The city of Los Angeles has been caught with its hand in the cookie jar. The city's hands are experienced at this maneuver, but they don't usually get caught. In this case, the California Court of Appeal has ruled that the city broke the law by imposing a tax increase on cell phone use that did not receive approval of voters.  Read more >>

By a vote of 13 to zip, the Los Angeles City Council has instructed the city attorney to draft a property tax increase of $72 for an upcoming ballot. The money from this new burden on property owners is to be earmarked for reducing gang violence. Apparently, the City Council sees homeowners as a bottomless money pit to be tapped whenever they feel the need to respond to the latest headline issue.  Read more >>

In a classic Monty Python sketch, a man is duped into buying a dead parrot from a pet shop. He quickly discovers the expired nature of his purchase and returns to the shop demanding a refund. There, the owner of the shop tries to convince him that the bird is not dead. Finally, in complete exasperation, the buyer emphatically tells the owner that the parrot, "...Has passed on. This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker. This is a late parrot. It's a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace, if you hadn't nailed it to the perch it would be pushing up the daisies! This is an ex-parrot!"

We feel a bit like the buyer of the dead parrot when we are told by the Schwarzenegger administration that the tax on employers to pay for health care really isn't a tax, but is really a "fee."  Read more >>

Proposition 13 could be rendered meaningless if Proposition 218 fails at the polls.

Consider: Proposition 13 is a law designed chiefly to protect property taxpayers. It put limits on how high and how fast property taxes can climb and requires a vote of the people on new local taxes. After Prop 13's success, bureaucrats looked for ways to raise revenues while avoiding Prop 13's restrictions. They hit upon assessment districts, which were historically used to fund capital improvements that directly benefited property.  Read more >>

Taxpayers are not mushrooms. So why do government officials keep us in the dark and feed us manure? Two seemingly unrelated stories are unfolding in California that are illustrative of the mindset of some in government that citizens and taxpayers are entitled to know neither how their money is being spent nor how it will be spent in the future.  Read more >>