If you or your California rural friends and family are subject to the rural fire “fee,” help may be on the way. The Jarvis group is after ’em. HJTA has filed a class action lawsuit against this farce — on behalf of the 825,000 rural property owners. Encourage any folks affected by this bogus “fee” to join the effort. And …
If Props 30 AND 38 pass, they might BOTH raise our taxes
Here’s today’s unsettling thought for California taxpayers — a factoid not being discussed. Props 30 and 38 can BOTH pass and, if the stars align right, raise our taxes TOGETHER. As we all know, these are two competing massive state tax increases on the November ballot. When we have two conflicting measures that pass, the one with the most votes …
Filner’s abysmal Congressional voting record — from taxpayers’ standpoint
Here’s Comrade Bob Filner’s annual aggregate Congressional voting record — compiled by NTU (National Taxpayers Union). The last year he didn’t earn a grade of “F” was in 1996, when Clinton went relatively moderate to counter the GOP surge. That year Filner squeezed by with a gentleman’s “D.” The choice for mayor of San Diego has NEVER been more clear. …
Unions Confident That Comrade Bob Filner Will Raise City Taxes
It’s no surprise that the police unions endorsed Comrade Bob Filner for mayor of San Diego. But what deserves more publicity is that a major reason the unions themselves declare they are adamantly opposed to Carl DeMaio is that DeMaio led the charge against their city sales tax increase (which turned out to not be needed after all). NOTE TO …
Amazing! I now think Romney has a VERY good chance to win.
For the first time since the start of the Presidential election cycle, I think the GOP has a very good chance to unseat Barack Obama. This first Presidential debate went VERY well for Mitt Romney — much better than I had anticipated. In contrast, Obama further demonstrated that he’s an empty suit. Maybe he would have done better with the “empty chair” …
Ballotpedia.org screws up Prop 30 facts. Intentional? Sure looks like it.
www.ballotpedia.org can be an extremely useful source on elections — especially on propositions. It includes the backers and opponents, and the big contributors. But Ballotpedia “edit trolls” can alter or omit facts to suit their purposes. I just got involed in one such Ballotpedia situation on a California proposition. Ballotpedia is very similar to Wikipedia in operation. Hence caution is advised. …
Texas counties’ “SS” substitute plan more than DOUBLES SS payout
CA State Assemblyman Ben Hueso and other liberal state legislators want to impose a social security requirement on any California city that establishes a “defined contribution” (a 401k-type) plan for new hires. Such a mandate will greatly reduce the money available for the employees’ retirement fund. In San Diego, that would mean that instead of having 9.2% of pay of …
The fake “private” HSR train from Victorville to Las Vegas
Here’s a SUPERB U-T op-ed on California HSR — especially the “outing” of the generally ignored “private” HSR boondoggle from Victorville to Las Vegas. The piece is authored by my friends at the REASON Foundation. I had not previously seen this expose’ of the Vegas HSR scheme. Turns out it’s a gigantic taxpayer loan subsidy. More crony capitalism. Subsidized HSR …
Local taxpayer activist shines in WALL ST JOURNAL letters
RICHARD RIDER COMMENT: In today’s WALL ST JOURNAL, there are four good letters to the editor concerning Romney’s budget plan vs. the Obama non-plan. Perhaps the best letter is from my friend Russel Buckley, a taxpayer activist from La Mesa. Russell works tirelessly for taxpayers in the region. He’s a thorn in the side of La Mesa’s crony-plagued city government. …
Breaking Bad: California vs. the Other States – revised 8/19/2012
by Richard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax Fighters Version 1.821 Revised: 17 August, 2012 Updated version online at: http://open.salon.com/blog/Richard_Rider Phone: 858-530-3027 Facebook blog page: www.Facebook.com/Richard.Rider Here’s a depressing but documented comparison of California taxes and economic climate with the rest of the states. The news is breaking bad, and getting worse (twice a month, I update crucial data on this …
Rider submission on tax props to CA State Senate hearing
Because I’m one of the signers of a CA ballot book argument against Prop 38 (the “Munger” income tax prop), I’ve been asked by a Democrat State Senator to submit input to a State Senate hearing this week on the matter. Apparently the legislature is setting up to endorse their preferred props. Having testified at such legislative hearings before, I’m …
The Ultimate Takedown of Obama’s ‘You Didn’t Build That’ Speech
Below is an odd post that quite impressed me — a comprehensive takedown of Obama’s “you didn’t build that” speech. All of my allies know that Obama is oh SO wrong, but dissecting his populist argument for others to understand doesn’t come easy. What is odd about this solid refutation is that it’s an anonymous piece. But the lack …
Is the San Bernardino city BK the fault of Prop 13? Nope!
