Southern California Political Round-up

01/23/2024

From the article:
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Baseball star Shohei Ohtani, a rare hitter-pitcher, could have signed with the New York Yankees or Toronto Blue Jays but opted for a record-breaking $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Fans might think Ohtani’s choice to stay in California would delight state officials, but that is not the case.

To give his team more flexibility with other players, Ohtani deferred all but $2 million of his annual $70 million salary. That fell afoul of California’s State Controller, Democrat Malia Cohen.

“The current tax system allows for unlimited deferrals for those fortunate enough to be in the highest tax brackets, creating a significant imbalance in the tax structure,” Cohen contends.

“The absence of reasonable caps on deferral for the wealthiest individuals exacerbates income inequality and hinders the fair distribution of taxes. I would urge Congress to take immediate and decisive action to rectify this imbalance.”

Cohen is right that there is a “significant imbalance” in the tax structure. In California’s punitive system, those in the highest bracket pay 13.30 percent. California also imposes an 8.84 corporate income tax rate, and a 7.25 state sales tax rate.

The Controller wants to get her hands on as much of Ohtani’s money as possible so the state can “distribute” the revenue in a way she regards as “fair.” As fans should know, the state’s pillage people have other means of extraction.

Under the “jock tax,” California shakes down athletes for their “duty days” in California during the season. In 2016, when the Super Bowl was played in Santa Clara, the state raked in $1 million for a single day and the extended duty days cost Payton Manning more than his entire Super Bowl winnings.

Athletes, business owners and workers alike seek relief in states such as Florida, which imposes no income tax. That ongoing exodus also disturbs state officials.

Oakland Democrat Rob Bonta was the prime mover of AB 2088, the California Wealth Tax, which would have slapped a 0.4 percent tax on the portion of a taxpayer’s net worth that exceeded $30 million. AB 2088 would have taxed former Californians 90 percent of their in-state levy in the first year after they left the state and 80 percent in the second year, phasing out over a decade.

The Yale law alum Bonta, now state Attorney General, believed it was legal to keep taxing non-residents for ten years. Consider also the case of Gilbert Hyatt, inventor of the first single-chip microprocessor back in 1990. Hyatt decamped to Nevada, which does not levy income tax. California’s Franchise Tax Board claimed the inventor lied about his residency and socked him with a bill of $13.3 million in back taxes and penalties.

Hyatt sued the FTB for harassment, fraud, and invasion of privacy. The battle continued until 2019, when a court ruling left Hyatt with a 1991 tax bill of $1.9 million, including interest. The ruling failed to send any new tax revenue to California and revealed that over 26 years the FTB spent $25 million in pursuit of the inventor.
Gilbert Hyatt earned his money by inventing a useful product that people wanted to buy. The same principle applies to athletes such as Shohei Ohtani, whose hitting and pitching skills are such that people will pay to see him.

Ohtani earns approximately $40 million from endorsement deals in America and Japan. That comes on top of his $30 million salary, and makes it possible for him to defer all but $2 million of his salary in the 10-year deal with the Dodgers.

Shohei Ohtani is a model of free choice. California is a model of government greed.
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Shohei Ohtani is a model of free choice. California is a model of government greed.

01/18/2024

Expect less revenues from the State of California going to local governments in the upcoming state budget.

From article://
The Legislative Analyst Office of California listed the deficit of $68 billion—and another $30 billion for each of the next two years. The Governor, by lying about revenues, using the Reserves, deferring needed infrastructure repairs, brought the deficit down to $38 billion...

“Viewing a reduction in school and community college spending as a policy choice, not a baseline change, is one of several factors that led analysts to state there is, in fact, a third potential deficit: $58 billion.

Regardless of the lens, Newsom’s budget offers solutions to bridge the financial gap. Reducing spending by $41 billion, as well as pulling $13 billion from reserves, $4 billion in shifting costs and some $400 billion in revenue makes a balanced budget.”

This sleight of hand is what Newsom is using to run for President...

The budget overview, issued over the holiday weekend by the state Legislative Analyst’s Office, differs in its prognostications from the governor’s budget. In December, the office estimated the Legislature would have to address a $68 billion deficit across the current fiscal year and the next one. Newsom, unveiling his $291.5 billion budget last week, anticipated a deficit of only $38 billion.
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The Legislative Analyst Office of California listed the deficit of $68 billion—and another $30 billion for each of the next two years.  The Governor, by lying about revenues, using the Reserves, deferring needed infrastructure repairs, brought the deficit down to

11/28/2023

Elect Democrats? Then this is coming to a neighborhood near you. No privacy in your home, you will have to fight for parking on your residential street...

San Diego’s ADU law let’s developers pack multiple rentals on a single lot. Should the policy go statewide?

09/26/2023

Regarding the upcoming CAGOP Platform fight...

