by Jack
Okay, here’s how it shakes out for California…the GOP has completely surrendered (lost, forfeited, capitulated) the State legislature to the Democrats. They (republican legislators) might as well resign and give their salaries back to the general fund because their presence has no influence on legislation because the democrats have a sufficient majority to pass anything they wish. Republicans can’t block nor pass legislation…without the approval of democrats.
Next, the biggest waste of taxpayer funds in our history is the so-called bullet train. It is now guaranteed to happen, no matter what the cost overuns, the lack of benefits and the lack of profitability. It will just happen and we will each pay a dear price for it, but President Obama loves the idea…maybe he will pay for it?
Locally, Measure E passed, it guarantees funding of $78,000,000 for schools coming from new taxation…the interest on that one is going to cost us big time! State Proposition 30 also passed, it guarantees funding for schools, about $50,000,000,000 in new taxation. Neither tax item will improve education, lower education overhead, nor will they cut any waste, fraud or abuse or in any way alter expensive unfunded mandates, but the voters still approved them. Oh, and the schools really aren’t guaranteed of getting the money. Aren’t voters dumb?
The following were elected to Chico City Council, ANN SCHWAB (far left liberal and part of the gang that caused so many past problems) She received the highest vote count, 11279 or 13.74%. TAMI RITTER (another liberal ideolog who will use her personal skills to solved the bum problem in the downtown area-good luck with that one). She finished in second place with 9978 or 12.15%. Third place was SEAN MORGAN , conservative, 9115 or 11.10%, followed by RANDALL STONE (far- left, pro-union, big government kind of guy) 8782 votes and 10.69%.
The spoiler for the conservative vote was Dave Donnan, who finished next to last, but he took away 3468 votes that could have gone to conservative candidates who had a chance to win if the conservative vote was more focused. They were Coolidge, Evans and Schindlebeck. 3600 votes would have moved them ahead of Stone and Ritter.
That would have given us a total of four conservative people on the council, enough to stop the current fiscal insanity, business closures and job losses.
This outcome was very well predicted by conservative leaders in Chico. It was also considered by the key backers of these candidates. This is why Mr. Donnan was asked to step aside early on for the sake of changing the council, however he said he stepped aside last time and he was going to run this time, no matter what. Some of his main supporters then blocked him from being removed from the funding and support the other conservative candidates received and the rest is history.
Mr. Donnan ran, he (allegedly) split the vote too thin and the conservatives lost. That’s it in a nutshell. It was a shame, but lets remember that Mr. Donnan had every right to run and he did his best – we can’t fault him for that. But, it did lead to a bad outcome for those on the right side of the fence and hindsight says it would have been so much better if he had stayed out of this race, and I say that even though I like Mr. Donnan, it was just real bad timing.
I don’t know if this election had any influence on this next item, but the latest rumor is Build.com is considering moving out of Chico to Austin, Texas. If they go, they take with them 500 jobs and a whole lot of tax revenue. They will save hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes, have less regulation to deal with and a business friendly climate…if they leave California. It seems like a smart move.
The funding of our schools was crazy. We were supposed to fund them with the lottery. They just gave the schools lottery money and took other money away. That will happen here.
And passing another school bond? Did we forget about the last bond they scammed out of us for a third high school we didn’t build? They wanted to spend millions to put a charter school at Chapman.
Yes, the Democrats will no longer need ballot initiatives to raise taxes.
They can now pass ANY tax increase they want, whenever they want.
The Repulicans are totally irrelevant.
There is one other thing you all should know about the Democrats having a super majority in the state legislature.
They will be able to override a governor’s veto.
So even if Brown comes to his senses and vetos a tax increase they can still override his veto.
What this means is that you are going to have the most radical tax hikers calling the shots now at the state level.
I don’t think people comprehend this yet.
Most Democrats in the legislature think a 7.5% state sales tax and a marginal income tax rate of 9.3% that kicks in around $48k are not high enough.
Most of them think Jerry Brown’s tax increases did not go nearly far enough and want much higher levels of taxation even though we already have the highest taxes in the nation.
And don’t forget that California’s cap and trade tax kicks in next year.
I saw this coming a couple of years ago.
I tried to get people interested in splitting the state.
I called La Malfa’s office and Logue’s office about this and they had no interest.
I told them there would come a day soon when Republicans would be irrelevant in the legislsature, but they would not listen and now it has happened.
All the Republican counties (pretty much all the counties north of Sacramento and in the Central Valley) have now been disenfranchised.
The only answer is to split the state!
Jack, you can’t have “surrendered” anything … GOP registration is down to 30 percent of the state population. You just don’t have the numbers anymore.
“I don’t know if this election had any influence on this next item, but the latest rumor is Build.com is considering moving out of Chico to Austin, Texas.”
You do know that Austin is a hotbed of liberalism in the Lone Star State, don’t you? Want to look more closely into that one.
Yes Libby but Texas overall is much more friendly to business which means that even a liberal city like Austin benefits from the smart economic policy of the state.
You hate people with money and people who create wealth because you think they got it unfairly. You attempt to squeeze money from them with your harsh tax policies…all you do is shut down the engine that drives growth and revenue. Your covetous nature kills the very thing that makes a thriving economy possible. Texans have (so far) figured it out)
Jack my family is considering a move. My little company wouldn’t mean much loss in terms of jobs or revenue for Chico but the burdens this state will probably put on us will make staying impossible, impractical…just not worth the work.
