th, 2006, 01:31 AM

The Dow Jones closed today above 11,000, which is the first time since June 2001. It's all Bush's fault.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,181063,00.html

Well, I guess we could say it is Bush's fault that it took more than four years for that to happen ...

new_europe2006

January 10th, 2006, 08:28 PM

Well, I guess we could say it is Bush's fault that it took more than four years for that to happen ...

We don't live in a centrally planned economy, we live in a free market economy in case you missed it.

If our economy would only adopt Marxism, we'd be living in an economic utopia

moxie

January 10th, 2006, 10:40 PM

We don't live in a centrally planned economy, we live in a free market economy in case you missed it.

I was making a small joke about the previous post. Guess you missed it.

Obviously, since we live in a free-market economy, we can neither blame Bush nor praise him for the ups & downs of the stock market.

new_europe2006

January 12th, 2006, 02:24 AM

I was making a small joke about the previous post. Guess you missed it.

Obviously, since we live in a free-market economy, we can neither blame Bush nor praise him for the ups & downs of the stock market.

Nope but I'm glad the economy is doing well so it takes away armor from the Democrats.

Corbon91

January 17th, 2006, 07:45 PM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

January 16, 2006

A Modest Proposal

I have been on a Governor-bashing binge lately, so I thought I would change focus. Not that there is no reason to criticize the Governor, there is. He has proposed a $222 billion bond package and a budget that spends $7 billion more than it takes in. For the fellow that got elected promising to sweep out the spending addicts in Sacramento, it seems he has tasted the spending high, and likes it a little too much. Maybe not yet an addict, but he is certainly starting to chase the dragon.

That being said, the Governor deserves credit for once again taking on a large challenge, even if the strategy is a little flawed. Everyone in this state knows that California has some significant challenges. Our freeways are congested, our schools are overcrowded, we are running out of water, electricity, and gasoline, and we are overrun with people who make too much money by doing absolutely nothing about these problems. By issuing the challenge to build our roads, schools, courts and waterways, the Governor has chosen an ambitious agenda to relieve some level of suffering each of us currently has to endure everyday. That is a good thing.

The problem is the method in which he proposes financing the effort. There is no question that the Democrat-controlled Legislature has done everything in its power over the last 30 years to stifle this state. In 1974, when Jerry Brown was elected Governor, he pronounced his agenda, which was basically – if we don’t build it, they won’t come. So, we stopped building in this state, but the people still kept coming.

From 1950 to 1974, this state built a magnificent freeway system, a water collection and distribution system without rival in the world, a world-class university system, and the best K-12 education system in the entire country. Yet, in 1974, the state’s total general fund budget was $8.6 billion. The state was spending $394 per person, and about $6 for every one hundred dollars of income. Today, the state’s general fund budget is $98 billion; the state is spending $2,609 per person, and nearly $7 for every one hundred dollars of income. With all of that, we can’t seem to find the money to build roads and schools.

The answer is not just to borrow. There is no doubt that the state needs to recommit to rebuilding its facilities, but the plan to do so must be comprehensive, and it must follow the following principles:

(1) The money borrowed must actually be spent on public facilities, not studies. We spend millions of dollars every year on government employees who study, plan, and write reports about building freeways, but never really get around to building them. The money spent must be for bulldozers and asphalt, not killing trees for reports.

(2) Every project for which we borrow money must be completed in 10 years or less. Today, it takes 23 years to build a freeway. Of that 20 years is wasted doing studies, having meetings and writing reports to appease the regulatory bureaucrats. That is simply too long and costly to get the relief we need.

(3) The plan must include some form of pay-as-you-go money. Two years ago, this state was spending $78 billion general funds. Today, the proposal is to spend $98 billion. The state could take half of that money for roads and school buildings, and still have ten percent more money for state services than it did two years ago. Indeed, $10 billion a year for the next twenty years would build as much as the Governor’s proposal, without debt.

Some borrowing may be necessary, but not $222 billion. Some increase in government is inevitable, but not $20 billion worth in two years. Our roads and school buildings deserve our attention, but not at the expense of our children and grandchildren, who will be forced to pay this debt. The principles listed above would solve those problems. The Governor should give them serious consideration.

******************************

Governor’s Budget Would Make A Tax Hike Likely

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/14064579p-14895480c.html

01-12-06

The proposed budget Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled Tuesday is an election-year document that seeks to appease his enemies while doing as little as possible to offend his allies. It might not succeed at either. But the bad news for the governor is that even if his plan does work, and he is re-elected to a second term, he will have to deal with the consequences. If he is defeated, of course, whoever succeeds him will get to clean up the mess.

******************************

Is Improving The Legislature Possible – Or Just More Hot Air?

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/14054278p-14885560c.html

01-09-06

The deterioration of the California Legislature as a policymaking body over the last few decades is an incontrovertible fact. Simply put, the Legislature became endemically incapable of responding to the difficult political issues that naturally arise in a society that's growing and changing as rapidly as California's - such as educating an ever-diversifying population for an ever-changing economy, handling the crushing demand from population growth for water, housing and transportation, or coping with sharpening socioeconomic stratification.

******************************

Educators Find Creative Freedom At Schools

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3383790

01-09-06

After teaching nearly two decades at Los Angeles Unified schools, Fred Chapel felt stifled by a system that told him what to teach and how to teach it. So he left LAUSD in 2001 and went to work for a charter school, where he not only gets to decide his own curriculum and select the textbooks, but has input on the campus' staffing and budgets. "I could never really go back to a traditional public school now after having tasted this," said Chapel, who teaches seventh-grade science at CALS Charter Middle School in northeast Los Angeles.

******************************

Panels Reject Bill Targeting Sex Offenders

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_offender11.12f1e332.html

01-11-06

Democrat-controlled committees in the state Assembly and Senate rejected sex-crime legislation Tuesday backed by Gov. Schwarzenegger and many Republican legislators from the Inland area. Supporters of the Jessica's Law measures, named after a Florida girl who authorities say was killed by a pedophile, said they now will redouble efforts to collect voter signatures to qualify an identical initiative for the Nov. 7 ballot.

******************************

License Proposal Reintroduced

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/13598829.htm

01-11-06

Despite six failed attempts over the past seven years, state Sen. Gil Cedillo on Tuesday re-introduced his proposal to allow illegal immigrants to apply for driver's licenses. And no matter what happens politically, the measure is sure to drive a contentious debate far beyond the state Capitol between undocumented workers who say they are in California to meet labor demands, and conservatives who insist the state must not reward those who violate federal immigration laws.

******************************

ID Theft Bill Dies In State Senate

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/11679732p-12407306c.html

01-12-06

Tony Bettencourt, one of two Fresno city police detectives investigating identity thefts full time, says most months he's trying to cram 1,000-plus hours of investigating into his 160 hours at work. Bettencourt's hope for more resources and more help dimmed when the California Senate public safety committee killed a bill Tuesday that would have provided more funding for computer forensic laboratories and increased jail time for those caught stealing identities.

******************************

Litigious Crusaders For Disabled Strike At Mom-and-Pop Shops

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14064509p-14895443c.html

01-12-06

They emigrated from Taiwan as boys, worked hard, kept close to family, and now - before either is 30 - they are stuck with a little lawsuit with big statewide implications. Bill and Sam Wu of Elk Grove have joined the burgeoning rolls of California business and property owners under siege by serial suers. In this case - and there are many - the Wus are the target of a prolific Carmichael attorney, who has filed more than 150 disability-access lawsuits since August 2003.

******************************

Dairies Moving Out Of Inland Empire

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-dairy9jan09,1,7755108.story?coll=la-headlines-business

01-09-06

Once home to one of the nation's largest concentrations of dairy farms, the Inland Empire's $500-million dairy industry is rapidly evaporating as dozens of farmers sell out to real estate developers. In the last two years, more than 160 dairies — nearly 80% of those operating just a year ago — have either been sold or are in escrow, according to the Milk Producers Council, a trade association based in Chino.

******************************

Costly Credit

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_10_ed_budget2.d4163e7.html

01-10-06

Tackling California's long-term need for roads, schools, prisons, water and other capital investments will carry a multibillion-dollar price tag, no matter what the fate of Gov. Schwarzenegger's $68 billion bond plan. But legislators could make the price more affordable simply by staunching the constant flow of red ink from state budgets. The state's precarious finances add to the cost of borrowing money by making the state pay higher interest rates for its bonds.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

January 23rd, 2006, 11:02 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

January 23, 2006

Leftist Hypocrisy

My leftist friends in the Legislature like to think of themselves as lovers of freedom and the true inheritors of the legacy of our founding fathers. They believe that only they protect the first amendment and the fourteenth amendment (on equal rights), and that they stand between freedom and fascism in California. They believe they are the protectors of the poor and oppressed in our society. Only they have the heart and the head to govern (or so they think).

Pending before the California Supreme Court is the demonstration of their hyprocrisy. A few years ago, the Berkeley City Council got mad at an organization known as the Sea Scouts. While the Sea Scouts are affiliated with the Boy Scouts, they are not governed by the Boy Scouts. They are a completely separate organization. For many years, the Sea Scouts were allowed to berth at the Berkeley Marina for free, along with other nonprofit organizations like the Berkeley Yacht Club. That allowed the Sea Scouts to teach underprivileged children in Berkeley the joys of sailing and the sea.

They have the word "scouts" in their name, however, and they appreciated their affiliation with the Boy Scouts, since it opened doors to areas and people that helped the Sea Scouts with their mission. It is in this affiliation that their problem began.

You see, several years ago, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts could determine their own membership rules. They are a private organization, with the first amendment right to freedom of association, and, if the Boy Scouts did not want homosexual Scout leaders, the Court ruled, the government couldn't require them to open up their ranks to homosexuals. This rankled the homosexual activists. They wanted to force the Boy Scouts to utilize homosexual scout leaders, calling the Boy Scouts discriminatory for not doing so. The Boy Scouts were unmoved, and to this day, have refused to allow homosexual scout leaders. To punish the Boy Scouts' intransigence, liberals throughout the country have tried to prohibit the Boy Scouts from using government facilities for their functions.

Enter the Sea Scouts. They have no rule prohibiting homosexuals as leaders, and they are not a part of the Boy Scouts. Not good enough for the Berkeley City Council. The City Council demanded that the Sea Scouts denounce the Boy Scouts. The Sea Scouts refused. The Council cut off the Sea Scouts free-berthing rights. Now, the Berkeley Yacht Club, devoted to subsidizing the rich, gets free berthing, but the Sea Scouts, devoted to helping the underprivileged youth of Berkeley, must pay $500 a month to berth its boat. The teacher who advises the group pays for the berth from his own pocket. So much for liberals helping the poor. Of course they'll help, if the poor do their political bidding. If they don't, there will be heck (or the government) to pay.

The Sea Scouts have sued, saying their freedom of association rights (as well as their free speech rights) under the first amendment have been violated. Thus far the courts in the liberal Bay Area have been unsympathetic. The Supreme Court granted them a hearing last month.

Where is the ACLU? Where are the leftist defenders of the First Amendment? What right is more important than the right to associate with whom you wish without fear from the government? What about the poor children of Berkeley? Why won't the leftists defend them? Because they won't attack the Boy Scouts. That is the leftist hypocrisy. They'll protect your rights as long as you agree with them. If you don't, they will use the entire power of government, and all of their political power to pound you into submission.

That, by the way, is true fascism, not eavesdropping on terrorists. Using the power of government to try and protect innocents from those who might hurt them is legitimate. Using the power of government to enforce political uniformity is wrong, and it is resistance to that attitude that resulted in our revolution.

Let's hope the Supreme Court does the right thing, and restores the Sea Scouts' freedom of association. That is specifically protected by the first amendment, as much as some anti-war protesters right to burn the flag.

******************************

Boosting Deficit Is ‘The Wrong Direction’ State Analyst Says

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget13jan13,0,1376191.story?coll=la-headlines-california

01-13-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget "moves the state in the wrong direction" by adding billions to the deficit, the state's budget analyst said Thursday, and the bold public works plan he announced last week relies on money that may never materialize. "We're expanding spending at a time when we have a significant state budget problem," said nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Elizabeth G. Hill, to whom lawmakers of both parties look for advice on such matters.

******************************

Lawmakers Need To Address Identity Theft Scars

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/oped/ci_3420973

01-20-06

This week we reported on one case of identity theft in Dublin that sounds too nightmarish to be true. Imagine receiving a letter from the Internal Revenue Service that says you owe back taxes. Although you have not worked for more than five years, the IRS letters keep coming until the amount owed reachs the staggering sum of $1 million. Welcome to the world of Audra Schmierer, 32, a victim of identity theft. An illegal immigrant in Fort Worth, Texas, had managed — through means that remain unknown — to hijack her Social Security number and use it to obtain employment as a steelworker.

******************************

Technology Tracks Goods, Now People

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_H_rfid20.1d758c47.html

01-20-06

For years, pet owners have been implanting tiny radio transmitters in their pets in case their animals get lost. Now, radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology is being considered for library books, driver licenses and passports -- even implanting in humans. It has sparked Big Brother fears and concerns that identity thieves could abuse the technology RFID tags consist of a computer chip with an antenna.

******************************

Test For Success

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_3408401

01-17-06

For some 7,500 seniors in the Los Angeles Unified School District, it's cram time. And that's a good thing. Many of these students are cracking the books, taking extra classes and doing whatever they can to prepare for the statewide High School exit exam, which will be offered Feb. 7. If they can't pass both the math and English sections of the exam, they can't graduate. Thus the sense of urgency, on the part of students, schools and the LAUSD, which are doing all they can to get the kids ready.

******************************

California Lawmakers Renew Effort

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/18/MNG9IGP0H91.DTL

01-18-06

The Supreme Court's ruling backing Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law has energized advocates pushing a similar measure in the California Legislature, where the thorny moral question appears to be the most contentious social issue lawmakers will debate this year. Supporters of the bill, which stalled last year, said they hope the legal ruling will help win over lawmakers, especially moderate Democrats, who had previously expressed doubts.

******************************

Yellow Light For Hybrids

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3419037

01-20-06

If you've been thinking about buying a hybrid car so you can drive solo in California's car-pool lanes, this might be just the time to seal the deal. The Department of Motor Vehicles reports the program is wildly popular, and officials are approving about 200 HOV access stickers a day. Once the state issues 50,000 decals - at the current rate, that could come in March - Caltrans will study whether the car-pool lanes have become too congested to allow access to any more solo drivers in hybrids.

******************************

Exit Exam Rules Eased

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-exit20jan20,0,4283923.story?coll=la-headlines-california

01-19-06

This year's high school seniors with disabilities would be spared from California's new high school exit exam under a legislative agreement announced Thursday. A deal negotiated by state officials would excuse seniors from that obligation if they have physical, learning or emotional disabilities that may have contributed to past failures on the test. Existing rules would have required all students in the class of 2006 to pass the test of English and math to earn diplomas.

******************************

Reckless Borrowers

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_H_op_19_ed_roadborrow2.1784a8db.ht ml

01-19-06

Irresponsible is a fitting description for people who borrow from one credit card to pay off another. But irresponsible doesn't begin to describe the Legislature's proposal to borrow money to pay back "loans" from the state's transportation fund. Gov. Schwarzenegger wants the state to float $68 billion in bonds over the next decade to pay for long-neglected infrastructure projects. He also wants to close a loophole in Prop. 42 that allows the Legislature to raid tax revenue from gasoline sales to balance the state budget.

******************************

UC Power Grab

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_18_ed_ucpay2.128772b7.html

01-18-06

The University of California's Board of Regents is growing more aloof from the public it serves -- the latest example being a plan this week to escalate the pay of UC executives with little oversight and no hope of tamping these salaries down That should be reason enough for the Legislature finally to take concrete steps to get the board under control.

******************************

Stop The Campaigning On Taxpayers’ Dime

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_954112.php

01-19-06

We have long been troubled by the tendency of public agencies to use taxpayers' dollars to indirectly campaign for bond measures and tax increases under the guise of providing "informational" materials, which are allowed, to the public. This goes on all the time, and it creates an unfair situation in which taxpayers are forced to pay for campaigns designed to get ever more of their tax dollars. Fortunately, the state Senate Judiciary Committee approved Tuesday on a 4-0 vote a measure that would limit the ability of California state and local agencies to engage in this sort of behavior.

******************************

A Giant Step Backward For Women

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/19/EDGN8GOTST1.DTL

01-19-06

When social conservatives argue that legalizing same-sex marriage could lead to legalized polygamy, same-sex marriage advocates either laugh or sneer. It's a scare tactic, they say. It'll never happen. Last year, however, as Canada legalized same-sex marriage, Prime Minister Paul Martin commissioned a $150,000 study to debunk the polygamy argument. Big mistake: The study confirmed the scare tactic by recommending that Canada repeal its anti-polygamy law.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

February 6th, 2006, 10:36 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

February 6, 2006

I am going to be doing a weekly IPod Broadcast which will

be available on my website, hopefully by today. I would

encourage you to visit my website and listen in

http://republican.assembly.ca.gov/members/index.asp?Dist=66&lang=1

Where Else But California?

Where else but our socialist paradise? Three bills before the Legislature this week demonstrate just how out of touch the Legislative majority really is.

First, AB 1418 by Jerome Horton. Last year, Republicans wanted to list the names and addresses of child molesters on the internet so that parents could protect their children from the sexual predators in their neighborhoods. The listing was a common sense approach for parents whom, with information about sexual predators, could take steps to protect their children from these evil perpetrators. The Democrats were afraid these predators would be harassed or embarrassed by people in the neighborhood who would now know where the predators lived. I don’t think harassing these perverts is permissible, but I do believe that people need to have the information to protect their children.

Compare this concern by the legislative majority for child molesters with the intent of AB 1418. AB 1418 would put the names and addresses of tax delinquents on the internet so that, in the words of the author (a member of the legislative majority), they would be embarrassed into paying their taxes. I am not a fan of tax delinquents, but they do not pose a threat to the public safety. People don’t have to protect their children from tax delinquents. So, why is harassing tax delinquents permissible, but harassing child molesters not?

Next, AB 673 by Johan Klehs, which would raise taxes on gasoline because oil companies are making too much money. Oil companies make about 20 cents profit on every gallon of gasoline. Government makes 62 cents profit in taxes from every gallon of gas, even though it doesn’t explore, refine or distribute the gas. In fact, the sales tax on gasoline has doubled since the price of gas doubled in the last two years. You haven’t heard anyone claim that it is a good thing for government to return this windfall profit. So, the best way to reduce the price of gas is by increasing taxes? How about decreasing taxes on gas to reduce the price of gas? Government makes more profit than the oil companies, yet it always wants more.

Finally, AB 674 by Johan Klehs, which would change how farmers pay for their diesel Government supposedly collects diesel fuel taxes to pay to build roads. Farmers have argued that since they don’t drive their tractors on roads, they shouldn’t have to pay taxes on that diesel. Farmers got an exemption from those taxes, but in order to get that exemption on regular diesel (as opposed to the special farmer diesel), a special system of taxation was set up. Government, ever greedy for its money, requires the oil companies to pay the tax before it is sold to the farmers (unlike every other product, where the tax is collected on the retail sale of the product). Since farmers get an exemption (and they have a very effective lobby), the farmers don’t have to pay the tax on the sale. So, the oil companies have to apply for a rebate. In essence, the oil companies give the government an interest free loan until after the sale to the farmers. AB 674 would have required the farmers to give the government that interest free loan. Why doesn’t the government wait to collect the taxes until the sale, like in every other transaction? Unfortunately, the farmers and the oil companies fought with each other over this law, when the real problem was government greed, not oil company greed.

