Opinion / Commentary
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Protect Prop. 13! Call the Capitol to say "NO on ACA 13" and "NO on ACA 1"
Thank you for the calls you've made to tell the legislature that ACA 13 and ACA 1 are attacks on Proposition 13 that must be stopped. Your help is needed again as these two dangerous measures come up...
California Commentary
In California politics, there are three major movements to the annual budget Kabuki Dance. In January of each year, the governor announces a proposed budget for the next fiscal year beginning July...
CPUC Must Reject Proposed SoCalGas Rate Hike Out of Hand
Today the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will be holding a public forum to hear from ratepayers on the gas rate increase request from SoCalGas. If approved, this rate increase would take effect in January 2024 and impact monthly ratepa...
Why should we trust the 'experts'? They always fail us when it matters
By Jon Coupal President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association There’s an old joke about the origins of the word “expert.” The story is that it is a combination of the word “ex” – meaning a h...
Why should we trust the 'experts'? They always fail us when it matters
By Jon Coupal President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association There’s an old joke about the origins of the word “expert.” The story is that it is a combination of the word “ex” – meaning a h...
Assembly Bill to Restrict local Recall Moves
By Jon Coupal and Scott Kaufman As the Legislature gavels in for another session of taxpayer abuse, we can look back at the last session and cheerfully report, it could have been worse. The...
What California taxpayers need to know about unemployment insurance
By Jon COUPAL President Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association I sincerely hope that readers aren’t turned off by the title of this column. While most taxpayers aren’t directly responsible for pay...
Teachers Unions Finally Have Some Competition In School Board Races
by Larry Sand President of the California Teachers Empowerment Network It’s no secret that the teachers’ unions have control over most aspects of public education in the U.S. The school boards, which negotiate with unions over salary, work rul...
Bureau of Redundancy Bureau
By Jon Coupal President Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Much of what government does is wasteful, ineffective, and redundant. For example, Senate Bill 679 was recently signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom as part of the "housing and homelessness...
L.A. Councilmembers are unfit
As elected leaders we are held to a higher standard, and while we should never accept racist remarks from anyone, it is particularly heinous when those remarks are made by the people, we have...
Gas prices falling across U.S., but not in California
By LARA KORTE Politico Gas prices are dropping for nearly everyone in the country but remain stubbornly high in California, where state officials are blaming oil companies and reminding voters that relief is on the way in the form of tax rebates...
Californians should vote no on Prop. 31
By Jon Coupal California has a lot of problems and not all of them are directly taxpayer related. But, as noted in last week’s column, they all interconnect in one important way: Control. Our state’s government and its boosters think they know bet...
Californians should vote no on Prop. 31
By Jon Coupal California has a lot of problems and not all of them are directly taxpayer related. But, as noted in last week’s column, they all interconnect in one important way: Control. Our state’s government and its boosters think they know bet...
Latest 'racist' smear against Prop.13
By Jon Coupal President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA). He is a recognized expert in California fiscal affairs and has argued numerous tax cases before the courts. Here we go again. Another “study” purporting to reveal how unf...
Can sanity prevail in California?
By Jon Coupal president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Victor Davis Hanson is a resident scholar at the Hoover Institute and lifelong Californian from the Central Valley. He recently spoke at a conference of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers...
Attorney General Bonta Supports Increasing Density
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a brief in defense of Senate Bill 10 (SB 10), which allows local governments to rezone certain neighborhoods for denser housing, irrespective of local restrictions. SB 10 was part of a package of bills...
California Commentary
By Jon Coupal In George Orwell’s 1984, there is a particularly gripping scene where the protagonist, Winston, is being interrogated by O’Brien, a member of the party leadership. O’Brien shows Winston a photo that proves that three party membe...
Sacramento Democrats kill gas tax relief, transparency
By Jon Coupal As a participant in capital politics for more than 30 years, I’ve observed many abuses of power. Corruption, pettiness, gross narcissism, and dirty tricks have all increased in recent years both in terms of frequency and shock value. T...
Property Tax Levies Increase 6% Statewide
The California State Board of Equalization (BOE) released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2020-21 Annual Report, which reported that the total net statewide county-assessed property value was $7.1 trillion,...
Americans Would Pay a Heavy Price for Amnesty
By Mark Thies Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are scrambling to find a way to amnesty illegal immigrants in their nearly $2 trillion budget bill. The Senate parliamentarian, who decides what...
California Supreme Court Limits Early Release of Violent Felons Under Proposition 57
By David E. Mastagni and Taylor Davies-Mahaffey In 2019, a California appeals court held that Proposition 57 allowed those convicted of multiple violent and nonviolent crimes to qualify for early rele...
Promenade Belongs to the Homeless
By Alyssa Erdley Observer Staff 2/2/22 - Squalid conditions downtown and on the Third Street Promenade appear to be causing much of the vacancies in retail spaces visible there today. The downtown and Promenade area were already ailing before the...
Supreme Court Again Clarifies Qualified Immunity Protection for Peace Officers
By David E. Mastagni and Taylor Davies-Mahaffey In the recent City of Tahlequah v. Bond decision, the United States Supreme Court revisited the protections officers should receive through qualified...
Why DTSM is Failing
John Alle Santa Monica Property and Business Owner For the first time in over a quarter century, the organization designated to manage Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade and Downtown, will have a new Director. What began as a volunteer business...
Gascon Indicates Some Victims - Rich and Famous Ones - Deserve Justice
By Corva Corvax A Logical Opinion 12/7/21 - LA County District Attorney George Gascon proudly announced yesterday the charging of a Los Angeles man with the murder of Jacqueline Avant. This particular...