In the article below on city bankruptcies, the LA TIMES gives the impression that San Bernardino’s BK is largely due to Prop 13. Not so. I don’t have the city historical property tax figures, but doubtless they closely reflect San Bernardino COUNTY property tax. Consider: In 2005, the county property tax assessment roll (on which the property tax is levied) …
5 Reasons the CA HSR Project Shouldn’t Get More Money
There’s a CA State Senate vote coming up (currently 2 PM, 7-5-12) on issuing the billions of dollars in High Speed Rail bonds approved by voters in 2008. But the current project has only a titular relationship with the original HSR system barely approved by CA citizens. Here’s why this madness should end now: Reason Foundation http://reason.org http://reason.org/news/show/california-high-speed-rail-funding 5 Reasons …
California to Business: Get Out!
Grimly funny. Actually, NOT so funny. —- Last November I posted on my blog http://open.salon.com/blog/richard_rider an excellent article on California’s anti-business climate — produced for CITY JOURNAL, and later published in the WALL ST JOURNAL. I failed to post this article on Rostra for some reason. Belatedly, here it is. And then some. http://open.salon.com/blog/richard_rider/2011/11/16/california_to_business_get_out by STEVEN MALANGA Cali to …
The Bob Filner Biography the Left Wants to Hide
It occured to me that even many of my knowledgeable allies are not fully familiar with the historical degree of affiliation Bob Filner has with socialist and communist organizations. His background speaks for itself. Below is a comprehensive summary of Filner’s red-tinted political affinity for collectivist, tyrannical government. It’s clearly a biased piece, but that does not mean it is …
RIDER OP-ED: Absent defense, our local economy is awful
Today the NORTH COUNTY TIMES ran my op-ed on the effect of defense spending in San Diego County. My thesis is that, absent our massive federal defense spending (responsible for 1 in 4 jobs in the county), the San Diego economy is simply “awful.” This fact is amazing, considering that that San Diego has the best climate in the nation. …
NCPA: “Is It Time to Stop Building Convention Centers?”
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=22070&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ncpadpd+%28Daily+Policy+Digest%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher Daily Policy Digest June 26, 2012 Is It Time to Stop Building Convention Centers? Over the last 20 years, convention space in the United States has increased by 50 percent; since 2005, 44 new convention spaces have been planned or constructed in this country alone. That boom hasn’t come cheap. In the last 10 years, spending on convention centers …
Rider does videos for San Diego’s Prop A – the “PLA” Prop
A couple weeks ago I did some taping for the folks backing the San Diego City Prop A, the excellent measure that will make our city contracts transparent, online and not subject to mandatory PLA restrictions. Just recently I found that a number of my sound bites appeared on their website. I thought these excerpts were good enough to share …
Here’s the best darn voter guide in San Diego County
Perhaps it’s too late in the election cycle, but here’s what is, hands down, the best overall conservative voter guide in the county — bar none. And no, it’s not the San Diego Tax Fighters guide. What makes this such a great overview is that it includes the recommendations of quite a number of groups, including opponents such as the …
Recent Comments