My leftist friends think the way to run our government is to go after our taxpayers, and let the child molesters go. Aren’t you glad you live in this socialist paradise?

******************************

Proposal: Outlaw renting to illegals

Bill would also prohibit lenders from granting home mortgages

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/114095

02-02-06

PHOENIX — State legislators are set to consider proposals designed to get illegal entrants where they live.

The House Committee on Federal Mandates and Property Rights will debate a measure Monday to make it illegal for landlords to rent to people not in this country legally.

That same proposed law also includes a provision to ensure that those here illegally don't buy homes, either. It would bar banks from lending money to anyone who does not have a Social Security number. By definition, that includes people who are undocumented.

But the fate of both proposals is far from certain amid opposition from the affected businesses.

******************************

Condition Of The Poor More Important Than The Gap

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/14135915p-14964752c.html

01-31-06

A study released last week by two East Coast think tanks sounded a familiar refrain: The rich are getting richer, and the poor, if they're not exactly getting poorer, are not getting rich fast enough. Breaking the numbers out by individual state, the report ranked California's income distribution as the sixth worst in the nation, with the top 20 percent of families earning about $127,500 a year after taxes, while the poorest fifth take home just $16,800.

******************************

An Alternative To Raising The Minimum Wage

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/14143139p-14971632c.html

02-02-06

It now appears all but inevitable that California will raise its government-mandated minimum wage at some point this year Either the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will get together on the issue or voters will be presented with a ballot initiative that is almost certain to pass. The current minimum of $6.75 per hour likely will be raised to $7.75. The only question is whether the change will come with a built-in escalator that will increase the wage annually to keep pace with a cost-of-living index.

******************************

If Ever Released, Sex Offenders Need Tracking

http://www.dailynews.com/bridgetjohnson/ci_3447682

01-30-06

Nobody wants to find himself in the position of Mark Lunsford, unwittingly cast in the role of legislative champion after his daughter, Jessica, was slain last February in Florida, allegedly by a registered sex offender. In her memory, Lunsford advocates for the passage of "Jessica's Law" across the country - an effort that failed in California earlier this month when state Assembly and Senate committees effectively killed the legislation.

******************************

Preschool Initiative’s Misguided Approach

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-fi-golden2feb02,0,3593143.column?coll=la-news-columns

02-02-06

Considering how hard it is to find prominent individuals with a selfless impulse toward public service, we shouldn't begrudge the film director Rob Reiner his efforts to expand preschool education in California. But that's not to say that Reiner's Preschool for All initiative, which will appear on the June ballot as a constitutional amendment, is a good idea. On the contrary, it's another attempt at ballot-box budgeting featuring misleading PR and misguided pied-piper appeal.

******************************

Fraud Eats Funds For Child Care

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3459488

01-31-06

Rampant fraud is costing California taxpayers as much as $1.5 billion a year - half of the welfare money it pays to needy families for child care, officials say. The scam is increasingly popular in Los Angeles County, where investigators have opened more than 800 cases involving child-care fraud. "Right now, this is the fraud du jour," said James Baker, assistant head deputy district attorney in the Welfare Fraud Division. "This is where the big money is now."

******************************

Mexican Federal Agents Arrested Four Iraqis Preparing To Sneak Into U.S.

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3459422

01-31-06

Mexican federal agents arrested four Iraqis apparently preparing to sneak into the United States without proper documents, government officials said Monday. Wasim Francis Schamoun and Ivan Yalda, both 23, and Refon Chlil Oraha and Thaer Salem Yelda, both 27, were found on a bus in Navajoa, in the state of Sonora, about 350 miles south of Nogales, Ariz., after police received an anonymous tip. Officials on Monday said they were investigating the background of the four.

******************************

Recycling Toxic Household Waste Mandatory Starting Next Week

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/13772746.htm

02-02-06

California raises the recycling bar next week by making it illegal to dump many common items in your trash can. Starting next Thursday, consumers and small-business workers no longer can toss out old batteries, fluorescent bulbs, old thermostats, printers and many electronic products with low levels of hazardous waste. The idea is to keep toxic trash out of landfills so it doesn't leak into water or air.

******************************

Water Fee Plan Dropped

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060203/NEWS01/602030322/1001

02-03-06

Kiss goodbye that $3-per-month water fee Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had proposed to help shore up state levees. The senator in charge of overseeing the multibillion-dollar waterworks proposal axed the fee proposal Thursday night. And while the fee - some call it a tax - still lives in the Assembly, it appears doomed for the short term. The governor had proposed to charge every household $3 per month to pay for improvement to the state's water system, including maintaining levees in the Delta.

******************************

Migden Bill Raises Health Care Ante For Biggest State Firms

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/02/BAGNQH199F1.DTL

02-02-06

California's largest employers would be required to prop up the state's medical insurance program for the poor if they don't offer their workers generous enough health benefits under a bill set for introduction in the Senate. Modeled after a law passed earlier this month in Maryland that only affected mega-retailer Wal-Mart, the California legislation would require employers of more than 10,000 to spend at least 8 percent of total wages on health benefits.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

MKalltheway

February 7th, 2006, 12:40 PM

Nope but I'm glad the economy is doing well so it takes away armor from the Democrats.

DITTO!!!:)

new_europe2006

February 8th, 2006, 02:42 AM

Here's a connection that may surprise the way it surprised me when I first found out about it:

http://www.mideastnewswire.com/archive/me_nc_islamists.html

Corbon91

February 14th, 2006, 03:23 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

February 13, 2006

Groundhog Day

Remember the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day? One of my favorite scenes is set in the bowling alley, with Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors, talking to a drunk:

Phil: What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered.

Drunk: That sums it up for me.

Think about it. Isn’t that California, particularly its Legislature? The Democrats have been in charge of the Legislature for all but 4 years since 1958, and it seems like California is just like Phil Connor. I just hope that I am not the drunk, because Phil’s comment pretty much sums up the California Legislature for me.

This last week, I was in the Assembly, just like I was in January, 1994. In 1994, I was tangentially involved in trying to qualify the three strikes law, the law that would put repeat serious or violent felons in prison for the rest of their life if they committed one more felony of any type. If you remember, in 1993, when the initiative for three strikes started, California’s crime rate had been soaring for years, while every attempt to pass “tough on crime” laws died in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. In those days, three left-wing bay area Democrat liberals killed every single law intended to protect the people of the state of California from the worst in our state. Attempts to increase prison sentences died time after time after time, while the majority party continued to insist that they were not soft on crime.

Then Polly Klaas was killed, and something snapped in the people of the state of California. They had had enough, and they passed the three strikes law by initiative, while the lefties continued to insist that enforcement would be too expensive, prisons would become overcrowded, and the law would have no effect on the crime rate.

In the two years following the passage of Three Strikes, however, the crime rate dropped, and prison population did not grow. Violent felons in this state were looking for ways to get out of California so they wouldn’t spend the rest of their life in jail. When the crime rate dropped, Californians forgot just how bad crime had been before three strikes.

Zoom forward to today. Jessica’s law is a law intended to punish the worst of this state’s child molesters by putting them in jail for the rest of their lives. Now, just like Phil Connors in Groundhog Day, California is stuck in the 1990’s rhetoric of the left. Jessica’s law won’t work: it is too expensive; it won’t stop child molesters; it won’t treat them; and it will invade their civil liberties. Just like three strikes, the lefties tried to pass a watered down version of Jessica’s law to avoid the label of being soft on crime.

They are wrong again, and the people of this state know it. A lifetime tracking method for child molesters is necessary to protect our children. Keeping them away from our schools is necessary. Putting them in jail from 25 years to life is necessary. Punishing those who possess even one piece of child pornography to stop the sexual exploitation of our children is necessary. Jessica’s law, like three strikes, was killed in the Assembly Public Safety Committee, and, like three strikes, it will have to go before the voters to become law.

It is Groundhog Day, and it seems that nothing that the people do matters. When will we ever learn? We can’t do everything by initiative, but as long as people keep electing these lefties, our children and our communities will be at risk, over and over and over again.

******************************

Golden State Should Give Some Gold Back

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/abox/article_986782.php

02-08-06

A tax cut for California? It might seem a preposterous idea. After all, the state government is running a structural deficit of $6 billion. And after last November's shellacking at the polls, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has given up calling for spending restraint and joined the spendaholics, leaving no money to be given back to the overburdened taxpayers who support the whole house of cards.

******************************

Long Beach Could Show State How To Close Its Budget Gap

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/14161398p-14989321c.html

02-07-06

The wave of social and economic change that's swept over California in the last quarter-century has altered the lives of millions, but no city has been more affected than Long Beach. The end of the Cold War erased tens of thousands of defense-related jobs as the Long Beach Naval Shipyard closed and contracts with civilian aerospace firms were scaled back, sparking a massive outflow of workers and an offsetting inflow of immigrants from Asia and Latin America.

******************************

Arizona House Votes to Pay for Border Troops

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-troops14feb14,0,2422911.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

02-14-06

PHOENIX — The Arizona House of Representatives voted Monday to require Gov. Janet Napolitano to follow through on her proposal to increase the number of National Guard troops helping crack down on illegal immigration at the state's border with Mexico. The lawmakers also agreed to provide $5 million in state money for the plan by the governor, who had asked the Pentagon to pick up the costs and said her ideas for using troops would be impossible without complete federal funding. Republican state Rep. John Allen of Scottsdale said his state-funding proposal would either let the Democratic governor carry out her plan — or force her to explain why she did not.

******************************

Home-buying program has cash, controversy

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060206/news_1n6loans.html

02-06-06

A major U.S. bank has funded its first home loans to undocumented Mexican immigrants in San Diego County in a move that targets a lucrative, wide-open market while providing new grist for the debate over illegal immigration. The local program, which uses tax identification numbers instead of Social Security numbers, is similar to programs run by small lenders – and two state agencies – around the country that have distributed millions of dollars to undocumented immigrants over the past few years.

******************************

Students Shuffle Tunes with Biology

http://www.bakersfield.com/local/story/5888242p-5902914c.html

02-06-06

From the Apple iPod playlist of 20-year-old Kate Ball: Black Eyed Peas MercyMe Platyhelminthes, or a lecture on flatworms The Bakersfield College student stocked her iPod last semester with lectures from her biology teacher, Inez Devlin-Kelly. "It helped me cull information and catch things that were unclear," Ball said. "I used it for just about every lecture" Devlin-Kelly began recording her lectures in the fall. She said she got the idea from Duke University, which in 2004 gave iPods to incoming freshmen for learning purposes. When she had a crop of sick students missing classes in the spring, she wondered what she could do to help them catch up. Plus, podcasts made her look cool.

******************************

Reiner initiative bad for preschoolers

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/columns/article_982145.php

02-06-06

It's now official: Californians will see a Preschool for All Act initiative on the June ballot sponsored by Hollywood personality Rob Reiner. Unfortunately, while the evidence for the benefit of preschool is strong, even those who favor publicly financed preschool will want to see Reiner's bungled effort defeated.

******************************

Greenhouse-Gas Tax

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_987196.php

02-08-06

Last summer, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that California was committing itself to reducing carbon dioxide emissions so California could do its part to delay or ameliorate the onset of global warming, it could have been dismissed as trendy but essentially harmless green talk. At a couple of workshops in Sacramento and Los Angeles last month, however, some of the implications started to become apparent. They're not all pleasant.

******************************

Reckless Pensions

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_H_op_08_calstrsnew1.628dbfc.html

02-08-06

California teachers' pensions remain in financial peril, as demonstrated Friday at a meeting of the board that oversees the funds. Closing the funding gap involves hard choices -- and should include reforms to the system. The California State Teachers Retirement System, known as CalSTRS, is $24.2 billion short of what it needs over the next 30 years. Unless the state acts, that shortfall will swell to more than $200 billion by 2034 -- and California taxpayers will have to make up that difference.

******************************

Child Care System Needs Baby Sitter

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/columns/article_992548.php

02-10-06

In Britain, there's an expression, "I'm all right Jack," that means that one has been able to take full advantage of the system, usually the dole, to live idly at the expense of others. We now know that hundreds, and probably thousands, of unscrupulous Californians have turned this concept into a high art form, gaming the system so they can live comfortably off the taxpayers. (No, in this case we're not talking about politicians.)

******************************

Fewer Seen Able To Afford A Home

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-homes10feb10,1,3154825.story?coll=la-headlines-business

02-10-06

The percentage of California households able to afford a median-priced home will sink to a record low this year as home prices and mortgage interest rates edge up, a real estate group said Thursday. "We think affordability will reach a new low this year," said Robert Kleinhenz, an economist with the California Assn. of Realtors. "I suspect we will get in the 10% to 12% range and then hold steady."

******************************

Save Us From Ourselves, Commissioner

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/abox/article_990233.php

02-09-06

The California Department of Insurance issued a press release and a new report Jan. 31, both calling attention to an imminent danger to our health. Is it the threat of a bird-flu pandemic that has drawn the attention of Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi? Or HIV and AIDS? Or is the danger in the ability of the health care establishment in California to respond to a Katrina-scale natural disaster such as a major earthquake? No, the danger is none of these things. What keeps the Insurance Commissioner awake at nights is health savings accounts (HSAs). That's right, savings accounts.

******************************

Gilchrist Looks To Reform Immigration

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/politics/13810542.htm

02-07-06

His deep green eyes sparkling with intensity, Jim Gilchrist speaks nonstop for more than an hour about the nation's porous Mexican border and the flood of illegal immigration that he says will bring America to its knees. Suddenly, his gaze softens and he talks warmly about his Mexican son-in-law and his half-Mexican "grandbrat." The distinction is not a complicated one for Gilchrist. His son-in-law is legal.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

February 22nd, 2006, 01:43 AM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

February 20, 2006

Groundhog Day, Part Deux

In the movie, Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s character wakes up to the same refrain from the song “I got you, babe” every morning, and that is how he knows he is stuck in the same place on the same day, day after day, throughout the movie.

I don’t think I am stuck in that movie, but I keep hearing the same refrain day after day, week after week, year after year, from the Democrats in Sacramento. This last week was no exception.

In 1998, then Governor Pete Wilson proposed a $58.6 billion general fund budget. Between 1999 and 2001, the state experienced record surpluses, and then Governor Gray Davis spent all of those surpluses and then some, increasing spending $20 billion in those two short years. It took Pete Wilson 8 years to increase spending by $17 billion. But it only took Gray Davis two years to increase it by $20 billion. From the day Pete Wilson took office to the day he left, the Democrats in the Legislature demanded tax increases, whether there were deficits or surpluses. From the day Gray Davis took office, Democrats demanded tax increases, whether the state faced a surplus or a deficit. The record increase in spending in the early Davis years eventually led to his recall, which resulted from the record deficits he and the Legislative Democrats created between 1999 and 2001.

When Governor Schwarzenegger took office following the recall, the Democrats were hopeful. They woke up to “I got you babe” and, thinking they were back with Gray Davis again, asked for tax increases again. Schwarzenegger got spending under control in his first budget, proposing a $76.1 billion budget, only a $100 million increase in spending over the year before, which was the smallest increase in government spending in recent memory. Eventually, the Legislature passed a $76.8 billion budget, and, once again, the Democrats called for a tax increase.

This year, the Governor proposed a $98 billion budget, a $22 billion spending increase, once again, in two short years. When I woke up on January 10, the day the Governor proposed his budget, I could have swore I heard “I got you babe” again. A Governor proposing record spending increases, in fact, spending $5 billion more than the state believes it will take in, and the Democrats saying it is not enough, and that they need more taxes.

Well, here is the refrain. With term limits, I think I can honestly say that some of these Legislators are young, and they don’t understand the repercussions of their decisions, but they’ll find out when they grow. This budget is going to collapse, babe. In one, maybe two, maybe three years, this budget will be $20 - $30 billion out of balance.

Until that time, however, the state is once again experiencing enormous increases in revenue, and the Governor and the Legislature are spending those revenues as if there was an unending supply of money, and the Democrats are still calling for tax increases, because, despite the record revenues, they still don’t have enough money. In a press conference last week, the Democrat leaders, Speaker Fabian Nunez and President Pro Tem Don Perata keep complaining that the Governor’s budget did not reflect their priorities, and that they were going to increase spending. When the press noted that the expenditures in the budget were already $4 billion above projected revenue, the reporters rightfully asked if the Democrats were going to ask for new taxes to cover the increased spending. Nunez and Perata dodged the question, but made it clear that tax increases would probably be necessary.

So, like Bill Murray, I turned over and smashed the clock, so I wouldn’t have to hear that stupid song again. Unfortunately, like Bill Murray, it was still the same day, same tune, just different people.

******************************

Jessica’s Law Gets Big Boost For Ballot

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_jessica15.131a302d.html

02-15-06

Supporters of the Jessica's Law sex-crimes initiative said Tuesday that they have collected more than enough signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot. The proponents' campaign plans to turn in more than 550,000 signatures to county elections offices Friday and Tuesday, well above the 374,000 valid signatures required. The campaign recently stopped collecting signatures, consultant Dave Gilliard said.

******************************

Leno A Lightening Rod In Crime Debate

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14184216p-15011379c.html

02-14-06

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez angrily approached Assemblyman Todd Spitzer near the floor of the Assembly recently. "This is bull----," Núñez said, waving a written commentary in which Spitzer characterized Assemblyman Mark Leno as an "ultraliberal" who leads a "pro-criminal" majority. Spitzer blasted Democrats as "soft on crime" and accused Leno's Public Safety Committee of consistently putting "the rights of career criminals over those of law-abiding citizens."

******************************

Lawyers And The Lawmakers They Love

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/columns/article_997380.php

02-14-06

With the passage of yet another legislative deadline and no meaningful litigation reform enacted, one local group is placing blame on a "Bermuda Triangle" within California's Legislature. "At one point of the triangle is the Senate Judiciary Committee, at another is the Assembly Judiciary Committee, and at the apex is the wealthy personal-injury lawyers lobby," Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) chairman John Merchant says.

******************************

Road-Building Could Use A Shot Of Sanity

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/localviews/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_13_dutton_loc.88d2980.html

02-12-06

You remember the definition of crazy, don't you? Keep doing the same thing over and over again, each time expecting a different result. That definition would fit the way the state has handled infrastructure improvements during the last several decades. Because of environmental and other costs not associated with building new roads or improving our state's fragile levee system, little has been done to improve these vital systems.

******************************

Flawed Health Idea

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/opinion/13859742.htm

02-14-06

Time and again, lawmakers who seek to reform health care and expand coverage for those without medical insurance want to place the burden on businesses. A measure being considered by state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, is the latest effort. It would force large companies to pay more for their employees' health care costs. She would like to follow Maryland, which enacted a law that requires companies with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of payroll on health care.

******************************

Can Canal Float This Time?

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_1001737.php

02-14-06

Perhaps enough time has passed since 1982, when Northern Californians waged an emotional campaign against a plan to divert more water to Southern California by building the Peripheral Canal, that the state can revisit a similar idea. Either Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has overlooked the old battle over Proposition 9, or he is confident enough that old wounds have healed and that new developments have made it imperative to upgrade the state's water infrastructure.

