When Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen remarked a half-century ago, "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money," it was said with a sense of irony. I offer this clarification because a billion dollars no longer has the impact that it once had. Now with a former senator from Illinois occupying the White House, the federal government is throwing trillions of dollars around as if it were nickels.  Read more >>

Last week, The Sacramento Bee published a three part series entitled "Going Broke." It was an earnest attempt by reporters Steve Wiegand and Phillip Reese to determine the genesis of California's financial crisis. But like so many other discussions about the demise of California's exceptionality, it began its review with the enactment of Proposition 13.  Read more >>

Two years ago, when then Assemblywoman Sally Lieber introduced a bill to prohibit the spanking of children, she was ridiculed for what many Californians considered to be frivolous legislation. In light of recent revelations of the "S & M" tinged escapades of a married, middle-aged lawmaker and one or more lobbyists, some capitol observers are wondering if Lieber should have targeted an older demographic.  Read more >>

If insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then the California Legislature is indeed an "institution" in more than one sense of the word. Any notion that, because of the recession and related budget crisis, the Legislature would finally "get it" and become fiscally prudent and transparent, is dashed on the rocks of political reality.  Read more >>

Not long ago, a major California newspaper ran an editorial cartoon depicting pith-helmeted explorers peering through jungle growth at a crumbling temple where worshipers bow down before a stone alter on which is carved, "Prop. 13." One of the explorers is saying to the other, "I believe we've stumbled upon the origins of the demise of California's civilization."

At the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, founded by the principle author of Proposition 13, we are accustomed to seeing attacks running from dubious to frivolous on the landmark 1978 tax limitation initiative.  Read more >>