It is often said that herding Democrats is like herding cattle, while herding Republicans is like herding a bunch of independent minded cats who will only do what they want to do and have other allegiances above the Republican Party to uphold. It has also been said Republicans are really good at circular firing squads that end up injuring the Republican Party and our candidates.

First, the Republican Party is one of two coalition parties in our nation. We have a greater ability to win elections when the base of the party is content with the party and dislikes what the Democrats are doing. Doing anything to greatly upset large factions of the GOP base hurts the party's chance at winning close elections and may turn some safe seats into toss-up seats the Democrats could steal.

(Now I'm going to make some generalizations that are generally true, based on my experience as a campaign consultant on several past Republican campaigns. I will note here that there are always exceptions which for various reasons do not fit the general pattern.)

The vast majority of moderate and liberal Republicans tend to be pragmatists whose top 5 issues do not include issues like promoting abortion or homosexual marriage. Instead their top 5 politically motivating issues tend to be dominated by issues like property rights, local control, lower taxes, lower numbers of regulations, an improved economy, national security, 2nd amendment rights, border control, a Pro-Israel stance, a Pro-Taiwan stance, etc... Otherwise, they would vote for someone other than a Republican.

Most of the rest are Republicans simply because their parents and/or grandparents were Republicans. Many (not all) of these registered Republicans do not vote for a Republican unless if they know and like that Republican candidate and/or they hate the Democrat running.

A significant chunk of the GOP base of voters, however are religious conservatives. Many of these voters require the GOP to take a Pro-Life position that is spelled out and a defense of traditional marriage position that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, before they will vote for any Republican. These voters have those two issues among their top 5 politically motivating issues, along with religious freedom, as a matter of their personal faith. Many of these, but not all, are former Democrats who felt like they were pushed out of the Democrat party by its more liberal/progressive members and found a home within the Republican Party.

The current parental rights groups who are objecting to what is going on inside their children's schools have a close affiliation with this block of the GOP base as issues like gender fluidity, pro-nouns confusion, parental notification on all things impacting their children, and the government paid for encouragement and sterilization of children are among these parental groups' major concerns. Any undermining of long held positions on abortion and homosexual marriage probably will cost the GOP any gains we may otherwise receive in registration from these parental rights groups, as the GOP becomes labeled as a Party of Political Convenience who won't take politically hard stands versus the Democrats or Mainstream News Media, but will fold like a house of cards.

We also have a significant chunks of libertarian and other ideological conservative factions for whom, issues like local control, border control, protecting 2nd amendment rights, protecting property rights, not raising taxes, etc... are among their highest priorities.

Our religious and ideological conservatives who make up large and significant factions of our base have shown in the past that they will stay home if they don't like what our candidates say or have done (see Bush 1992, Dole 1996, 2006, McCain 2008 and Romney 2012, 2018) and that has cost us elections up and down the ballot.

Any major changes to the CAGOP Platform that undermines or summarizes to the point of meaninglessness positions on issues held dear by our religious or ideological conservative factions could lead to a disgruntled base which will force Republican candidates to spend more money on base turnout operations, rather than on kitchen table issues that can get cross over votes.

It will likely lead to at least a few Todd Atkin moments of face planting statements designed to signal to disgruntled GOP voters that the candidate is a conservative like them. It may further lead to a general distrust of Party leaders and organizations by certain factions of the GOP base that could cost us in close elections in future years.

I will leave those that read this post with this last bit of wisdom. Most voters and a majority of Republican voters won't read or pay attention to what is passed as the CAGOP Platform at the upcoming CAGOP convention in Anaheim. When they will judge the GOP Platform by the Platform generated at the RNC convention or the stands Republican candidates send to them via their campaign literature or public speeches or interviews.

Those who do read the CAGOP Platform will consist of mostly of those involved with the state party and those involved with the ideological and religious conservative groups that make up significant chunks of the GOP base.

The CAGOP Platform's main purpose is to keep the vast majority of the base of the party who are generally conservative feel represented and generally content with the leadership of the CAGOP.

01/31/2023

That's right: Democrats dropped 22.2 million ballots in the mail, and 10.9 million — 49.1 percent — went p**f!

01/25/2023

Who else is loving this from Speaker McCarthy?

10/25/2022

Can’t say most of us didn’t see this possibility. I continue to pray for those who either felt the need or were required due to employment or another situation to get these. I hope we are doing what we can to help those most affected…

I’ve spoken before on my positions with mandatory vaccinations and the lack of medical informed consent for these products. The Vaccine Indemnity Act of 1986 needs to be repealed if we want to see the necessary R&D completed prior to product release. Otherwise, the distrust of this industry will be well justified and continue to grow!

Disturbing statistics pulled from the CDC’s own Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reveal that the experimental COVID jabs increase your risk of developing cancer by 143,233%. VAERS contains historical data on adverse reactions reported against every vaccine that has been administered