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Uphold Exit Exam

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_H_op_13_ed_exitexam2.88d2e16.html

02-14-06

A lawsuit filed against the California high school exit exam fails the real-world test: A diploma given to students who lack a working grasp of basic math and English skills is worthless. Graduating from high school ought to mean more than regular attendance. Last week in San Francisco, 10 high school students and their parents sued the state over the exit exam, a graduation requirement starting this year.

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Unrig The Vote

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_14_ed_redistrict1.d410d04.htm l

02-14-06

The state should not continue to let legislators rig California elections to preserve incumbents' power. Impartial political district lines -- in place of the self-interested district lines drawn by legislators themselves -- would help make state politicians more responsive to public needs, as a study released last week affirms. A better reapportionment process could create 12 to 14 competitive congressional districts (out of 53) and 12 to 17 competitive Assembly districts (out of 80), according to UC Berkeley's Institute of Government-al Studies.

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CARB Takes On Tobacco

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/14191210p-15018115c.html

02-15-06

The California Air Resources Board quietly pulled off another first the other day. The board declared secondhand smoke a toxic air contaminant. It's the only such designation by an air regulator in the world. The board's action puts tobacco smoke in the same category as the toxic fumes that spew from car tailpipes or factory chimneys. For years, state air regulators have been required to monitor and reduce exposure to those harmful pollutants. They must now devise means to reduce human exposure to secondhand smoke.

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The University Of Compensation

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_993895.php

02-14-06

The University of California's leadership still has not come to grips with the immensity of the system's compensation scandal. That was our take after a day of hearings Feb. 8 by the California Senate Education Committee. A series of articles last fall in the San Francisco Chronicle detailed how the university, in addition to regular pay, gave $871 million in compensation to 105,000 employees in fiscal 2005, which ended last June 30.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

February 28th, 2006, 12:39 AM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

February 27, 2006

Chickens Roosting At Home

From 1999 through 2002, I was the Vice Chair of the Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee. During that time, a number of bills presented to the committee increased pension and retirement benefits for state and local government employees. Every single one of these bills were passed and signed by Governor Davis.

At the hearing on each of these bills, the lobbyists for the government employee unions showed up and begged the committee members to vote for the bill. In addition, the representative for the California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) told the committee that the retirement system could afford the increases because it had a $60 billion surplus. The surplus was so big that the state did not have to pay any money to the CalPERS fund, and CalPERS told us we would never have to pay into the retirement system ever again, even with the benefit increases. Of course, the government employee unions control the CalPERS board. The state was experiencing record budget surpluses, so everyone thought that the good times would last forever.

I kept trying to explain to my legislative colleagues that we were being foolish. No one can increase benefits without some cost. At some point, I said, these pension chickens were going to come home to roost in our budget. My colleagues called me Chicken Little telling me “the sky is not falling.” They said the pension was sound and the budget could absorb the cost.

Oops.

The chickens have come home to roost. The City of San Diego is going bankrupt from generous pension benefits. Orange County is talking seriously about filing bankruptcy again to get out from underneath their pension requirements. The state’s contribution to CalPERS is estimated to be $3.5 billion this year, and even higher next year. This is from nothing in 1999.

And this week, the Legislative Analyst’s Office released a report that the cost of retiree health benefits will be “in the range of $40 billion to $70 billion, and perhaps more.” The report identifies two reasons for this increased cost; (a) increased health care costs; and (b) legislatively mandated increased health benefits.

Health care costs have increased significantly in the last six years for one reason: legislatively mandated minimum requirements for health care. From 1999 to 2000, the Legislature passed over 30 different mandates on health insurers, and as a result, costs increased over 40%.

In addition, the Government Standards Accounting Board (GASB) passed new rules on how to account for these increases. GASB statement 45 (GASB 45) increases the information the governments must report to properly assess their liabilities. No longer can the government employee unions, and their management allies, cook the books to understate the liabilities. Once all these liabilities are reported, the government agency must pay for all of the costs of those liabilities.

To the state of California, GASB 45 would require $6 billion in payments, compared to $1 billion today. This is in addition to the state’s already $2-3 billion increase in pension costs, and the existing $5 billion structural deficit, the state is on the brink of a crisis.

I like to use humor to shed light on the oddities of politics and government. Unfortunately, this article is not very funny. We are literally facing a crisis of epic proportions brought on by this Legislature’s slavish devotion to the demands of the government employee unions. These gluttons are literally the fox guarding the chickens, and to mix metaphors, the chickens have now come home to roost. When this system collapses, people will wonder how this happened. Now you know that it is coming, and what caused it.

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State has used Enron-style accounting tricks to cover its deficits
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/14214290p-15040372c.html
February 21, 2006
The allegations against former Enron Corp. chairman Kenneth Lay and others involved in corporate scandals, such as WorldCom, generally revolve about creative accounting - hiding liabilities, inflating revenues and assets, etc. One specific charge in the Enron trial now under way in Houston, for example, is that it cooked the books one year to add a penny to the company's per-share earnings and thus meet Wall Street analysts' expectations. What's striking about the allegedly illegal corporate accounting is its similarity to the gimmicks that California politicians have employed in two state budget crises over the past 15 years. Indeed, it would be fair to say that were California a corporation, its leadership - including all three most recent governors - would have long ago faced federal investigations.

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Judge hears arguments on gun ban

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14221848p-15047433c.html

February 24, 2006

A new law banning handguns and restricting other firearms in the city received a thorough legal review Thursday, but the question on everyone's mind - will it stand up in court? - remained unanswered.

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Broads give millions for biotech hub

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3540498

February 24, 2006

With a vision of creating a biotech hub in Los Angeles, billionaire philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad announced Thursday that they are donating $25 million toward a stem-cell research center at the University of Southern California that one day could add 25,000 jobs to the region. The $150 million Broad Institute for Integrative Biology and Stem Cell Research at USC's Keck School of Medicine is seen as a potential leader in the developing field, as well as an economic engine for Southern California.

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Wages not keeping pace with inflation, survey finds

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/24/BUGSVHDITU1.DTL

February 24, 2006

American families saw their real incomes fall to an average of $70,700 in 2004, down 2.3 percent from 2001, according to a Federal Reserve survey of consumer finances released Thursday. Average net worth rose 6.3 percent during the same period to $448,200, buoyed by the often-dramatic appreciation of house values and the increased rate of homeownership. All figures in the Survey of Consumer Finances, which is released every three years, are adjusted for inflation.

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Charter Schools Sue Calif. Education Department Over Funding

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20060216-0022-ca-charterschoollawsuit.html

February 16, 2006

Eight charter schools are suing the California Department of Education challenging its interpretation of a state law that determines funding for each school based on the amount of time teachers spend instructing students. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Options for Youth and Opportunities for Learning, which operates charter schools in Burbank, Upland, San Gabriel, Victor Valley, San Juan, Mount Shasta, Santa Clarita and Baldwin Park.

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Death of a Sawmill

Environmentalists wreck small businesses--and do ecological damage while they're at it.

By Jim Petersen, Wall Street Journal

http://www.opinionjournal.com/cc/?id=110007741

December 29, 2005

My friend Jim Hurst auctioned his sawmill in August. Jim's decision to pack it in after 25 years of beating his head on the wall made big news here in northwest Montana but, alas, not a peep from this newspaper or the New York Times. That's too bad, because the loss of our family-owned mills also signals the loss of technologies and skills vital to our efforts to protect the West's great national forests from the ravages of increasingly fearsome wildfires.

I was in Jim's office a few days before the auction. He told me he was at peace with his decision, but Jim has a good game face, so I suspect the decision to terminate his remaining 70 employees tore his guts out. They were like family to him.

Jim's outfit was the economic backbone of tiny Eureka, Mont., a sawmill town since the early 1900s. I have a photo of my schoolteacher great-aunt standing on the front steps of the town's one-room schoolhouse in 1909. Although the town has grown some since then, its rural charm is still very much intact. Thanks to the nation's housing boom, business has been good for the West's sawmills for the past three years. But Jim faced an insurmountable problem: He couldn't buy enough logs to keep his mill running. This despite the fact that 10 times as many trees as Jim's mill needed die annually on the nearby Kootenai National Forest. From his office window, Jim could see the dead and dying standing on hillsides just west of the mill. They might as well have been standing on the moon, given the senseless environmental litigation that has engulfed the West's federal forests.

******************************

Court upholds $30,300 award to white applicant in race-bias suit

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/24/BAGH0HE6LE1.DTL

February 24, 2006

A state appeals court has upheld $30,300 in damages to a white man who won a race-discrimination suit over a delay in his promotion to a supervisor's job at San Francisco International Airport. Allan Harman's suit was one of several filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation that accused San Francisco of discriminating in favor of minorities, in violation of U.S. constitutional standards and Proposition 209, the ban on race and sex preferences that California voters approved in 1996.

******************************

Joint effort leads to arrest of Garcia

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_3542740

February 24, 2006

Good fortune and good police work on both sides of the border led to Thursday's arrest of the man accused of killing Temple Station sheriff's Deputy David March during a 2002 traffic stop in Irwindale, officials said Friday morning. At a news conference at Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley's office, new details emerged about the arrest of Armando Garcia.

******************************

Domestic partners stuck in tax-return limbo

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/13940640.htm

February 23, 2006

As interim chief of a San Jose gay and lesbian community center, Clark Williams is accustomed to making waves. But one place he'd rather avoid that is on his tax forms. This year, a new California law might give him no choice. For the first time, Williams and his partner -- and roughly 71,000 other Californians who have registered with the state as domestic partners -- face a unique quandary: When a new state law gives you many of the financial responsibilities of a married couple but federal law still treats you as single, what's the safe way to do your taxes?

******************************

City bans trips to land of 'kooks' in wake of supervisor's resolution

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/19/BAGBHHBFJF1.DTL

February 19, 2006

The prod that woke this bedroom community at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains, whose 2005 population city officials estimate at 50,860, was a decision by San Francisco voters to pass an advisory measure banning military recruiters from schools. Calling San Franciscans a bunch of "kooks and nuts" and castigating supervisors for their "tomfoolery," the City Council unanimously approved a resolution "prohibiting the expenditure of city funds for attending conferences, training seminars and/or workshops to be held in the City of San Francisco."

******************************

Immigration loophole leads to spread of fake-ID mills

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060219/news_1n19fakes.html

February 19, 2006

In the pre-dawn hours one late-November morning, federal agents with search warrants raided the Oceanside and Riverside offices of Golden State Fence Co., carting out boxes filled with payroll documents. It was the second time in a year and a half that the Riverside-based fencing company was busted for hiring undocumented workers.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

March 7th, 2006, 01:23 AM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

March 6, 2006

Another Boondoggle

Do you remember Chuck Quackenbush? He was the insurance commissioner who lost his job because he used fines that he collected from insurance companies to buy television commercials to promote his political career. It was a huge scandal at the time, and Quackenbush, who was a colleague of mine in the Assembly, left his job in disgrace, having been run out of office by Legislative Democrats for abusing state money.

Another boondoggle is brewing, only this time Legislative Democrats are strangely silent.

A few years ago, Rob Reiner (“Meathead” from the old television series, “All in the Family”) sponsored an initiative to create a children’s health commission, funded by a fifty cent per-pack tax on cigarettes. This commission, called “First 5 California Children and Family Commission,” was intended to administer the money collected from this tax, and spend it on local health initiatives and early childhood development programs for children. The initiative has generated over $4 billion since it went into effect.

This year, Reiner is sponsoring an initiative to create mandatory preschool for all children, and proposes a one percent tax increase on rich people to pay for this program. Reiner is also the chair of the First 5 Commission.

Now the Commission is spending the money it collects through taxes on cigarettes to promote the Reiner preschool initiative. The commission has spent $23 million of your tax dollars on commercials for “Preschool for All” (which also happens to be the name of his initiative) in one of the largest state funded advertising programs ever. It has also spent $230 million on advertising and public relations firms that helped Reiner create the First 5 Commission, and it paid $206,000 of that tax money to three political consultants who had no contract with the state, but who became the campaign consultants for the preschool initiative. Reiner’s lawyer said the ads were “entirely legal and proper” because they do not expressly urge people to vote for or against the initiative.

You and I are paying for political consultants, television ads, and public relations operations that all promote a preschool program. They argue that since they don’t really say you should vote for such a program, this tax money was spent legally. That is dangerous. As further evidence of this commission’s intent to aid the initiative, the public relations firm that did the proposal for the ads said that “while the [commission] should not advocate on behalf of the initiative” the goals of the “Preschool for All” program would have to be achieved through legislative or electoral action.

This is political spin for “We want to spend the tax money on our political operation; we just want to fool people into thinking it is legal.”

So where are the cries of outrage? Quackenbush was wrong. Reiner is wrong. Reiner, as chair of the Commission, has specifically pushed the state to pay for his political campaign. He should lose his job, and reimburse the state for the $253 million he spent to push his boondoggle on the people of the state of California.

If this were a Republican initiative, the howls of protest would echo throughout the state. However, since this is a tax increase, and an attempt to create a whole bunch of new government jobs (with the forced union dues that come along with those jobs), the lefties in Sacramento have fallen silent.

The only way to stop this kind of boondoggle is to register your displeasure at the ballot box. I hope you will show up at the polls, and tell Mr. Reiner exactly what you think of his attempt to deceive you with your tax dollars. And since I didn’t expressly advocate a vote for or against the initiative, this commentary is legal.

So there Mr. Reiner.

******************************

Even In Flush Times, Politicians Can’t Help Overspending

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/14221853p-15047431c.html

02-24-06

The good news is that California's economy is outpacing everyone's expectations - including those of the state's most distinguished economists - and generating copious amounts of jobs, corporate profits and government revenues. The bad news, as the Legislature's independent budget office says in its new analysis of the 2006-07 budget, is that state spending has been rising just as fast, and the state's chronic deficits will continue indefinitely.

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Costly Comp

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_24_ed_workcomp1.1c7d2d6b.html

02-24-06

Three ballot initiatives now circulating propose changes to the workers' comp system that would burden California employers with huge costs. California businesses don't need that kind of hindrance. The measures follow a January study that found recent state reforms cut $8.1 billion from the workers' comp system. That money can now go to jobs and business expansion instead of toward inflated premiums for mandatory insurance to cover on-the-job injuries.

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Highway Program Moves Ever Closer To Pork Barrel Politics

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/14223064p-15048280c.html

02-27-06

Anyone who's familiar with private land development and public transportation construction knows that the two are intrinsically connected and their symbiosis creates greater potential for political chicanery. As California embarked on its massive and historic expansion of its highway system after World War II, it wisely maintained layers of political insulation on where and when the projects could be built.

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Driver’s License Overhaul Could Prove Exasperating

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060224/NEWS01/602240321/1001

02-24-06

The state's 24 million drivers aren't likely to have to scrap their existing licenses all at once. That's the good news emerging from a legislative hearing Thursday on the federal Real ID Act. The bad news is that they're probably going have to stand in long lines to pay even more money for a new license that will not likely make them any safer. Congress passed the Real ID Act in May as a way to combat the security breaches that make terrorism easier; one of the terrorists in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks used a fake driver's license.

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The States Of Eminent Domain

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_1016750.php

02-27-06

It has been just over a year since the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Kelo v. the city of New London (Conn.) and eight months since the high court ruled in favor of cities. Yes, the high court ruled, New London and other municipalities were within their constitutional bounds to use eminent domain to take property from homeowners and business owners and give it to developers who promise economic and tax benefits to the city.

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A New, Real Fiscal Crisis

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/14223112p-15048309c.html

02-27-06

Say you were run over by a truck and badly injured 30 years ago. You have just awakened from a long coma when someone hands you a bill for $70 billion. That's a very rough analogy to what's about to happen to the state. New federal accounting rules require California and every other state in the nation to add up the costs of providing promised health care benefits to public employees after they retire and to devise a plan for how to pay for those benefits.

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Prison Guards Lock Up Bundle In Overtime Pay

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20060228-9999-1n28guards.html

02-28-06

Roughly one out of 10 California prison guards was paid more than $100,000 last year, fueled largely by a jump in overtime. Some 2,400 rank-and-file correctional officers' pay exceeded $100,000 in 2005, compared with 557 the year before, a San Diego Union-Tribune analysis of payroll figures shows. One guard grossed $187,000, making him the highest-paid correctional officer in California, according to data provided by the state controller's office.

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S.F. – Handgun Ban Delayed Until At Least June 19

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/28/BAGU9GJEFL1.DTL

02-28-06

The city will delay enforcement of a voter-approved ban on handgun possession and gun sales until at least June 19 while a judge considers a National Rifle Association lawsuit challenging the measure, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said Monday. The delay was requested last week by Superior Court Judge James Warren, who has until June 19 to rule on the validity of Proposition H, which city voters approved in November. The ordinance prohibits handgun possession by city residents.

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Meathead Economics
Hollywood liberals drive productive Californians to leave the state.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008026

02-28-06
It takes hard work to drive anyone away from California's sunshine and scenic vistas, but politicians in Sacramento have been up to the task. The latest Census Bureau data indicate that, in 2005, 239,416 more native-born Americans left the state than moved in. California is also on pace to lose domestic population (not counting immigrants) this year. The outmigration is such that the cost to rent a U-Haul trailer to move from Los Angeles to Boise, Idaho, is $2,090--or some eight times more than the cost of moving in the opposite direction. What's gone wrong? A big part of the story is a tax and regulatory culture that treats the most productive businesses and workers as if they were ATMs. The cost to businesses of complying with California's rules, regulations and paperwork is more than twice as high as in other Western states. But the worst growth killer may well be California's tax system.

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Will State School Board Stand Tough?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/03/EDGU9GJEP11.DTL

03-03-06

As tough as I've been on former Gov. Gray Davis, I've taken pains to single out his remarkable efforts to fix the public schools and their disastrous teaching methods, even in the face of intense opposition by labor unions and his own California Democratic Party. With Davis gone, leading Democrats in Sacramento are shamefully gearing up for another major assault to roll back public-school reform. And it's not at all clear that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is as focused as Davis was on stopping them.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

March 13th, 2006, 09:33 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

March 13, 2006

A Lesson from the Schoolyard

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

March 10, 2006

Remember when we would run out to the schoolyard and play football or tag at recess? First, through various methods, two kids would become the respective team captains. Their task would be to assemble the best team. It was a cutthroat affair. There weren’t any allegiances; just a no holds barred thirst for victory.

The most athletically gifted were selected first, always. The free market worked without fail. Then the middle tiered talent would be sifted through, plucked one by one. All that remained were the clumsy, slow kids. Always the last ones picked, if they got picked at all.

It is a simple lesson learned from the schoolyard and judging by the actions of our socialistist legislature, we have a bunch of clumsy, slow kids attempting to exact their revenge in Sacramento.

A recent study put out by the venerable Tax Foundation called the “State Business Tax Climate Index” found that California has created an incredibly hostile tax climate for businesses. Their ranking system is comprised of several individual components. California ranks 39th on the Corporate Tax Index and 47th on the Individual Income Tax Index. Overall, the Golden State ranks 40th in the nation in terms of the state business tax climate.

Anyone who earns more than $41,500 in taxable income is taxed at 9.3% with the top tax bracket reaching 10.3%, the highest in the nation. The cost of housing has skyrocketed thanks to numerous taxes and fees placed on developers, and subsequently passed on to the home buyer. In Southern California, roughly $100,000 of the cost of a new home is directly attributable to various transportation mitigation and other fees. Burdensome environmental regulations for rats, fleas and weeds artificially limited the supply of new homes and businesses by suppressing development and resulting in higher prices. Even the cost of gasoline is more expensive, thanks to so-called environmentally friendly additives. Never mind the fact that studies have concluded that these additives have had no beneficial impact on vehicle emissions.