When I think about the continuous push that liberals make without regard for their fellow citizens and without regard for the cost of their desires, and without regard to the problems their policies cause it makes me sick. over the 50 60 years that they have pushed for more entitlement, cleaner air, more money for schools the people have been generous and compliant. Now that it is about to destroy us they will not listen to the warnings and considerations. don’t tell me the republicans are the cruel party or the out of touch party or the party lacking in empathy.
Call it whatever you want, surrender, defeated, capitulation, what we are talking about is the implosion of the GOP in California. So goes CA so goes the nation.
As a friend of mine put it, it began in Berkeley, it spread throughout the state and now it’s spreading throughout the nation. We’re (conservatives) well on way to being irrelevant.
Congratulations Libs! Rejoice….look what you have done to California, soon you can do it to the nation. It’s all going your way and you did by dividing the country by race, wealth and sexual orientation, then pitting them against the older, wealthier, white male. He was the new enemy of the populist movedment. It was an easy strategy and it appealled to so many! Need more soldiers…hey, just open the borders!
There was brilliance in your plans simplicity – and so many were eager to join your army. Meanwhile apapthy, ignorance, denial and distraction weakened the ranks of those traditional Americans who still remembered the values of the founders.
I understand you gained 3 seats in the Senate too. All we’ve got left is the House, but that won’t last long.
I don’t know if any of you saw the uncut version of Apocalypse Now. It didn’t come out in 1980 when the movie was released in theaters but came out over 20 years later.
In that version Willard and his men stay with a French family at their plantation. They are trying to hold on as the Communists have swallowed up everything around them. It is a noble but futile effort.
Now I know exactly how that family felt.
Texas has already put the welcome mat out for us.
“Big Texas Welcome to Californians”
“In Proposition 30, Brown entreated Californians to join him in a soak-the-rich scheme, sold as a panacea for the states financially stressed school systems. However, Proposition 30 will hit almost all Californians. Both rich and poor families will pay higher sales taxes. One recent study found that millionaires dont move from California to avoid income taxes — but Proposition 30s threshold starts at $250,000, imposing new burdens on thousands of already heavily taxed families.
Many beleaguered taxpayers are going to decide theyve had enough and head for other states that dont impose as heavy a tax burden. The California weather and lifestyle just arent worth the higher price they now have to pay for it.
So, welcome to Texas: The weather isnt as good, but youll have more money to spend.
For most of its history, California was the Promised Land, and newcomers arrived in droves. More recently, however, Californias migration patterns have begun to reverse. According to Internal Revenue Service data, net migration from California to other states totaled 865,444 people from 2004 to 2010, the highest in the nation.
Think of it this way: The equivalent of the entire city of San Francisco packed up and left California in six years — and thats with taxes lower than they will be under Proposition 30.
Where are the Californians going? For the most part, its to states with lower individual income taxes. Texas, a state with no income tax, leads as a destination, with a net inflow from California of 185,122 people from 2004 to 2010, the IRS data say. Next come Arizona (top income-tax rate of 4.5 percent), Nevada (no income tax), Oregon (11 percent) and Washington (no income tax). In the top 15 destination states for ex-Californians, the migration-weighted average of the highest marginal tax rate was just 3.9 percent.
The attraction of lower taxes is powerful. In our detailed study of migration among states, top personal income-tax rates were one of six crucial factors that explain two-thirds of interstate population shifts. The others are right-to-work laws (versus mandatory unions), the relative growth rate of government spending, housing prices, the quality of public schools and climate. With the exception of the weather, California doesnt rate highly on any of them.”
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-07/big-texas-welcome-to-californians.html
Rumor that Build.com is moving to Texas? Do you have any source for that? Any sort of corroborating evidence?
I have a source, but I have no cooberation, it’s why I called it a rumor. If I had cooberating evidence I would have called it something else. Are we on trial here or what?
I spend at least 40 hours a week at Build.com and I haven’t heard anything about the company moving to Texas. Quite the opposite, in fact.
How do you know it was “taxpayers” who left? Maybe they were framers and drywallers.
This guy tracks the big ones:
http://thebusinessrelocationcoach.blogspot.com/2010/05/list-reaches-new-high-of-140-companies.html
I’m very disappointed with the Chico City Council results. The Schawb group was organized and very efficient at rallying their votes, the conservative candidates not so. At least Measure J went down.
Jim, short of dragging conservatives out of their homes and to the polls we did the best we could.
The problem with most conservative voters is they tend to focus on family, church, friends, working, charity, etc., and then way down the list …maybe they will show a little interest in politics.
Getting them organized is like herding cats from coast to coast. We worked so hard this year and we spent a lot of time and money to organize voters, but too many don’t want to get involved, too many just don’t care about local elections and they would rather do something else. You got maybe .01% of the total registered republicans that ever will show up at a GOP, Tea Party, or CRC meeting. That’s just their nature. I’m convinced of that now…and they deserve the kind of government they get too. They have turned their backs once too often on very good candidates and I have had it with these phoney republicans.
They may call themselves good conservatives, but they aren’t. They’re slackers and they are worthless when it comes to helping out. -Jack