In the real world, businesses are the captains in the schoolyard picking the states in which they will choose to operate. The most athletic and skilled are the states that foster a climate that is pro-business by lessening the tax burden. To be brutally frank, California is the klutz surrounded by superior athletes.

Every state west of the Mississippi River, except for Arkansas, Iowa and Nebraska, rank higher than California. Even more damaging is the fact that Nevada and Oregon rank in the top 10. Is it any wonder why so many businesses and residents are either leaving the state or choosing to relocate to other states in the western United States?

It isn’t all doom and gloom, however. As bad as California currently ranks, it has improved since Governor Schwarzenegger took office and began enacting his agenda of reform. Previously, California ranked 46th overall and an abysmal 49th on the Corporate Tax Index in 2003. It is easy to forget about how bad it was in this state before Governor Schwarzenegger took office. But we are starting to turn around, and beginning to undo the reforms that helped move us up the ladder.

Socialists in Sacramento think that they can simply “ban tag or dodgeball” to protect the slow and the weak. This may work in our politically correct public schools, but no such luxury exists in the real world for California. Businesses and people are voting with their dollars and their moving vans, for this is the way of the schoolyard.

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Opposition To Water Bill Fees Puts Plan At Risk

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060308/news_1n8water.html

03-08-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ambitious waterworks plan for the state could cost San Diego County homeowners and businesses about $2 million every month. But the governor's proposal to impose water-bill surcharges ranging from $3 to $10 a month across the state has met with strong opposition. “I don't think anyone in the water community likes what's being proposed at this point,” said Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District.

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Highways Vs. Transit – Commute Study Adds Fuel To Debate

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/14226311p-15050409c.html

03-06-06

Arnold Schwarzenegger's $107 billion transportation improvement plan - nearly half of his $222 billion infrastructure scheme - is taking heat from left and right. Many of Schwarzenegger's fellow Republicans are unhappy that he wants to float $71.5 billion in bonds with much of the borrowed money going into transportation, and are advancing a "pay as you go" alternative that would divert money from the state's present revenue stream.

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Governor’s Switch Increases Some Prison Pensions

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/09/MNGFMHL5961.DTL

03-09-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has agreed to boost the pension benefits of thousands of state prison supervisors after previously criticizing rich pensions for state workers. The Schwarzenegger administration on Friday quietly finalized a deal to award 5,200 corrections managers the same pension increase that the state prison guards union was awarded by former Gov. Gray Davis. The increase will cost taxpayers $5.7 million annually, according to pension system estimates.

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Tax-Financed Campaign To Change Minds On Preschool

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/14227897p-15051471c.html

03-09-06

A controversial, state-financed advertising campaign aimed at ending public resistance to universal preschool is likely to come under even more widespread condemnation once people see how and when it all began. A 2002 memorandum prepared for a state children's commission chaired by Hollywood director Rob Reiner explained that Californians didn't sufficiently support Reiner's vision of preschool for all - and laid out a strategy for using public funds to change that.

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State Has No Tax Break For Health Accounts

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-health6mar06,1,978405.story?coll=la-headlines-business

03-06-06

Thousands of Californians who signed up for health savings accounts in the last year could get an unpleasant surprise when they prepare their income taxes. The accounts allow Americans to set aside as much as $5,450 a year before federal taxes to cover out-of-pocket healthcare costs, and what they don't spend can accumulate as savings. The health accounts are also shielded from state income taxes in most of the country, but California is one of seven states that have declined to provide an exemption.

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Study Now Or Pay Later

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_3586842

03-10-06

The California Board of Education has reaffirmed a basic educational principle that ought to go without saying: To graduate from high school, students must show some mastery of high-school material. That this bit of common sense doesn't go without saying says volumes about the state of California public education. Members of the education establishment have fought the High School Exit Exam ever since the Legislature passed it into law in 1999.

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Goldberg As Schools Chief A Disaster

http://www.dailynews.com/theiropinion/ci_3568208

03-06-06

Although I got beat to the punch days ago, when Daily News political cartoonist Patrick O'Connor hilariously linked a story about a blob of muck threatening to overtake downtown to a rumor that Jackie Goldberg might be recruited as superintendent of Los Angeles schools, it's still a comparison worth pursuing. For those not steeped in Goldberg-ology, she is the failed former school board president of the Los Angeles Unified School District, whose inability to get over her leftist glory days of the 1960s - and whose knack for grabbing power - has wreaked lots of damage in Los Angeles.

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State High Court Rules Against Scouting Group Vs. Berkeley

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060310/news_1n10scouting.html

03-10-06

The state Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the city of Berkeley did not violate a scouting group's rights when it withdrew a subsidy granting free access to a public marina because of the scouts' discriminatory membership rules. The unanimous ruling is the latest in a series of such cases nationwide – including one in San Diego involving the Boy Scouts of America – challenging government support of scouting through leases and other subsidies.

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Record Bond Proposal Creates Lobbying Frenzy In The Capitol

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20060308-0022-ca-californiabonds.html

03-08-06

From the North Coast to Southern California, local governments, environmentalists, business groups – even Indian tribes – are turning up the lobbying heat on state lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as they try to grab a share of what could be the largest bond measure in the state's history. Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders are negotiating a package of public works bonds that could help pay for projects ranging from highway expansions to rebuilt levees to new schools.

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Perils Of Preschool For All

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/abox/article_1028248.php

03-06-06

What education "reform" would cost $109,000 a year for each new student and increase the state's already sclerotic schools bureaucracy? According to a February study by the Reason Foundation, the answer is: Proposition 82, the Preschool for All initiative, which is being advanced by actor/director Rob Reiner and will be on the June 6 ballot. Prop. 182 would increase taxes on the wealthy by $2.4 billion a year to set up preschool for all 4-year-olds.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

March 20th, 2006, 09:09 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

March 20, 2006

Deal Or No Deal

I understand that it is an election year.

But this week in Sacramento was a disgrace, even by election year standards, and that is saying a lot.

In January, the Governor proposed “rebuilding” California by spending $220 billion to build freeways, water storage, schools, prisons, courts and electricity lines. His plan included a little over $70 billion in general obligation bonds for a variety of different projects, to be leveraged with other sources of funding.

The Assembly Republicans immediately said they wanted to rebuild California, but they wanted the bond money to be spent on actually building things, and not on studies. They wanted to streamline the bureaucratic process currently required to undertake these projects (it takes 17 to 23 years to build a freeway, and we have only built two dams in the last 30 years, even though our population has nearly doubled). They also wanted a plan to “pay as you go” for the projects (as opposed to borrowing all of the money).

Democrats said “We’ll think about it. But two months passed without a peep from them.

Then a week ago, the Governor demanded action. Time was running out. He believed his re-election depended on having a deal on the bonds for the June ballot. In his original plan, the Governor demanded that freeways get built. The Democrats were now saying “no” we want affordable housing, buses, rail and transit systems, and we’ll stick a little money in for freeways.

The Governor said deal, the legislative Republicans said no deal.

In his original plan, the Governor wanted to repair the levees and build a dam or two for new water storage. The Democrats said “no” we want soccer fields and open space, no dams, and we’ll think about fixing the levees.

The Governor said deal. The Legislative Republicans said no deal.

Now I will say that the Governor’s original plan was at least trying to address the issues. We do need to work on our infrastructure. Our freeways are congested, our houses cost too much, our schools are overcrowded, we are running out of water, electricity, and gasoline, and the Legislature has refused to do anything about these issues.

But the Democrats said no deal to that. They wanted to borrow $50 billion for “candy”, with very little of it dedicated to the real problems.

Then we get to Wednesday night after a lot of wrangling and arm twisting. The Assembly leaders said deal at 5:30 pm, convened the Legislature at 8:00 pm, and demanded a vote on $25 billion worth of bonds by 9:30 pm. It was a disgrace. None of us had seen the actual proposal. Not one legislator, including the leaders, could really say what they were voting on, but they forced a vote that would obligate your children and grandchildren to repay $25 billion for schools and levees, because they were afraid that if they didn’t, someone might not vote for them in the next election.

This Legislature has agonized for months on whether to spend $200 million a year on police to protect our borders, $500 million for a prison, and $50 million to tear down a dam. But they only spent one hour and 30 minutes to decide to spend $25 billion on these projects.

The vote was driven purely by election year politics, and the consequences of that bad decision-making process could be felt for the next thirty years. The package was ordered rushed over to the Senate floor for their vote, but they had already adjourned, so it couldn’t be finalized.

I said no deal. Let’s think about it. Actually take the time to review what we are voting on. We’ve ignored it for 14 years; another few months won’t hurt anyone. Yet only 7 Assemblymembers agreed with me. You want to know why our state is a mess. I offer up as Exhibit one this week in the Legislature. We should all say no deal.

******************************

CSU Likely To Miss Goal For Freshmen

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/14102704.htm

03-15-06

California State University freshmen continue to fall far short of expectations in math and English proficiency, university officials said Tuesday. A decade after CSU leaders vowed to get rid of most remedial classes at their 23 campuses, just 45 percent of entering freshmen are ready for college-level courses in both subjects. The figure is a slight increase from last year's 43 percent, but still far below the university's 2007 goal of 90 percent proficiency.

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Medicare's Hidden Costs Extensive, Expensive, Report Says

Written By: Merrill Matthews, Health Care News, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18584

03-01-06

One of the most common and least challenged assertions in the debate over U.S. health care policy is that Medicare is much more efficient than the private sector. Critics of the private-sector health insurance industry like to boast that Medicare's administrative costs compose about 2 percent of claims costs, while private insurance companies' administrative costs are in the 20 to 25 percent range or more. That assertion is nearly always followed by a policy recommendation: Switch everyone to a government-financed health care system, or just put everyone into Medicare, and the country will save so much in administrative costs that it can cover all of the 46 million uninsured with no additional health care spending. Sound too good to be true? It is.

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The High Cost Of Keeping Promises

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/12/EDG9CHMP9B1.DTL

03-10-06

One of the reasons 83 percent of Californians do not trust state and local government officials to do the right thing is politicians refuse to take fiscally responsible approaches to solving our long-term problems. A recent report on the huge cost of retiree health care is the latest evidence that the next generation of Californians will still be paying for this irresponsibility for decades to come in the form of slower services, congested roads, weaker law enforcement and struggling schools.

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They Myth Of ‘Not Big Government’

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/14229198p-15052391c.html

03-13-06

One of the selling points of Proposition 10, the tobacco tax increase California voters approved in 1998 to provide new programs for kids age 5 and under, was that it would put money and authority into local hands, not the state. "Proposition 10 is for local control - not big government," said the official ballot argument signed by Hollywood director Rob Reiner, the major sponsor of the measure.

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Lawmakers Attack Kickoff Of AOL Private E-Mail Tax

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_3608003

03-16-06

Within days, e-mail will never be the same. A private "e-mail tax" looms, critical state senators said Wednesday as they announced creation of a new E-committee and plans for legislation regulating Internet changes. Internet giant America Online, on the other hand, says the change they will implement by the end of the month is good for everyone. Under their certified e-mail system, legitimate marketers and other for-profit mass mailers — not trashy spammers — will pay a fee per message for guaranteed delivery.

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Wanted: Massachusetts Fat Kids

Published In: Lawsuit Abuse, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18556

02-23-06

Several Massachusetts lawyers plan to file lawsuits against Coca-Cola and PepsiCo seeking to ban sales of soft drinks in school vending machines. But they're having a hard time finding a "plump plaintiff," as Walter Olson puts it in the Los Angeles Times, despite advertisements for potential plaintiffs in local newspapers. The suit would allege consumer fraud. Stephen Gardner, an attorney with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, supports the suit on the grounds that consumption of soft drinks in schools contributes to childhood obesity. The American Beverage Association, however, funded a study that shows students purchase only one sugary soda per week at school.

******************************

Pataki Calls for Income Tax Cuts in NY

Written By: David Pietrusza, Budget & Tax News, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18548

03-01-06

New York Gov. George Pataki's (R) proposed budget for 2006-07 calls for hefty spending increases, significant new personal and corporate income tax cuts, and a new state-funded property tax rebate for homeowners in school districts that agree to cap spending. The governor has announced he will not seek a fourth term in office, so the nearly $111 billion state budget for the fiscal year that starts April 1 represents his last opportunity to secure a positive fiscal legacy before his term concludes at the end of 2006. The state will end the current fiscal year with a $2.7 billion surplus. The "state funds" portion of the budget (excluding federal grants) would total just under $75 billion, a growth rate of 6.6 percent over the prior year. Even after adjusting for the state's continuing takeover of locally funded Medicaid costs, the budget hike is the second-largest Pataki has proposed in his 12-year tenure as governor, according to E. J. McMahon, director of the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for New York State Policy.Pataki's proposed state tax cuts would amount to $2.5 billion when fully implemented over the next three years.

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Salmon Season, Livelihoods On The Brink

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14230325p-15053194c.html

03-15-06

Along 700 miles of the Pacific Coast, fishing towns and fishermen are facing the unthinkable this spring: a total closure of the salmon season. For consumers, it means there may be no local wild chinook (or king) salmon in markets and restaurants this year. For fishermen, it could mean bankruptcy, the end of a way of life. "I hate to try and imagine how bad my life is going to get," said Larry Collins.

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Utilities Sue DWP Over Power Deals

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-powersuit17mar17,1,577315.story?coll=la-headlines-business

03-17-06

The state's two biggest utilities sued the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and 18 other government entities Thursday seeking to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in alleged overcharges on electricity sold during the California energy crisis. Southern California Edison Co. and Pacific Gas & Electric, joined by the California Electricity Oversight Board, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Sacramento — a new venue for a refund dispute that has simmered since the state's power market meltdown in 2000-01.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

March 27th, 2006, 09:53 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

March 27, 2006

A Failed System Of Accountability

In 1999, then Governor Gray Davis pushed a school accountability system through the Legislature. The system had three major components: (1) a comprehensive testing process designed to measure a school’s progress in educating children; (2) An academic performance index (API), to report the results of schools to the public; and (3) A high school exit exam, designed to make sure every student has a basic level of skills before they can get their high school diploma.

The system sounded good, but I voted against the bill because I believed that the system, while promising much, would deliver too little. The API included factors other than academic performance (like attendance, number of credentialed teachers, etc) that could make a school look like it was improving the delivery of education to its students, when in fact the students weren’t improving. Another problem is that the API reports test scores by school, and not by classroom, so that a few good teachers could prop up an entire school, leaving most of the students in that school behind. This week I found that even I couldn’t predict all of the things that the school establishment could do to hide its inability to do the job the taxpayers are paying them to do.

It turns out that some of the schools, or someone in the bureaucracy, is changing the schools’ API. In a press release this week from the California Business for Education Excellence (CBEE), the CBEE details the scores of a school in the Fremont School District whose 2001 base score was 773 and its 2005 “growth” score was 743. In most places, that is a drop of 30 points. But not in the new new math of our government run schools. It turns out that the “base” score of each school is changed each year, because a different set of students comes into the school, and it is impossible to compare how well the school is doing. For instance, at the Fremont school, the growth score in 2002 was 16 points higher than the base score in 2001, but in 2005, the growth score was only 4 points higher than the base score. Why?

The fact is the API does not measure how many students at that school are performing at grade level. In addition, minority students are only required to meet 80% of the growth targets of white students. Essentially this means that the educrats can slack off on teaching African-Americans and Hispanics and still look like they are doing well. If this had been occurring in pre-1960 Alabama, it would have been called racism.

Finally, using the growth targets set by the API, it could take a student 50 years to reach grade level proficiency. Even if those scores were doubled, it would still take over 20 years for the schools to improve enough to be helpful to its students’ academic performance.

For some time, we have given schools money for meeting their academic growth targets. We have directed money to those schools that are not meeting these very basic minimums (even calling them “high priority schools” so that we wouldn’t hurt their self-esteem by calling them “low-performing schools”). We are spending 30 per cent more per student than we were 10 years ago to help these students succeed.

And the state is still failing miserably. What is more, the state is doing everything in its power to obscure that failure, while pretending that it is holding teachers accountable. The adults who are making huge salaries off of this failing system continue to pat themselves on the back for the good job they are doing.

CBEE is right. We should scrap the entire system and start all over again.

******************************

Migrants Taking U.S. Jobs?

http://www.sbsun.com/ci_3629987

03-23-06

It's a widespread belief, one reinforced by public officials, including President Bush: "Illegal immigrants do the jobs Americans won't do.'' But it's being challenged in a five-year study that concludes millions of undereducated Americans are without work in a labor market oversaturated by illegal immigrants. Steven Camarota, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors reduced immigration, released the findings Wednesday in Washington.

******************************

Clash Over Plan To Tighten Standards For 2-Year Degree

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14232859p-15054925c.html

03-21-06

California's community college system is open to nearly all comers. But it may get tougher for students to leave the colleges with a degree in hand. The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges last year recommended raising the minimum English and math requirements for the two-year associate degree, the only degree community colleges can award. The system's governing board won't vote on the proposal until September at the earliest.

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SMUD, Others Hit By Power Crisis Suit

http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/14232910p-15054947c.html

03-21-06

California officials and the state's two largest electric utilities have sued 20 municipal power companies from Sacramento to Los Angeles, seeking $500 million in refunds related to power sold during the energy crisis. The lawsuit, filed by the California Electricity Oversight Board, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison, is the latest chapter in the state's attempt to recover refunds from the market meltdown of 2000-01.

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Get Serious About College Prep

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/14157941.htm

03-22-06

A decade ago, the trustees of California State University system set a target: By 2007, 90 percent of entering freshmen would be academically ready for college. With one year to go the goal has proved to be wildly ambitious. Less than half of this year's freshmen on the CSU's 23 campuses passed a placement test measuring whether they had the basic skills needed for high-level work, according to an annual report released last week.

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Make Mexican Trucks Obey State Smog Rules

http://www.bakersfield.com/135/story/41871.html

03-22-06

The state's smog fighting efforts are about to suffer a setback. Valley residents' health may pay the price. Many more Mexican trucks will soon be plying the state's freeways as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Until now, they were restricted to operating inside 20 miles of the border. The federal government is expected to eliminate the restriction soon, which will allow the trucks to haul freight anywhere.

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Timing Of Preschool Ads At Issue

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14232838p-15054903c.html

03-21-06

The state agency under fire for using tax dollars to promote preschool as a preschool initiative was qualifying for the June ballot has a history of hitting the airwaves while voters are considering measures that could change its programs. First 5 California Children and Families Commission launched its first ad campaign - a $14 million bilingual media buy - just six weeks before a March 7, 2000, vote on a ballot measure to repeal Proposition 10, the initiative that created the agency.

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Changes At DMV Open Lots Of Eyes

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/columnists/mr_roadshow/14176225.htm

03-24-06

Behind the counter at Window 19 at the Alma Street DMV in San Jose, I sat, Mr. Roadshow, waiting for grumpy, even angry motorists. People coming in to renew licenses, solve registration problems, pay fees and deal with what was once a most painful experience. Not any more. This is the new Department of Motor Vehicles, where customer service is a top priority, waits are down to minutes, there are chairs, and even clean bathrooms.

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Build It Or Not, They’re Still Coming

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/abox/article_1068603.php

03-24-06

"If you build it they will come. If you don't build it they will come anyway." Those two lines could be the motto of California. The first line would refer to the era of Gov. Pat Brown, who in the late 1950s and early 1960s oversaw vast expansions of the state's infrastructure to accommodate massive population growth. The second line could apply to the California since the "leadership" of Gov. Brown's son, Gov. Jerry Brown, whose "small is beautiful" philosophy paved - or didn't pave, really - the way to current traffic jams.

******************************

Parents Demand, ‘Let Our Children Go’

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/columns/article_1068605.php

03-24-06

How long should parents allow their children to remain trapped in a failed school? Five years? Two years? One year? To ask the question is to know the answer. Loving, caring parents would drive out to the school, rescue their child and drive home without a glance back. Appropriately, when Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, it made clear that every child in America has the right to attend an effective school – now.

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Bay Area Lawmaker Pitches Gas Tax

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_3631408

03-23-06

A state lawmaker from the Bay Area running for the House of Representatives and an incumbent congresswoman clashed Wednesday over the legislator's pitch for a 25-cent per gallon gas tax hike instead of stalled public works bonds still being discussed Wednesday — a tax idea experts did not dismiss. Though Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday afternoon he would meet later in the evening with legislative leaders, he expressed no hope there would be a break in the standoff that pushed multibillion-dollar bonds for a range of infrastructure upgrades from the June ballot to at least November.

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Working Families See Little Hope For Homes

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060323/news_1b23owners.html

03-23-06

Despite more than five years of sometimes frenzied home buying, a broad range of American middle-class families have not improved their homeownership levels and Californians have fallen even further behind, two reports concluded yesterday. The National Housing Conference and its Center for Housing Policy, based in Washington, D.C., said homeownership stands at an all-time high of nearly 70 percent nationwide.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

April 3rd, 2006, 07:32 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

April 03, 2006

Here We Go Again

Term limits is calling an end to my legislative career, so this may be my last budget discussion. I thought this might be a good time to give a sort of retrospective of my budget discussions over the years, much like they do when a television show is coming to an end. So—here are the highlights.

1997. My first budget article. “Government is growing too fast. Governor Pete Wilson has proposed growing state government from $49 billion general fund to $53 billion in the 97-98 budget. After several years of difficult times, the state is starting to see surpluses. Tax cuts and “pay-as-you-go” infrastructure spending should be considered.”

1998. Once again, I complained that state government was growing too fast. “The 1998-99 budget has increased from $53 billion to $57 billion. We have a Republican governor. We are supposed to be for small government, and we are growing government. Perhaps, we should hire fewer bureaucrats, and put our money into tax cuts and a “pay-as-you-go” infrastructure program. A reduction in the car tax should also be considered. (Ultimately Governor Wilson accepted the car tax cut idea, and it became law.)”

1999. Gray Davis is Governor. He grows state government from $57 to $66 billion. “We are seeing record surpluses now ($8 billion this year), but not one dime to new tax cuts or infrastructure spending. Governor Davis does, however, propose pork projects throughout the state to buy votes. Republicans will buy into the pork and the spending (they did).”

2000. “Spending is completely out of control. State government has grown from $57 billion to $79 billion under Governor Gray Davis’ two short years in office. Record surpluses have grown into record government growth. Since 1997, government has grown by $30 billion under both Republicans and Democrats. We need to pull the car tax trigger and consider “pay-as-you-go” again. The state is on the brink of a disaster.”

2001. The movie, “The Perfect Storm” had just come out. “Like the Andrea Gail in that movie, the state is sailing into an impending disaster from which there is no escape. Last year, we could have avoided it. This year we cannot. The collapse is inevitable.” No one escaped unscathed. Ultimately, of course, the state recalled Gray Davis, mainly because of his mishandling of the budget, resulting in an unlawful increase of the car tax in 2003. Legislative Democrats saw their budget priorities flounder in the sea of red ink they had created. Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected Governor, and in his first budget in 2004-05, he proposes the smallest increase in state government in 30 years, an increase of $100 million. I actually voted for that budget.

2002. We are now in the midst of the crisis I predicted the year before. “Gray Davis seems oblivious to the size of the problem. Legislative Democrats are bent on raising taxes. The problem is growing, and, much like the energy crisis of the year before, Sacramento is fiddling while the rest of the state is burning.”

As you can tell, I have written this history for a reason. In my opinion, we are in the same place today as we were in 1999-2000. In the budget year most recently concluded, that is 2004-05, total state spending was $79.5 billion. By the end of June of 2006, total state spending is projected to be $90.1 billion, and Governor Schwarzenegger’s 2006-07 budget proposes spending $97.9 billion.

Compare this to the revenue figures in those same budgets. 2004-05 saw $82.2 billion received in revenue, leaving the state with a $2.5 billion surplus at year end. 2005-06 will see $87.9 in revenue, which will spend the surplus from last year. 2006-07 will see $91.5 billion in revenue, leaving the state with a $6.4 billion deficit, which will eat up the remaining reserves of the state.

In other words, we are on the brink of another disaster. Building a $6.4 billion operating deficit into the budget in our state’s salad days of the last two years is exactly the same thing that Gray Davis did in 1999-2000 and 2000-01. If the economy slows at all, the resulting crash will be even worse than 2001-02 and 02-03 for two reasons: (1) the state still has $15 billion in debt to repay from the 01-04 budget years; and (2) this budget disaster will be the Republicans fault, because the Republican Governor, just like his Democrat predecessor before him, failed to exercise adult supervision over the Legislative Democrats’ kindergarten spending antics in the Legislature.

This is only part of the problem. In addition to the spending patterns set by the 2006-07 budget, which build in a $6 billion operating deficit, the health and pension obligations of the state to its retirement program are undergoing a revamp. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the new accounting standards, when they are implemented will show that the generous benefits granted to state employees in the Davis years will come back to haunt state taxpayers. In retiree health benefits alone, the current retirement program is $40 to $70 billion under-funded. It will take at least another $6 billion a year in taxpayer money to pay this massive debt off. That means right now, without more revenue, the state is looking at a $12 billion deficit.

And this is in the midst of record increase in revenue, from $71 billion to $91 billion in just four short years. If the state cannot balance its budget in times of plenty, when can we?

The solution is to cut taxes, shrink government, control government spending, eliminate bureaucrats, and move to a “pay-as-you-go” infrastructure program. But I said that before, again and again and again.

Term limits have determined that my time in the Legislature is over. Next year, I will not be in a Senate or Assembly Republican caucus to caution my colleagues about the dangers of government spending. I will be on the Board of Equalization trying to protect taxpayers from the rapacious legislators whose appetite for your money is insatiable. Maybe then I can do some real good for the taxpayers of this state.

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Minimum wage hike stalls, Governor's plan dies

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/30/BAGD9I0E0F1.DTL

03-30-06

A key piece of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election year agenda suffered a setback Wednesday as his bid to raise the minimum wage by $1 failed in its first legislative hearing.

Senate Democrats instead approved a broader proposal that would increase the wage annually to keep pace with inflation. Similar legislation has been vetoed by Schwarzenegger during the past two years, prompting the Republican lawmaker carrying Schwarzenegger's bill this year to suggest Democrats were "playing politics with people's lives" by refusing to send the governor legislation he would sign.

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Insurance firms contribute big to Bustamante

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/30/MNGLEI0INH1.DTL

03-30-06

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the leading Democratic candidate for state insurance commissioner, has taken large contributions and accepted free meals and travel from the industry he seeks to regulate. In the past year, Bustamante has received more than $120,000 in campaign donations from insurance companies, their trade groups and individual brokers, records show.

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Reiner Quits First 5 Panel

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-reiner30mar30,1,4083932.story?coll=la-headlines-california

03-30-06

Hollywood producer Rob Reiner resigned Wednesday as chairman of a state commission he founded seven years ago to aid children, amid accusations that the commission used tax money to boost his new political campaign.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named Hector Ramirez to the unpaid post heading the First 5 California Children and Families Commission. Ramirez is chief operating officer of Para Los Niños, a $16-million-a-year nonprofit organization that serves poor children in Southern California, and will remain in that job.

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Two paths towards one goal: same-sex marriage

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/14238194p-15058697c.html

04-03-06

Two gay California men will ask a federal appeals court this week to declare they have a right to marry under the U.S. Constitution, but heavyweights in the fight for same-sex marriage are sitting this one out because they think the legal tactic is misguided.

******************************

Record pay raises ahead for state firefighters

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060325/news_1n25fire.html

03-25-06

Some state firefighters will get a pay raise in June estimated to average 22 percent, and others may be able to retire with pensions higher than their final salary. That could give the firefighters, who have long complained about being underpaid, the largest one-time pay increase ever received by members of a state labor union.

******************************

Some never adopt English as second language

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/14184957.htm

03-25-06

Alicia Alvarado presses two for Spanish.

Nearly everything the 44-year-old janitor needs can be had in her mother tongue. She shops in Spanish, files police reports, talks to nurses and teachers and voice-mail systems. For 17 years, Alvarado has lived in a Spanish-speaking world, first in Los Angeles and now in Concord's Monument Corridor.

Her continued monolingualism stems from cultural pride, a hectic life and the challenge of studying a foreign language.

"We don't want to lose our roots," she says.

Then, she blushes and adds, "when I first moved (to Concord), I was ashamed to attend English classes."

******************************

San Francisco: Evangelical Teens Rally

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/25/MNG6OHU6RR1.DTL

03-25-06

More than 25,000 evangelical Christian youth landed Friday in San Francisco for a two-day rally at AT&T Park against "the virtue terrorism" of popular culture, and they were greeted by an official city condemnation and a clutch of protesters who said their event amounted to a "fascist mega-pep rally."

That's bad news to Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who told counterprotesters at City Hall on Friday that while such fundamentalists may be small in number, "they're loud, they're obnoxious, they're disgusting, and they should get out of San Francisco."

******************************

San Bernardino won't fly American flag following protests

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3666428

04-03-06

When 5th Ward Councilman Chas Kelley saw student protesters waiving Mexican flags outside City Hall last week, he decided a little bit of Old Glory was needed.

Actually, make that a lot of Old Glory, in the form of a 30-by-22-foot American flag.

Early last week, Kelley urged city staff to drape the giant flag from the side of City Hall - the same flag hung there after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

It didn't happen.

******************************

English-only Petitions Nixed

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3663522

04-02-06

The initiative and recall process has been thrown into turmoil after a federal court ruled that petitions from grass-roots activists have to be translated into foreign languages.

Citizen groups argue the new requirement is a burdensome and expensive impediment to the petition process.

Others say it's only fair that all citizens, even those who don't speak English, have full access to information leading up to an election.

******************************

Flag's Meaning Is in the Eye of the Beholder

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-flag29mar29,1,6278721.story?coll=la-headlines-california

03-30-06

The Mexican flag has long been an issue in the immigration debate. For some, it represents pride and unity among Mexicans and Mexican Americans fighting for their rights. For others, it symbolizes an invasion of the United States by Mexicans.

******************************

Proposal could ease counties' voter-registration concerns

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/01/BAGANI1TS91.DTL

04-01-06

Faced with the possibility that tens of thousands of new California voters could be left off the rolls for the June primary election, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson announced plans on Friday to ease the state's tough new voter-registration requirements.

A story in Friday's Chronicle reported that more than 25 percent of the registrations turned in this year have been rejected by the state's brand-new voter-registration database, forcing county election officials to track down each individual and verify the information on the rejected voter card.

Most of the problems involved voters who had not included either their driver's license, state identification or Social Security number. Under current state rules, at least one of those numbers is needed so that the state can verify the identity of a would-be voter.

******************************

Jurupa student threatened with arrest if he protests

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3657344

03-31-06

MIRA LOMA - In response to recent student protests and walkouts against HR 4437, the House bill that proposes harsher penalties for illegal immigrants, a Jurupa Valley High School senior started making plans Monday to hold a pro-America rally on campus today.

"My original purpose was just to have a rally to support America, to wave flags and tell (the House of Representatives) that there are people out there that believe in what they're doing,'' said 17-year-old Josh Denhalter.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

April 10th, 2006, 09:28 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

April 10, 2006

Another “Through the Looking Glass” Week

I know this happens every year in the Legislature, and sometimes I think that those who read my weekly discussion on Sacramento must get bored that I keep saying the same things over and over.

Then I realize, the news media does not report these events. In fact, I think that people wouldn’t believe it if the newspaper or television did report it. As I walk through the halls of the Capitol, I feel a little like Alice as she walked through Wonderland. I know I have seen a number of the white rabbits (who are always looking at their watch, and claiming to be late), and I am certain that several of my colleagues will fit the description of the Mad Hatter. At least one of the committee chairs fits the description of the Queen (off with their heads), and I won’t tell you who I think fits the description of the King.

All that said, this week the Legislature began its hearings on a number of bills attempting to change the law in this state. We have been in session since January, and began introducing legislation since then. We only started hearings this week.

I have to say that I disagree with how we do our job. Each legislator introduces a bill which, more often than not, makes a small, technical change in one section of the over 50 volumes of laws (each volume is at least 500 pages). The legislative committee looks at that one bill. The interest groups and the public each come before the committee and comment on the bill. Extensive lobbying, letter writing, and telephone calling are focused on the bill. Then the committee makes a decision on that bill, usually without reference to how that bill impacts the rest of the code.

The Legislature will consider about 2,500 bills per year. Interestingly enough, each committee will sit dormant for about 3 months, and then will consider their entire calendar of bills in just 3 weeks. As a result, each bill will only get about 10 minutes of discussion. That means that proponents and opponents get about 3 minutes each to say why they like or don’t like the bill, and the Legislator usually gets about 4 minutes to say why he or she introduced the bill. The committee then gets to ask questions, which are usually interrupted by the committee chair constantly reminding everyone that the committee has a long calendar, and, if everyone keeps asking questions, the committee will be there all night. Being human, the members of the committee usually want to get out of the meeting.

I put up a bill this week which would require anyone convicted of drunk driving more than once to put a red license plate on any car he or she drives to identify him or her as a potential traffic hazard. More than 1,400 people were killed last year from drunk drivers (up 38 percent from just three years ago) and over 30,000 people were arrested on a multiple offense. I thought this might be one small measure that might save lives.

I had 20 people who wanted to tell the committee about the pain and loss they have suffered as a result of drunk driving. The committee chair only allowed one victim to speak. I was given 5 minutes to make the case for my bill. When I tried to negotiate on behalf of my bill, I was cut off and told that I had had my chance to speak. This is what constitutes discussion and debate in Sacramento.

You may or may not like my bill. That is not the point. The process is broken. It is one of the reasons why Sacramento has literally passed through the looking glass.

******************************

Being Christian and Gay Aren't at Odds, Group Says

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ride5apr05,1,6529372.story?coll=la-headlines-california

04-06-06

The 15 young adults stepped onto the campus of Riverside's California Baptist University on Tuesday expecting some conflict.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, they wanted to challenge students' ways of thinking about sexual orientation. They wanted to tell the school's possibly closeted students that God loved them, and that being gay and Christian was not a contradiction.

******************************

Immigration Reform: Q & A with Assemblyman Ray Haynes

http://www.policytoday.com/toc.asp

04-05-06

Policy Today talks to Ray Haynes, vice-chair of California’s Assembly Human Services Committee and chairman of last year’s California Border Police Initiative, about the social and economic implications of U.S. immigration policy.

******************************

Republican Leader Rejects Guest Worker Plan

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-04-09T160015Z_01_N09270875_RTRIDST_0_CONGRESS-IMMIGRATION.XML

04-09-06

U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader John Boehner on Sunday rejected efforts to establish a guest worker program in the United States, despite calls from U.S. President George W. Bush to make provisions for millions of current illegal immigrants. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said he supported a bill already passed by the House that focuses on tightening up the nation's borders but does not include a program for temporary workers.

"You can't begin to talk about a guest worker bill until you secure the borders," he said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" program. Otherwise, he said, "We're going to have an endless parade of illegal immigrants here in our country."

******************************

Alarming Rise in Rural Thefts

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060407/NEWS01/604070346/1001

04-07-06

Siphoned gasoline. Radiators ripped from underneath tractors. Trash-littered levees. Leisha Robertson can name a dozen crimes that have caused her and fellow Delta farmers headaches over the past couple of months.

Rural thefts are on the rise in the Delta region, spurred at least in part by higher fuel prices and the lucrative value of scrap metal, according to the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office.

******************************

Flag ban spurs debate over student free speech

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/04/05/news/top_stories/11_28_064_4_06.txt

04-05-06

The Oceanside Unified School District's decision to prohibit students from bringing flags to school in the aftermath of last week's protests over proposed illegal immigration legislation has spawned questions about whether the district is violating students' rights to free speech.

******************************

Only rich need apply

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/elections/14267405.htm

04-05-06

After decades of wealthy and wealthier candidates running for governor, voters may this year glimpse the future of California politics: Mega-millionaires -- perhaps only mega-millionaires -- cracking open their checkbooks for a chance to run the Golden State.

California has had its share of the rich running for office, but never quite like this year's governor's race, in which all three major candidates have amassed personal fortunes.

******************************

Assembly panel approves divorce secrecy bill

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/05/BAGAAI3JQV1.DTL

04-05-06

An Assembly committee approved a bill Tuesday that could restrict public access to divorce records but stripped out a provision that would have given one spouse the power to keep financial information under court seal.

Opponents of the bill -- which include judges, First Amendment advocates and newspaper groups -- say the bill is designed to help Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle in his divorce. Burkle has been a generous contributor to political campaigns.

******************************

Bill would void parking citations if street not brushed

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/05/BAGAAI3JR11.DTL

04-05-06

Drivers cited for parking illegally on street-cleaning day could tear up their tickets if cities couldn't prove the street was actually swept under a new bill pending in the state Senate.

A boon to drivers and a burden to cities, the measure would have sharply different effects depending on the city.

******************************

High school student: Ban MEChA

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3669573

04-04-06

Jurupa Valley High School senior Josh Denhalter asked the school board to remove MEChA student groups from all campuses in the district Monday. "I don't think our school board should promote or allow a program on our campuses that promotes or advocates violence against America," Denhalter said.

******************************

1 of 2 GOP Hopefuls Gets Boost in O.C. State Senate Campaign http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ocsenate4apr04,1,3338054,print.story?coll=la-headlines-california

04-04-06

Two powerful Sacramento interest groups have weighed in to help Assemblyman Tom Harman win an Orange County state Senate seat next week.

The union representing the state's prison guards kicked in nearly $90,000 in recent days toward campaign mail praising Harman over the other Republican in the April 11 race for the 35th District seat, Dana Point Councilwoman Diane Harkey.

The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, another past supporter of Harman, spent $75,000 on campaign brochures critical of Harkey.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

April 20th, 2006, 09:17 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

April 17, 2006

JUST WHAT ABOUT ILLEGAL

DO THEY NOT UNDERSTAND?

Sonny Bono, in the fight over Proposition 187 (the 1994 initiative that would have rescinded welfare benefits for illegal aliens) had the best line about the debate over illegal immigration. Many charges were tossed back and forth about the initiative and the motivation of its sponsors. The response of the future Congressman to those charges was always: “What is it about illegal that they don’t understand?”

Exactly!

Like many others, I watched television as the protestors waved their Mexican flags, then changed those flags to American flags, then yelled “Si Se Puede,” then yelled “Yes, We Can,” then demanded the same rights as American citizens, then said they were Americans.

Well, no, they are not. When someone breaks the laws of this country to enter it, for whatever reason, whether it is to work, or obtain free medical care, free food, welfare, a driver’s license, and reduced college tuition, they are still not Americans. We have a legally mandated process, established after years of debate, negotiations, arguments, social consensus, and legal maneuverings to determine how someone becomes a citizen. Until someone follows that process, they are not Americans, not entitled to become Americans, not entitled to claim to be Americans, and not entitled to the rights of Americans.

We are a very generous country. We allow more people than any other country in the world to come into our country legally, stay, and become naturalized citizens. We are second to none in welcoming people from all cultures to join us in the world’s common quest to extend representative government and individual liberty throughout the world. We don’t even really ask that much of people to go through the process. It may take some time, and it is usually stuck in the inevitable bureaucracy, but once someone has completed the process, they are Americans. In France, you can move to France, but you never become French. You can move to China, but you will never become Chinese. If you follow a few simple steps, you can move to the United States and become an American.

One of those steps is not sneaking through the fence, avoiding the law for ten years, receiving thousands of dollars in government aid, and then demanding amnesty for your illegal behavior. Yet, at this time, thousands of people throughout this country are demanding that we make that a legitimate way of becoming an American citizen. In essence, they want to profit from their illegal behavior.

That is just not right. Go home, follow the law, come here legally, and we will welcome you with open arms. Break our laws, and we will be justifiably outraged by your behavior. That is how it is, and how it ought to be.

I tried to qualify the California Border Police last year to do one simple thing—enforce federal immigration law, mainly because the federal government was refusing to do so. It sparked a national debate on the question of enforcement, and we are seeing that debate play itself out in Washington today. Enforcement of the law is the right thing to do. If we find that the law doesn’t work, that we need a larger labor pool, then we debate the best way to accomplish that goal. But, if we don’t enforce the laws we have now, it won’t matter what laws we have in the future. We will still fail to have an immigration policy.

The first thing that makes anyone a good American is their ability to follow the law. That is all anyone is asking these protestors to do. It is not that hard, and, if they do it, we will all be their good friends and neighbors.

******************************

Graying but staying

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3696256

04-11-06

Growing numbers of Los Angeles city government workers are staying on the payroll longer to reap richer benefits and job security, sending the average age soaring to 46, with potentially far-reaching impacts on pension costs and the future of city management.

Since 1988, the average city employee's age has risen from 41.2 to 45.6 years, records show. And that typical worker is staying on the job longer - up from less than 10 years in 1988 to 12 years now - with an average annual salary of $58,146.

The confluence of factors, including turnover of just 2.5 percent, has sent city salary costs soaring to $2.8 billion and pensions to $600 million.

******************************

Inmate screening to focus on legal status

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sheriff12apr12,1,4919841.story?coll=la-headlines-california

04-12-06

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to crack down on illegal immigrants by allowing sheriff's deputies to screen jail inmates to determine their immigration status, a policy already in place in two neighboring counties.

Under the new program, specially trained deputies will identify illegal immigrants when they are booked in county jail and release them to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation when their sentences are complete.

******************************

First virtual high school for the gifted

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/14323350.htm

04-12-06

Stanford University's Education Program for Gifted Youth is taking the next logical step: launching what is believed to be the nation's first online high school for gifted students.

The virtual high school will offer a full standard curriculum -- and more -- for students in 10th through 12th grades, leading to a high school diploma.

The only restrictions? Students will have to prove their intellectual prowess -- and come up with the tuition of about $12,000 a year. Applications are being accepted later this month, classes will begin in the fall.

******************************

Leaving town to cut costs

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060413/news_1b13olhausen.html

04-13-06

Olhausen Billiards, which has built pool tables in San Diego County since 1973, is moving its Poway factory to Tennessee to save on trucking costs and to better compete against cheap imports.

The company said yesterday that it will close its 128,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on Kirkham Court in July or August, leaving about 120 workers out of jobs. About 75 other employees, most of them in supervisory and executive positions, plan to relocate with the company.

******************************

Peripheral canal plan resurfaces

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/14332341.htm

04-13-06

The Delta has degraded so badly that it is time to consider building a highly controversial canal to protect water supplies, a Bay Area legislator says.

State Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, has offered legislation that for the first time in more than 20 years asks state lawmakers to consider a version of the Peripheral Canal.

"It's the Peripheral Canal. It's the death knell for the Delta. It's just a water grab," said Dante John Nomellini Sr., manager and counsel for the Central Delta Water Agency.

******************************

How much time should prosecutors have?

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/state/article_1101146.php

04-14-06

Spitzer's bill, AB 2088, would eliminate the three-year statute of limitations on accessory to murder, making it like murder itself – a crime with penalties, no matter how much time has passed. The assemblyman touts it as fair and just.

But the bill's real power, prosecutors say, is in the kind of leverage it would give law enforcement with suspects. And that's precisely what might get it killed.

******************************

First 5 panel seeks missing funds

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14243161p-15062046c.html

04-14-06

A public relations company the state hired to wage a controversial $23 million preschool ad campaign sued another firm Thursday, claiming it misappropriated $2.8 million in tax dollars intended to be used for the media campaign.

GMMB Inc., the politically connected public relations firm First 5 California hired to run the ad campaign, said in its lawsuit that it hired Durazo Communications Inc. to help with Spanish-language media buys.

GMMB claims in its lawsuit that Durazo now admits that $2.8 million of the state money it transferred to Durazo is missing.

******************************

Guilty of “Crossing While Elderly”

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez15apr15,1,814008.column?coll=la-headlines-california

04-15-06

I don't use a cane, which gave me a clear advantage.

The challenge? Trying to cross the street where 82-year-old Mayvis Coyle got a $114 jaywalking ticket from an overeager LAPD crime-buster for not making it across in time.

This is the first ticket I ever got in my life," an angry and crusading Coyle told The Times. She wants the "Walk" signal changed to allow more time for pedestrians. "I think people can see I'm being sincere. I'm speaking for all those seniors who can't get across the street."

******************************

Eminent domain and private property

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-eminent16apr16,1,6000890.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

04-16-06

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling that local governments could seize private property and hand it over to developers has set off a landslide of legislation in statehouses around the country.

Since the court expanded the definition of eminent domain in June in Kelo vs. City of New London, lawmakers in 47 states have introduced more than 325 measures to protect private property.

As many Democrats as Republicans have written these bills and constitutional amendments, sometimes moved by their own situations, such as fear that their aging parents' homes might be targeted.

******************************

Mexican aliens seek to retake ‘stolen’ land

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060416-122222-1672r.htm

04-16-06

La reconquista, a radical movement calling for Mexico to "reconquer" America's Southwest, has stepped out of the shadows at recent immigration-reform protests nationwide as marchers held signs saying, "Uncle Sam Stole Our Land!" and waved Mexico's flag.

Even as organizers urged marchers to display U.S. flags, the theme of reclaiming "stolen" land remained strong. One popular banner read: "If you think I'm illegal because I'm a Mexican, learn the true history because I'm in my homeland."

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

April 24th, 2006, 09:42 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

April 24, 2006

A Budget Out Of Control

I have refrained from commenting on California’s budget because it is still uncertain exactly what is going to happen in this year’s budget debate. This, however, is what we know up to this point in time.

Last year, the Legislature approved, and the Governor signed, a budget that increased state spending by $11 billion.

The government employee unions complained that it wasn’t enough.

This year, the Governor proposed a budget that increased spending by an additional $7 billion.

The government employee unions are complaining that it is not enough.

The Governor’s budget spends $6 billion more than projected revenue.

The government employee unions complain that it isn’t enough.

In 1999, then-Governor Gray Davis proposed increasing spending by $9 billion. That was the largest spending increase in the history of the state of California, until 2000, when Gray Davis increased spending by $12 billion.

Last year’s spending increase was the second largest in California’s history. This year’s proposed increase is the same as the one in Davis’ first term. Unfortunately, Governor Schwarzenegger looks like he is making the same mistakes as Gray Davis. The only problem with his strategy is that if the budget collapses like it did during the Davis years, then the resulting budget deficit will be the Republican’s fault. In 1999-2001, Republicans could rightfully complain that the state’s budget woes were entirely Democrat’s fault. If Schwarzenegger’s plan is fully implemented, Republicans will lose that argument. Schwarzenegger’s spending plan is at least as bad as the spending plans proposed by Gray Davis, and, in my opinion, will lead to the same bad outcome if the economy should slow down (as it inevitably will).

The good news is that the Assembly Republicans have decided to say no to Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger said he wants to spend $7 billion more than the state receives in revenue. The Assembly Republicans said no, the state should only spend what it takes in.

Schwarzenegger said he wants to expand government as fast as Gray Davis. The Assembly Republicans said no, they want to slow down the growth of government.

The Schwarzenegger budget did not resolve the state’s debt issues, particularly the $15 billion debt that Gray Davis created. The Assembly Republicans said they want to make sure that debt is paid, before we spend another dime in new state programs.

The Schwarzenegger budget does not seek to resolve the growing government pension problem. The state’s Legislative Analyst Office recently reported that the state is facing a $40 to $70 billion problem because it has not funded state retiree health benefits adequately. According to the LAO, it will take $6 billion a year to adequately fund these former state employee benefits. Assembly Republicans say the state budget must resolve this impending crisis.

The good news is that when the state goes bankrupt, I won’t be in the Legislature. The bad news is that the state will go bankrupt if it continues to follow this course. But if the Governor listens to Assembly Republicans, he will avoid bankruptcy. The government employee unions will continue to complain. Who will the Governor listen to, Assembly Republicans or the unions? Only time will tell.

******************************

California Has Big Stake In Struggle Over Immigration Reform

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/14243957p-15062611c.html

04-17-06

Foreign immigration - legal and illegal - is the single most important factor in shaping California's cultural, economic and political future. That gives the state a vital stake in the raging national debate over immigration reform. Although exact numbers are impossible to pin down, California clearly attracts more immigrants than any other state, approximately 300,000 a year, and they and their offspring, another 300,000 a year, constitute all of the state's net population growth.

******************************

Having It Both Ways On Global Warming

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/columns/article_1103562.php

04-17-06

Just as a gallon of gasoline hits $3 in many parts of California, the Schwarzenegger administration is touting a report that calls for those prices to go higher, thanks to a proposed new tax - supporters euphemistically call it "a public goods charge" - that would fund a new state bureaucracy designed to combat global warming. The proposal comes from the Schwarzenegger-appointed Climate Action Team, which last week released a detailed report on ways that California can battle the latest environmental Chicken Little fad, namely global warming.

******************************

High School Isn’t Only Path To College

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/14356033.htm

04-17-06

Here is the reality of public education in California: For every 10 students who start high school, fewer than seven will graduate. Fewer than four will go to college. Fewer than three will still be enrolled in college in the second year. Fewer than two -- 1.9 to be exact -- will get an associate or bachelor's degree close to on time. The numbers are even bleaker for Latinos and African-Americans.

******************************

Income Taxes Generate Ever-More Revenues, But Deficits Persist

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/14244534p-15063013c.html

04-18-06

As Monday's deadline for filing income tax returns passed, state officials eagerly anticipated a bumper crop of revenues - but it won't be enough to solve California's chronic budget crisis. The state has been running deficits for the past half-decade, thanks to a shortsighted political decision in 2000 to squander most of a one-time income tax windfall on permanent tax cuts and spending. Since then, the state's economy has been remarkably healthy, generating tens of billions of additional dollars.

******************************

Senate Panel Backs Driver’s License Measure

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060419/news_1n19license.html

04-18-06

Sen. Gil Cedillo's maneuvering to broaden the appeal of his ongoing campaign to grant undocumented immigrants the legal right to drive may cost him traditional allies. The Senate Transportation Committee yesterday approved his bill on a 7-3 vote amid the backdrop of recent massive immigrant rights rallies and a planned boycott of stores and jobs May 1. The bill, SB 1160, is designed to give illegal immigrants the opportunity to apply for a clearly distinguishable document that could only be used as a certificate to drive – not for identification.

******************************

Housing, Not More Planning, Is Needed

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_1107646.php

04-24-06

Legislation introduced in the state Senate captures the nature of the Legislature in a nutshell. SB1800, co-sponsored by Sens. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, and Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, identifies a serious problem, misses the obvious solution then goes on to propose a government-heavy approach that will only make things worse. In this case, the senators recognize that local cities often are hostile to the construction of housing, especially lower-cost housing.

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Bonds Bonanza

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_3720939

04-18-06

Seldom does an election pass in Los Angeles without politicians devising at least one more compelling reason why we should give them a little more money, and let them mortgage our future with one more loan. We've been asked to swallow higher property-tax bills and more debt for any number of causes: building new schools, fixing old ones, jails, police stations, libraries, animal shelters, zoos, community colleges - the list is dizzying.

******************************

Bill Would Include Gays In Public School Texts

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/16/BAGHLIA0M41.DTL

04-17-06

A proposal to require California public school textbooks to include gay and lesbian history is a top priority of the Legislature's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Caucus, but opponents say it would indoctrinate students. The bill is garnering national attention because California makes up roughly 12 percent of the nation's textbook market, though major publishers said they produce national editions for other states so the law won't force kids elsewhere to learn about Harvey Milk or gay pride.

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Jessica’s Law Qualifies For November Vote

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20060418-1249-bn18jesslaw.html

04-18-06

Jessica's Law, a measure that would impose stricter laws on sexual predators, has officially qualified to be put on the state's November ballot, backers and officials said Tuesday. The Sexual Predator and Punishment Act of 2006, commonly known as Jessica's Law, qualified with far more signatures than necessary. San Diego County offered the second highest number of signatures – 143,510 – of the 700,000 or so submitted to the Secretary of State's Office, according to Southern Californians for Jessica's Law.

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Infrastructure Talks Still Miss The Point

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/abox/article_1112472.php

04-21-06

California infrastructure reform in the Legislature still is driving the wrong way down the interstate. But at least it's going at a much slower, less alarming pace. Democratic and Republican leaders in the Capitol are working toward a $30 billion compromise package. That's much less than the $72 billion that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier this year was pushing them to put on the June primary ballot, but which fizzled in early March after Democrats larded it with massive pork for "resource protection," parks and mass transit.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

May 1st, 2006, 09:08 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

May 1, 2006

I am doing a weekly IPod Broadcast which is

available on my website. I would

encourage you to visit my website and listen in

http://republican.assembly.ca.gov/members/index.asp?Dist=66&lang=1

Scroll down to Sound Clips, This Week In Sacramento and click on “Listen”

The Real Price Gougers

Do you want to reduce the price of gasoline by almost 60 cents a gallon immediately?

Get the real price gougers. They take nearly 60 cents of every $3.00 gallon of gas. They should pay the windfall profits tax. They should be investigated. What are they doing with this money? How is it being spent? How are they ripping off the gasoline consumer?

They manipulate the market in oil. They withhold large amounts of the oil supply from the public, artificially reducing the supply so that the price of gasoline continually goes up. They prohibit the refining of oil, and, in fact, add useless, polluting chemicals to gasoline (claiming that it makes the air cleaner), which also artificially increases the price of gasoline. In fact, they profit from their activities at the expense of consumers everywhere. They gouge consumers, take home exorbitant salaries from their price gouging practices, and do absolutely nothing for the gas consuming public. They take the food from the table of the hardworking people of this state and country to satisfy their appetite for the big bucks they make from big oil.

How have these gougers avoided investigation so long? They blame others for the high price of gasoline. They use their public relations mechanisms to manipulate the press into shifting the blame from themselves to powerless scapegoats, and keep the flow of big bucks headed into their pockets from the pockets of working families.

Who are these gougers? They are the politicians and bureaucrats in the state and federal governments. Federal taxes take 18.4 cents of every gallon of gas. State gas tax is 18 cents a gallon. The state sales tax adds 22 cents to every $3.00 gallon of gas. Of course, the amount of sales tax goes up as the price of gas increases. Add these together, and the consumer pays 58.4 cents to the government for every $3.00 gallon of gas. These taxes don’t include the income taxes paid by oil companies, which last year was over $108 billion to the federal government alone.

And what does the consumer get for this price gouging? Nothing. Government tells us they collect the tax to build roads and freeways, yet the freeways are overcrowded and the roads are crumbling. All the consumer gets is bigger government, and useless studies. Lots of government bureaucrats make six figure incomes from the gas tax to do absolutely nothing. Billions of dollars a year flow to these useless government executives and politicians, and they use these billions to line their own pockets and increase their power.

In addition, these same politicians purposefully place some oil of limits, artificially limiting the supply, increasing the price of gasoline, and shifting more of our national wealth to the terrorist nations in the Middle East. The United States has over 200 years of known oil reserves that no one can touch because the government won’t let them. Add to this the fact that the government won’t let anyone expand the refining capacity in this country, and mandates the inclusion of artificial chemicals to gasoline that can pollute our water, and the result is constantly-rising gas prices at the pump.

On average, only 30 cents of every gallon of gas flows to the oil companies, yet politicians, and their allies in the press, accuse oil executives of gouging consumers. One politician in Sacramento wanted to assess a windfall profits tax on these oil companies this week, claiming that oil companies were ripping off consumers. This same politician did not once mention that government makes double the amount that oil companies make off the same gallon of gas on sales and gas taxes alone. The press dutifully reported his scapegoat tactics, never once investigating him for his consumer rip off.

Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric. The real price gouger in the oil industry is government.

******************************

Calif. Beats April Tax Collection Estimate By $1.5 Billion

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20060427-1517-ca-taxwindfall.html

04-28-06

The state has collected $1.5 billion more in income taxes for the month of April than the Schwarzenegger administration expected, leading to a heated debate about how to spend the windfall. The state had collected $9.7 billion for the month as of Wednesday, with two more days to count returns. On Wednesday alone, $1.65 billion flowed into state coffers, which budget officials said is among the highest one-day totals in state history.

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Phone Companies Vs. Cable Companies – An Old-Fashioned Duel

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/walters/story/14247439p-15065068c.html

04-24-06

There's nothing those in the Capitol like better than a full-blown, high-dollar duel between two powerful interest groups with billions of dollars at stake. Politicians' campaign treasuries get fatter, lobbyists' incomes spike, and media consultants find themselves in demand when big money collides with big money, so the Capitol historically sees such instances as win-win.

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As Contract Talks Near, Pay Survey Guides State\http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14246895p-15064667c.html

04-24-06

Custodians, accountants and electricians working for the state of California are making more in salary and total compensation than their counterparts in the private sector, but less than those on other government payrolls. State medical workers and auditors, on the other hand, get less than they would in either the private sector or elsewhere in the public sector. But they can console themselves with this: A career state employee will get $494,000 worth of health benefits in 20 years of retirement.

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Good News In These UC Numbers

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/14246863p-15064651c.html

04-24-06

The University of California is in the midst of a historic transformation. Its student body is growing more ethnically and economically diverse as it admits more students than ever. For next year, the university has offered a slot to every California high school graduate who applied and met the system's minimum requirements for admission. You'd never know that, though, from walking the halls of California's Capitol or listening to the state's political campaigns.

******************************

Mandatory Health Insurance

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/abox/article_1119696.php

04-27-06

The Democratic majority in the California Legislature is making another stab at injecting socialized medicine into California's health care system. It was just over 18 months ago that voters rejected Proposition 72, which would have mandated that employers with 50 or more employees provide health insurance. The newest scheme is AB1952, by Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael. It would mandate, in the bill's language, that each Californian must "demonstrate on an annual basis that he or she has health care coverage" or be forced to pay "a civil penalty for failure to comply with this requirement."

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Californians Like More Tests In Their Schools

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/27/MNG52IG4M11.DTL

04-27-06

A vast majority of Californians support not only the state's controversial high school exit exam but also the idea of requiring all students to pass a test before advancing to the next grade level, a new poll shows. Although no such idea is in the works at the moment, 72 percent of Californians surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California said they would support such a test for all 12 grades.

******************************

Bill To Let Landlords Reject Sex Offenders

http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/14247518p-15065110c.html

04-25-06

Thousands of California apartment owners would gain the right to ask prospective tenants if they are registered sex offenders - and then deny them apartments - under a bill receiving its first hearing in the Legislature today. The proposal also allows landlords to evict tenants for misrepresentation if they aren't truthful. The bill follows a failed attempt by landlords in January to win similar rights in a state with an estimated 66,000 registered sex offenders.

******************************

States’ Voices In Immigration

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/abox/article_1118406.php

04-26-06

While Congress debates a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill in Washington, states across the nation have been hammering out legislation of their own. Legislators in 43 states introduced 419 bills on immigration between Jan. 1 and April 21, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. That surpassed the number of state bills proposed during all of 2005, said Ann Morse, director of NCSL's Immigration Policy Project.

******************************

Oregon Supreme Court Upholds Law Protecting Property Rights

Published In: Environment News, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18777

04-01-06

The Oregon Supreme Court on February 21 unanimously upheld Measure 37, a property rights protection act approved by voters in the 2004 election, determining it does not violate the Oregon Constitution. The Marion County Circuit Court had earlier ruled the measure unconstitutional. In November 2004, Measure 37 passed with 61 percent of the vote (1,054,589 to 685,079). It provided that an owner of private property could seek just compensation if a government regulation--whether from a municipal service district, city, county, or state agency--was established that would reduce the fair market value of the land. Previously, compensation was required only if a government action took a person's property in its entirety.

******************************

Looking Tough

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060425/news_lz1ed25bottom.html

04-25-06

As inevitably as television cameras attract politicians, rising gasoline prices have moved some lawmakers to call for steep new taxes on the “windfall profits” of oil companies. This is a terrible idea that would hurt consumers – both immediately, as oil companies would simply increase pump prices to make up for the new tax, and also over many years, as fewer exploration firms would bother to look for new supplies, thus ensuring future spasms of outrageous prices.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

dec5

May 8th, 2006, 04:40 PM

:lol Corbon.......thanks.......:)

You are always faithful in posting here..;)

Corbon91

May 9th, 2006, 09:50 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

May 8, 2006

It’s All About The Documents

Everything we do in life is about the documents. We are born, we live, and we die with documents attached to us. So whenever you here someone claim that something is not wrong, it is just “undocumented,” keep that in mind.

For instance, in California, if you practice law without the appropriate documentation twice, you are guilty of a felony. Would it be a defense to that felony charge that you are not a felon, but rather just an undocumented lawyer?

How about the unauthorized practice of medicine? If someone dies, and you don’t have the right medical documents, you are guilty of murder. It is not just the “undocumented” provision of medical services.

Unlicensed contractors? Just undocumented carpenters, bricklayers, engineers, plumbers, and electricians.

We even have documents that establish our ownership of our property. Car thieves are car thieves, not undocumented motor vehicle operators. Trespassers are trespassers, not undocumented easement holders. If you take property from a store without a receipt, you are a thief, not an undocumented possessor of property

Businesses require the right licenses from government. Indeed, if someone starts up a bank and does not get a license from the state and federal government will find that they will go to jail for being an “undocumented” money lender or “undocumented” savings institution. It is not a defense to their crime to say that they don’t “have the right documents.”

One of my favorites came from one of my legislative colleagues this last week, when informed that the Democrats wanted to take last Monday off to participate in the immigration protests. He said he had found former legislators who were qualified to do the job of the California Legislature, were willing to do the work of the current Legislature at half the cost to the taxpayer, and would show up to do the job. Their only problem? They were undocumented, they had not received the right documents from the Secretary of State to vote in the Legislature.

The absurdity of the claims of those who wish to justify the lawlessness of those who break our immigration laws by calling those illegal aliens “undocumented immigrants” is evident. Everything we do in life is about the documents. We get a birth certificate that establishes our citizenship, and a death certificate that establish inheritance rights. Deeds say who owns real estate, and contracts establish legal obligations. If we don’t have registration for our car, we can go to jail as a thief, or, at the very least get a ticket. In fact, we don’t even have laws unless some legislator gets a document passed through the Legislature and signed by the Governor. All of life requires the right “documents.”

The protests of this last week can be encapsulated this way: thousands of criminals wanted the government to ignore their crime. That reality is not changed by saying that they “are human and we need to recognize their humanity.” Of course we recognize their humanity; they just need to follow the law. We will not justify their lawlessness any more that we would justify the lawlessness of a trespasser or thief on the grounds that they “needed” the property they took. Marching in the street, protesting the enforcement of a law does not justify breaking that law. A legal system that rewards lawbreakers is destined to collapse into anarchy. Indeed, those who protested this last week were asking for anarchy; an open border and unlimited immigration. That is dangerous for our country (as 9/11 pointed out), and extremely shortsighted.

Our immigration laws may be complicated, but that does not justify ignoring them. We should enforce those laws, and, if the enforcement proves that the laws are unworkable, then you look at changing the law. But until that happens, the laws should stand, and they should be enforced.

******************************

Legislature Passes $37.5 Billion Bond Plan

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1131111.php

05-05-06

Californians will vote on four separate billion-dollar bond measures in November to rejuvenate schools, levees, roads and housing. Approved by the Assembly after 3:00 a.m. today following an earlier vote by the Senate, the $37.5 billion package is more modest than the $68 billion in borrowing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed in January, but nonetheless is biggest bond package in state history.

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Immigrants Are Driving State’s Population Boom

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14250336p-15067092c.html

05-02-06

By pure happenstance, on the day that hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets of California to demand rights for immigrants - however those rights may be defined - the state issued a new report on population growth that demonstrated anew that immigration accounts for virtually all of the state's human expansion. The Department of Finance's demographers calculated that as of Jan. 1, the state's population had reached 37.2 million, up 444,000 over the previous year and continuing California on a track to approach 40 million by 2010 - and 50 million by the late 2020s.

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No Correlation Between Spending, High School Graduation

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14250046p-15066865c.html

05-01-06

The bottom line for any public education system is - or at least should be - how many of its young charges actually make it through 12 years of school and obtain high school diplomas that represent basic levels of knowledge and skills. That may explain why, in the vast welter of test scores and other benchmarks, high school graduation rates are among the most difficult data to obtain.

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New Revenue Windfall Is Opportunity, Challenge

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/14250406p-15067128c.html

05-02-06

California's booming economy is pouring record levels of new tax receipts into the state's treasury, solving some problems for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger while promising to create others for the Republican chief executive. In the short-term, the news is all good for Schwarzenegger, who plans to present a revised budget on May 12 that increasingly confirms his view that the state could grow its way out of years of fiscal frustration without raising taxes.

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Senate Closes In On Bond Ballot Package

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/03/BAG2FIJFDI1.DTL

05-03-06

Lawmakers may vote this week on a bond package of more than $35 billion to relieve highway congestion, build new schools and shore up the state's deteriorating levees. A Senate vote on four public works bonds, which also includes money for emergency preparedness and affordable housing, could come Thursday. If the measures are approved by both houses of the Legislature, voters would have their say on the borrowing program in November.

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Still Dodging the Truth About Global Warming
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18988&CFID=7577037&CFTOKEN=74127291
05-04-06
A draft report from a working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was inadvertently made available on the Internet by a U.S. government committee.

The following comments about that draft can be attributed to James M. Taylor, managing editor of Environment & Climate News and senior fellow for The Heartland Institute

Global warming alarmism is in the air once again, complete with claims of "overwhelming evidence" showing human activity is responsible for global warming. Or maybe not.

A draft report from a working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was inadvertently made available on the Internet by a U.S. government committee. The IPCC--a political body created by the United Nations, not a scientific body--has been the source of false alarms before. Its new report appears to be no different.

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State Lawmakers Pushing Various Immigration Bills

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3777867

05-03-06

Even as national debate rages over illegal immigration, California legislators are weighing bills that take aim at the issue on fronts ranging from public benefits such as driver's licenses and in-state tuition rates to better investigation of the citizenship status of prisoners. Many of the bills are by Republican legislators looking to reduce public benefits to undocumented immigrants and investigate what they cost the state in resources and infrastructure.

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Intense Debate Surrounds Bill About Gays In Textbooks http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/state/article_1127886.php

05-04-06

Someday soon, school textbooks in California could be required to include a reference to someone like Bayard Rustin. Never heard of him? He was a colleague of Martin Luther King, Jr., a low-profile organizer largely forgotten for his behind-the-scenes role in the civil rights movement. But under a bill by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, which passed the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, Rustin would be of particular educational value because he was also gay.

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No On 82

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_05_ed_prop82new_3_elx.d362951 .html

05-05-06

California has enough fiscal strife without creating a new, multibillion-dollar-a-year universal preschool entitlement. We recommend voting no on Prop. 82 on the June 6 ballot. The initiative would raise income tax rates on wealthy Californians to provide $2.4 billion annually to fund free preschool for all 4-year-olds. That is not, as Prop. 82 proponents insist, a tiny, 1.7 percent tax increase; it is an increase of 1.7 percentage points that translates to an 18 percent increase in the tax rate.

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Low-Cost Auto Liability Insurance Sponsored By State Now Available

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060504/news_1b4insure.html

05-04-06

At least 165,000 drivers in San Diego County are uninsured, but some of them might qualify for new low-cost insurance sponsored by the state. Standing in front of a Department of Motor Vehicles office in Hillcrest yesterday, state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi introduced a program that would allow the county's low-income motorists with good driving records to get state-required liability coverage at an affordable price, in some cases as little as $268 a year.

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Lobbyists’ Gifts – Lavish But Legal

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/30/MNGJGII7BD1.DTL

05-01-06

Corporations and trade groups treated state lawmakers, their staffs and members of the governor's office to $940,000 in gifts last year that included rounds of golf at exclusive resorts, ski outings, hunting trips and seats to watch the Rolling Stones and WrestleMania, according to a Chronicle analysis. The largesse came as corruption scandals in Washington involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham rocked Congress and prompted calls for reform from across the nation.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

May 15th, 2006, 09:28 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

May 15, 2006

Why Our Schools Don’t Work

This last week, a judge in Oakland said he thought the state’s high school exit exam is flawed, because it failed to account for English language learners’ inability to read the test. That is, since the test requires that those with limited English skills take and pass the test in English, it discriminates against those students.

Never mind that, no matter where you go in this country, English language skills are an important part of success. Never mind that a student should be able to read the high school diploma they are receiving when they graduate. Insuring competence in basic skills is apparently not the goal of our schools. Insuring that absolutely no school policy offends any person in this state is the most critical thing to this judge.

And that is one of the reasons why the state’s schools don’t work.

This week, based on a judge’s decision, the exit exam got tossed out because of its alleged discriminatory effect. The one thing in our schools that would make sure students actually knew something before they graduated from school has been tossed aside in favor of some alleged antidiscrimination ethic. Learning is not the most important thing in schools; advancing some liberal social ethic is.

This leads us to SB 1437, which passed the state senate on Thursday. SB 1437 would require, yes require, schools to teach about the contributions of gays, lesbian, bisexuals and transsexuals in history. Honestly, I don’t know what transsexuals have done in history, but, if my kids go to public school, they will be forced to learn about it.

Let me be clear. We don’t require that they learn about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, any details of the Civil War, or just about anything else in history, but we are going to require that they learn about gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals. In fact, any book that says anything that might be interpreted as hostile to those groups would be banned from the classroom, and the textbooks that remain must go out of their way to mention their contributions.

Once again, the state senate, like the judge, has decided to emphasize a political agenda over a learning agenda. Quite frankly, a great person in history is great regardless of their sexual orientation. It really wouldn’t matter whether Thomas Jefferson had a sexual relationship with his slave, Sally Hemmings. His contributions to our history through the Declaration of Independence and the Louisiana Purchase occurred even though we don’t know who he slept with. It really doesn’t matter if Abraham Lincoln was gay or not (as homosexual activist groups have long tried to prove), his effort to abolish slavery in this country, and his work in preserving this country as a whole are a testament to his place in history no matter what they allege he did with his law partners at night when no one was looking.

We have a lot of problems in our schools. Our children are worried about their safety. We can’t seem to keep drugs out of the school. Sexual harassment, and in some cases molestations, seem to occur on a regular basis up and down the state. Our school buildings are crumbling, and we can’t fire incompetent teachers. Ten percent of the kids who enter school can’t prove they have an eighth grade level of knowledge when they graduate, and the judges and legislators are worried about discrimination and political correctness.

We give our schools $50-60 billion a year. Those that educate our children are supposed to make sure that our children know that two plus two equals four. One of the reason that they are failing at their jobs is because our political leaders are more worried about who is sleeping with whom than whether children can actually read a cereal box. We need to get our priorities straight.

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Late-Night Bondage

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_1131637.php

05-09-06

California badly needs infrastructure improvements, especially for transportation and levees. But last Thursday and Friday the Legislature drove down the wrong road when it rushed through affirmative votes to put four infrastructure bonds on the Nov. 7 ballot. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he would sign the authorization bills for the initiative.

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California History – What’s Sexual Preference Got To Do With It?

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/14252883p-15068913c.html

05-08-06

It is never a good sign when the California Legislature tries to micromanage what is in textbooks, especially the recounting of state history. When you see the signs, look for a contemporary political agenda. In this case, the agenda is the modern-day gay rights movement. SB 1437 proposes that new textbooks contain passages that view history from the perspective of our predecessors' sexual orientation.

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No On Prop. 82

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060508/news_mz1ed8top.html

05-18-06

Helping 4-year-olds prepare for more productive lives should be an easy sell. That's why it was no surprise that Proposition 82, the “free preschool for all” initiative, polled so well in surveys early this year and won so many endorsements. But something unusual has happened: The more that both the public and politicians have learned about the initiative, the less they like it. This reaction makes sense – because under scrutiny, the case for Proposition 82 falls apart.

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Sales Tax On Gasoline A Bonanza For State

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/11/MNGR8IPK9C1.DTL

05-11-06

Oil companies aren't the only ones raking in the money because of rising prices at the fuel pump. The coffers of state and local governments are seeing big gains as a result of increased revenue generated by the sales tax that consumers pay on gasoline. Sales tax receipts from the gas pumps in the fourth quarter of last year grew by nearly $100 million from the same period the year before, according to the latest figures available.

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Latest Front In Property-Rights Fight

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_1134374.php

05-09-06

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's Kelo v. City of New London (Conn.) decision last June, allowing a city to take private property in order to promote economic development, a backlash against eminent- domain abuse has been growing across the country. Advocates for eminent domain continue to insist that such reforms are not necessary because governments use eminent domain only in rare instances.

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Exit The Exam?

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060511/news_lz1ed11bottom.html

05-11-06

Mere weeks before high school graduations, Judge Robert Freedman of Alameda County Superior Court may stop before it starts the state's essential mandate that high school graduates score at least 60 percent on a test of eighth-grade math and 10th-grade English. Even that minimal requirement, measured by the math and English portions of the exit exam, would be out the window if Freedman orders that officials award diplomas to seniors who have passed their course work but failed one or both sections of the exam.

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Valley Plans For Dam Rise Again

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/12172993p-12917884c.html

05-12-06

Blocked in their push to get dam money in the $37 billion bond package, 10 Central Valley lawmakers are trying again. Those in the bipartisan group announced Thursday that they are preparing a bill that would place a dam bond on the November ballot. If passed, it would dedicate $1.2 billion in state money for a proposed dam at Temperance Flat and for restoration of the San Joaquin River. They are sure to face an uphill fight.

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http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18944

HSAs Proving Profitable for Employers

Written By: Benjamin Cutler, Health Care News, The Heartland Institute

05-01-06

USHEALTH Group is a small insurance company, with fewer than 200 employees, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. In March 2005, the company received a renewal notice from its group insurance carrier, UnitedHealthcare. USHEALTH had a traditional group health plan, with a $500 deductible and a $15 co-pay. Employees were pleased with their health insurance plan, which cost the firm $5,600 per employee, but they expected to get some bad news in United's renewal notice. The loss ratio for the past year was 103 percent, and the broker had warned them to expect a sizable rate increase. Loss ratios measure the relationship between the claims the insurer pays over the course of a year and the premiums paid by a policy group. Most insurers target loss ratios of 85 percent, leaving 15 percent of the premiums for profit and expenses. As expected, the renewal notice from United included a hefty 19 percent increase, resulting in a new per-employee cost of $6,600. In anticipation of that news, the company had requested an alternative quote from United for a high-deductible health savings account (HSA) qualified plan.

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With Extra $5 Billion, Governor Plans to Pay Debt, Aid Schools

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget10may10,1,4088526.story?coll=la-headlines-california

05-10-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to retire a large chunk of the state's debt and boost education funding with more than $5 billion in unexpected revenue from surging tax receipts, according to documents obtained by The Times. The governor will offer details on the windfall, and the plan for spending it, in a revised budget proposal on Friday. The billions he will propose returning to schools promise to help him end a bruising political battle that has dogged his administration.

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Toll Road Board Tries To Fight Back

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1138362.php

05-12-06

The agency trying to build an $875million extension of the Foothill (241) South Toll Road on Thursday blasted back at an Assembly subcommittee that aims to kill off the 16-mile link that would go through popular San Onofre State Beach. With a unanimous vote, the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency passed a resolution asking state lawmakers to let the local government decide what is best for the region.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

May 22nd, 2006, 09:19 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

May 22, 2006

Kelo Therapy

There is a cancer in the body politic of our country today. Simply stated, it is eminent domain abuse. More broadly, it is the effort of our federal, state and local governments to erode long-standing property rights in real estate. For most of the history of our country, people have believed that their home was their castle; that government could not just come in and take their property to give it to someone else, or devote it to some public use without paying for it. Yet that is what is happening throughout our country today. More recently, the Supreme Court of the United States sanctioned the practice of taking people’s homes, and giving them to a powerful developer, in the case Kelo v. City of New London.

Property rights are the keystone of liberty. To those who don’t believe that, ask this question: when was the last time you heard a developer criticize a city councilmember or county supervisor? It doesn’t happen. Why? Because that developer knows that the local officials can deprive him of the use of his or her land, sending that developer into bankruptcy. So, they sacrifice their freedom of speech to avoid bankruptcy. Some people may be willing to die in the defense of liberty, but very few will be willing to go bankrupt in that defense, because, if they go bankrupt, they still have to explain to their family why there is no food on the table.

The reason Kelo is a cancer is that it accelerates the loss of liberty. It lets the politically powerful take the homes and the land of those not so powerful to line the pockets of the powerful, using the power of government to accomplish this nefarious scheme. Like cancer, it needs to be removed by a legal “chemo-therapy,” a “Kelo”-therapy, if you will.

That Kelo-therapy is the “Protect Our Homes” Initiative. The initiative submitted over a million signatures this week to the Secretary of State’s office in order to be on the November ballot. It is highly likely it will get there.

What the initiative does is relatively simple. It provides that government cannot use eminent domain to take your land and give it to some private developer, and it may not use the law to diminish the value of your land to accomplish this purpose. The bottom line, it restores property rights to the people of the state of California. It performs Kelo-therapy on the cancer of eminent domain abuse, and the loss of liberty that has come from the loss of property rights in this state.

Defenders of government power, and the politically powerful, are likely to scream bloody murder at the thought of losing this tool which is very effective at lining their pockets. They will make up all sorts of reasons why they should still be able to take your land, take your home, or diminish the value of your real estate using the power of government. They will claim that the environment will be destroyed, women, children and senior citizens will die, and that we will be invaded by the Mongol hordes if “Protect Our Homes” passes. These things will not occur.

What will occur is that Californians will once again enjoy the right to use and enjoy the property they own without fear from some bureaucrat, politician, or influential political donor being able to take their land without their consent. They will once again be able to use land as a retirement nest egg or secure home without being invaded by hordes of bureaucrats. In other words, California will be in America again. Freedom and liberty will once again reign in the Golden State.

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Early Signs Point To A Smooth Budget

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14255874p-15071049c.html

05-16-06

Signaling a quick resolution to the state budget, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez said Monday that "we're very close" to a deal, and the nonpartisan legislative analyst congratulated Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for presenting a revised spending plan last week that contains "a number of positive features." Núñez, D-Los Angeles, said there are still a few disputes that separate him from the Republican governor, and Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill expressed some disagreement with Schwarzenegger's long-term debt repayment and school funding plans.

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Say No To Deficit Spending

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_1147448.php

05-19-06

The sad fact about the California state budget is that it's still spurting red ink – five years after the state's economy recovered from the dot-com-bust recession and 2- 1/2 years after Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor. The governor is right in pointing out that the debt is smaller than the $20 billion-plus gusher he inherited. But there's still no reason for his budget proposal for 2006-07, which he released May 12, to include a structural deficit of $4 billion.

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Schools Failed The Exit Exam

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/columns/article_1142777.php

05-16-06

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman struck down California's new high school exit exam last week, saying the test is unfair to students who have been shortchanged by substandard public schools. The attorney who filed the lawsuit, Arturo Gonzalez of the San Francisco law firm Morrison and Foerster, said, "There is overwhelming evidence that students throughout the state have not been taught the material on the test.

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A Rumble Over Property

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/opinion_columnists/article/0,1375,VCS_223_4703885,00.html

05-17-06

If you were too young or not around back then and you're tired of hearing old-timers talk about California's great political earthquake of 1978, maybe it's time to strap down the water heater. There's a new rumbling along the state's ballot-initiative fault line that, before it's over, could mimic the Proposition 13 quake of '78. Just as before, it involves private property.

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State's Credit Rating Gets 1st Boost in 2 Years

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-credit18may18,1,7365342.story?coll=la-headlines-california

05-18-06

California's credit rating rose Wednesday for the first time in nearly two years, signaling Wall Street's approval of the state's efforts to bring its chronic budget deficit under control. The upgrade from A to A+ by the rating agency Standard & Poor's moves California out of last place in the rankings to second-to-last — just ahead of Louisiana — and a safe distance from the near-junk bond status the state had in early 2004.

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End Run On Minimum Wage Issue

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14257156p-15071929c.html

05-19-06

Stymied in the Legislature, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday called on the all-but-moribund Industrial Welfare Commission to approve a $1 minimum wage increase, a move that had Democrats and Republicans accusing each other of playing politics with the working poor. In a petition submitted Thursday, Schwarzenegger asked the commission -- which the Legislature de-funded two years ago -- to take up his proposal for a two-step minimum wage increase that would raise the bottom-level pay scale from $6.75 to $7.75.

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Judge’s Ruling Flunks Out

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060517/OPED01/605170307

05-17-06

Complete this sentence: A Superior Court judge's ruling to suspend the California High School Exit Exam for 2006 graduates: a. Is unfair to the 450,000 seniors who've passed the test. b. Ignores a decade of improvement in the state's secondary education system. c. Admits defeat in trying to raise standards. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert B. Freedman decided Friday that he knows more than a former governor, the California Legislature, most educators, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and thousands of students who have labeled the exam - designed to test eighth-grade math and 10th-grade English skills - "easy."

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Sex Preference No Reason To Rewrite History

http://www.dailybulletin.com/opinions/ci_3826908

05-16-06

Students should not leave public high schools without learning of the Stonewall Riots, the murder of Harvey Milk, and the activist response to the AIDS crisis. Those watershed moments in gay history are milestones in American history, and schools that overlook them provide their students with incomplete educations. But state Senate Democrats went too far last week by passing a bill that would require social science textbooks sold in California to include the significant contributions of gay, bisexual and transgendered people.

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Strapped And Safe

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_18_ed_carseats3.1d430024.html

05-18-06

Car seats save children's lives. But at some point, government should leave parents to decide when their kids are grown enough to safely ride in the front seat. The state would do well to regulate child car-seat safety by height and weight, instead of passing a law banning all but teens and adults from riding shotgun. Better still, the state could eschew more meddling regulation and devote additional resources to educating parents about the risks of letting children ride up front.

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Delay Rapid Rail

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_17_ed_railbonds3.17f281e4.htm l

05-17-06

A high-speed passenger train system that whisks travelers around California offers futuristic appeal. But for now, the state has more immediate priorities, which is why the Legislature should again postpone a high-speed-rail bond measure. The Legislature initially approved the rail bond in 2002, to go on the ballot in 2004. But the state's dire finances prompted legislators to move the bond measure to the November 2006 ballot instead.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

May 30th, 2006, 09:45 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

May 30, 2006

Why I Boycotted President Fox

The President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, spoke to the California State Legislature on Thursday; this while the U.S. Senate was voting on an immigration bill. I chose not to go to the Fox speech. Since many people may misconstrue what occurred, I believe a statement explaining my actions is needed.

I have been in the Legislature for some time, and I have seen many heads of state pass through. The American Republic and its operations are fascinating to these foreign politicians, and addressing the California Legislature is often a high point in many dignitaries’ travels. Appropriate decorum dictates that we as Legislators be polite and treat these visitors with the respect their positions deserve.

However, most of these dignitaries are visiting our country to see it at work, and to talk with government officials to help their businesses trade with businesses in California, or to establish some sort of government to government relationship. They are not usually in this country, and in our state, to lobby Congress or the state for a change in policy.

President Fox’s trip had no other purpose. He was in this country addressing Legislative bodies for the sole purpose of trying to change U.S. immigration policy. He has continually complained about our policy, openly questioned the legality of Bush putting National Guard units on the border, and even complained when Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill which would have given California driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Throughout the last several years, he has encouraged his citizens to immigrate to this country illegally, and has, in many ways, benefited from that illegal immigration. When his citizens come to California, our taxpayers pick up their medical bills, pay for their education, food, clothing and housing. In return, these Mexican citizens usually take most of their earnings and send them back to Mexico. The relationship is all to Mexico’s benefit, and not much help to California.

So when President Fox came to California to promote amnesty for the Mexican nationals that have broken our laws, I found his presence here to be arrogant and offensive. Many of the Mexican citizens who come to the United States illegally are the “social problems” of Mexico. The corruption, the favoritism, the oppressive government has left many of these people in abject poverty, and, if they didn’t come to the United States, they would probably start a revolution in Mexico. Fox wants us to relieve the political tension that these social problems would cause.

So why should I sanction this visit? Why should I sit and listen to lies and propaganda meant to influence the legislative passage of a bill in Congress with which I vehemently disagree? We need to enforce our laws first, not listen to the President of Mexico ask us to pay for his social problems. He should go back to Mexico, fix his economy, fix his corrupt government, and quit sending us his social problems.

I couldn’t say that to him because he would not meet with us to hear these words. So I greeted him with silence. It wasn’t disrespectful. It was protest. It is how I would treat any lobbyist who was pushing me to do something I thought was wrong. More important, it was wrong of the leadership of the California Legislature to aid and abet his lobbying effort.

I wasn’t going to sanction it at any level, so I left, and encouraged others to do the same. It was the right thing to do.

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Legislature Faces Split In Pre-Election Season

Potential obstacles include legislation on gay history in textbooks, immigrant rights and sex predator laws

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/14646084.htm

05-23-06

Even as state lawmakers dive into what they're hoping is a relatively harmonious budget season, the Capitol's political landscape is littered with potential land mines that could make for an explosive buildup to the fall elections. Gay-friendly school textbooks. Driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. Sexual predator laws. Raising the minimum wage. Redrawing legislative boundaries. Public funding for elections. Those are just some of the looming legislative issues -- all pushed by majority Democrats -- that threaten to wipe away the collegiality that has reigned in the last several weeks when lawmakers worked out a deal to place infrastructure bonds on the November ballot and flush revenues made for few substantive disagreements when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled his revised May budget.

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Gay School Bill in Trouble

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14260132p-15074105c.html

05-25-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will veto a bill passed by the Senate and pending in the Assembly to revise California's school curriculum to include the contributions of gays and lesbians to the state and nation, a gubernatorial spokesman said Wednesday. "The governor believes that school curriculum should include all important historical figures, regardless of orientation," said Schwarzenegger's director of communications, Adam Mendelsohn. "However, he does not support the Legislature micromanaging curriculum."

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Assembly Joins Immigration Fray

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14259084p-15073357c.html

05-23-06

The state Assembly approved a resolution Monday urging the Congress and President Bush to reject criminalizing illegal immigrants and instead adopt Senate reform proposals that include a path to legal residency and citizenship. The resolution does not support "any type of blanket amnesty" but calls on Congress "to work through a comprehensive immigration reform package, one that produces meaningful and effective immigration laws," Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, who co-authored the resolution, said on the Assembly floor.

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State Must Take the Lead in Pension Reform

http://www.insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_3855383

05-23-06

GOV. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Department of Personnel Administration did the right thing recently by closing a loophole in pension regulations that enabled one-tenth of the Forestry Department's top firefighters to retire with pensions higher than their salaries. It was obscene to think that 20 of California's top fire officials in their 50s were able to leave their jobs with pensions amounting to as much as 115 percent of their salaries.

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Overhaul of Sex Predator Law Slows

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14258557p-15072962c.html

05-22-06

Despite legislators' vows earlier this year to quickly revamp how California handles its worst sexual offenders, the effort is moving slowly and, critics say, could even end up weakening the state's control over sexually violent predators. Lawmakers and prosecutors say there is still a good chance that reform legislation will be passed in the coming months, but there are sharp disagreements over how tough the new legislation will be.

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Justices Restore Exit Exam

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/14663564.htm

05-25-06

California's Supreme Court reinstated the high school exit exam as a diploma requirement Wednesday, less than two weeks after a trial court handed the Class of 2006 a free pass. But the drama isn't over yet for the estimated 47,000 students -- about 10 percent of the senior class -- caught up in an ongoing dispute over the exam's fairness. The Supreme Court sent the case to the state Court of Appeals, which it said was the appropriate forum to decide the question.

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Students Rank Second To Last Nationwide In Science

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_3863243

05-25-06

As the old education joke goes, thank goodness for Mississippi. Were it not for that Southern state, California would rank dead last nationally in science test scores — with 50 percent of its fourth-graders falling below basic achievement levels, according to national scores released Wednesday. In eighth-grade, California tied with Hawaii for second-to-last place, with Mississippi again pulling up the rear on what federal officials call the nation's report card.

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L.A. Mayor Resurrects Office to Assist Immigrants Regardless Of Status

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3857850

05-24-06

Angering groups backing a crackdown on illegal immigration, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will revive a city office that helps new arrivals to Los Angeles get municipal services and participate in civic life without regard to their legal status. The mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs has been inactive for a year but the Villaraigosa administration, noting more than 40 percent of the city's residents are foreign-born, said the service is needed to inform immigrants about city laws and how City Hall works.

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Flush These Two Laws

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/commentary/editorials/article_1151587.php

05-23-06

Is there no area of our lives so intimate, so personal that government doesn't want to regulate it? The latest invasion of privacy is an assault on cleanliness known as AB2496, by Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz. In the bill's language, it would mandate that "water closets and urinals have lower flush volumes, generally reducing toilets from 1.6 gallons per flush to 1.3, and urinals from 1.0 gallons per flush to 0.5 gallons per flush."

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State’s Traffic Woes May Hinder Ability to Deliver Goods to Ports

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060523/NEWS01/605230333/1001

05-23-06

Just as commuters depend on the highways to get to work, the California economy relies on truckers to deliver goods to the state's ports in time. State officials worry that growing traffic jams and a neglected transportation system will force shippers to reroute cargo to more-reliable West Coast ports in Washington and Oregon, said Sunne Wright McPeak, secretary of the state Department of Business, Housing and Transportation.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution

is permitted and encouraged!

Corbon91

June 5th, 2006, 09:30 PM

MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

June 5, 2006

32 Studies And 13 Commissions

This was a deadline week in the California Legislature. That means the Senate and Assembly worked to get bills out of their respective houses to “make new laws” for this year. As a believer in small government, that means I had absolutely no bills up for a vote this week.

But—the socialists in the Legislature did. In fact, the Assembly approved bills that would initiate 32 new studies, 13 new commissions, 4 new task forces, and a variety of new regulatory powers in government. We wanted to study everything from Asian food to flood plains, and we set up commissions to study everything from mental health to job creation. It is an axiom of government—nothing happens unless thousands of bureaucrats sit around in offices and think about it for extended periods of times, kill lots of trees to write thousands of reports, and announce to the world just how smart they are about whatever it is that they are studying. All in all, it is a waste of time and taxpayer money.

Two bills struck me particularly. AB 1899 by Lois Wolk, which would require the state to study flood plains, and prevent cities from building in areas where there is a chance that there might be a flood in the next 200 years. The other was AB 2378 by Noreen Evans which would prevent people who bought a house from keeping the equity in that home.

I believe in freedom. I believe that the government that governs least governs best. I believe that, as Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, that the purpose of government is to protect the right to life, liberty, and economic liberty (the so-called “pursuit of happiness”). I also know that if government does not protect property rights, political liberty is an illusion. No one will speak out against a government that threatens to take away their wealth or property.

Which brings us to the Wolk bill. Assemblywoman Wolk believes that, unless the state government stops people from building houses in areas that might flood in the next 200 years, people might be hurt. Of course, there aren’t many places in California that won’t flood sometime in the next 200 years. Which means that very few, if any; houses will be built in California if Ms Wolk’s bill actually passes. As a result, since people will still want to buy houses, and there will be no new houses, the price of existing houses will go through the roof.

Which brings us to Ms. Evans bill. That bill imposes price restrictions on the sale of houses. Houses cost too much, we are told, and government must control the price if people are going to be able to buy them.

So, on the one hand, one bill prohibits houses from being built, and, on the other, when economics takes over and increases the price of existing houses, government will control the price of those houses, and prevent people from profiting “too much” from the housing shortage created by foolish government regulations.

We study whether or not we need new regulations, pass the new regulations the studies say we need, and then wonder why our economy is falling apart, as the new regulations make it impossible for business to satisfy our basic needs. Housing costs too much because government has made it impossible to build new housing, and then, to control the byproduct of excessive government regulation, government creates new government regulations.

I really don’t think Californians realize how close we are to the Soviet socialism that caused its government to collapse. Unfortunately, neither does the California Legislature.

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Limit New Spending, Says Governor

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14262639p-15075860c.html

06-01-06

As lawmakers Wednesday began the final phase of drafting a state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urged self-discipline. In a speech to students at California State University, Sacramento, the governor cautioned against saddling California with new costs that it might not be able to meet in the future.

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Assembly Approves Minimum Wage Bill

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20060531-2114-ca-minimumwage.html

06-01-06

Legislation that would give 1.4 million minimum wage earners a $1-an-hour pay raise and then tie their wages to increases in inflation was approved by the Assembly Wednesday night, setting the stage for a possible election-year fight with Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger. The 43-30 vote sent the measure by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Santa Clara, to the Senate, which planned to vote on an identical increase by Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, on Thursday.

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Exit Exam Leaves 2006 Class 42,000 Short

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-exitexam2jun02,1,6535322.story?coll=la-headlines-california

06-02-06

One in 10 California high school seniors will not receive a diploma this month because they failed the state's high school exit exam, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Education. Students who are Latino, black, English learners or poor were disproportionately represented in the failure rates. State Supt. Jack O'Connell urged the 41,758 seniors across the state who had not passed the exam to continue striving to receive their diploma, in summer school, independent study or community college.

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Workers’ Comp Rate Cut 10%

http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/14263251p-15076235c.html

06-02-06

California's largest workers' compensation insurance carrier announced plans Thursday to cut rates by an average of 10 percent starting July 1. In making its sixth straight reduction in two years, the quasi-public State Compensation Insurance Fund also extended a program that gives an additional 10 percent rate cut to small businesses with a strong safety records. "This rate filing validates our commitment to pass on the savings from the 2004 reform legislation, bringing further rate relief to California employers," acting State Fund President James Tudor said in a statement

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Assembly OKs Cable Franchises From State

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14262640p-15075848c.html

06-01-06

Legislation hailed as a way to give Californians lower prices and more choice in cable television services was approved overwhelmingly Wednesday night by the state Assembly. On a day in which scores of bills roared through the house to meet a Friday deadline, lawmakers also narrowly passed legislation to ban new Central Valley subdivisions on flood-prone land.

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Gambling $13 Billion Industry In State

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/01/BAGLFJ5MD51.DTL

06-01-06

Gambling in California, fueled in large part by the expansion of Indian casinos, has grown into an industry worth more than $13 billion a year, according to a report released Wednesday by the state attorney general. Indian casino revenue made up the biggest single chunk, with an estimated $5.78 billion in 2004, the latest year for which figures were available, the 181-page report said.

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Science Test Scores Are Inching Upward

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/14705319.htm

05-31-06

There was a glimmer of hope from otherwise distressing results of a national science test: California has put a little distance between it and Mississippi at the bottom of the heap. California's fourth-graders still ranked next to last in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and its eighth-graders were 42nd out of 44 participating states. But its rate of improvement was among the best, especially for Latino and African-American kids, compared with results from 2000.

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Prop. 82 – This Just Doesn’t Add Up

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060530/OPED01/605300307

05-30-06

Proposition 82 is one of those frequent "surface" ballot proposals that tends to tug along sympathetic voters. It all sounds so positive. The initiative is called Preschool for All. There's a celebrity - Hollywood actor and director Rob Reiner - leading the campaign. Then there's the Robin Hood-like quality of taxing the rich to supposedly give predominately to the poor. The end result is $2.4 billion a year to make voluntary preschool available to all 4-year-olds.

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Governor, Legislators Act On Minimum Wage

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/30/BAGGGJ48CN1.DTL

05-30-06

Tanning salon owner Lee Baker isn't against raising his workers' wages, but in a time when rising energy costs are already putting a squeeze on small businesses, increasing the minimum wage could result in eliminating jobs at his shop, he said. "The way I see it, people who are working minimum-wage jobs are getting some money. If we end up eliminating those jobs, it's going to put them in a welfare system," said Baker, 43, who owns Summ R Tan Tanning Centers in Sacramento and nearby Carmichael.

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Plan To Ban Cell Phone Use While Driving Moves Ahead

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14260524p-15074398c.html

05-26-06

California drivers caught using hand-held cell phones may face fines up to $50 under legislation approved by the state Senate on Thursday. The bill, which squeaked through with no votes to spare, 21-14, would ban drivers from using a cell phone unless it is on hands-free mode, such as with a speakerphone or a headset. "The difference between hand-held and hands-free is life and death," said Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, who has been championing the measure for several years.

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