• California Citizens Redistricting Commission,  Flap's California Morning Collection,  Jerry Brown,  Los Angeles Community College District,  Peter Foy,  Proposition 13

    Flap’s California Morning Collection: June 24, 2011

    A morning collection of links and comments about my home, California.

    The first from my friend Jon Fleishman who had this excellent video from Simi Valley neighbor and  Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy of the Americans for Prosperity on the Los Angeles Community College District.

    Gov. Jerry Brown sees little progress on budget, but insists ‘I’m not giving up’

    Gov. Jerry Brown said Thursday he was increasingly skeptical that a tax deal could be struck before the July 1 beginning of the new fiscal year, as Democrats and Republicans heatedly blamed each other for the impasse.

    Brown, who issued a historic veto of Democrats’ budget plan a week ago, told a gathering of about 250 apartment owners and developers in San Francisco that he continues to seek GOP support for his budget plan, which includes a tax referendum in the fall.

    “I’m not giving up,” Brown said, even if he has grown less sanguine about the prospect of a legislative accord.

    Although state Controller John Chiang this week invoked a new law to halt lawmakers’ pay until there’s a budget in place, the renewed commotion in the Capitol has produced little progress.

    A critical sticking point is that Brown wants to extend sales and vehicle taxes — which Republicans oppose — until an election can be held. He needs the support of at least four GOP lawmakers for both moves. If he fails, the governor said, he will help gather signatures to place taxes on the ballot next year.

    “It will take the use of the initiative, in all probability,” he said, to restore California’s financial health.

    With talks slipping and time running out, Republicans held an unusual news conference outside the doors of the governor’s Capitol office to blame Brown and his labor supporters for the lack of progress.

    “The public unions and the governor have become the problem in this, not the Republicans,” said Sen. Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar).

    In Wood Ranch, nobody planned for this Congressional district boundary

    When it comes to drawing a new congressional district, the phrase “close enough for government work” does not apply.

    And, for the moment at least, that’s a problem for residents of the master-planned community of Wood Ranch in Simi Valley.

    Under case law stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark “one man-one vote” decision in 1962, congressional districts in each state must be drawn to make the population of each almost exactly equal.

    Under that formula, as the Citizens Redistricting Commission goes about drawing 53 new congressional districts this year in California, each one must have 702,905 people. A variance of one person is allowed.

    So where does Wood Ranch come in?

    In the draft map for a new congressional district that includes most of Ventura County, the commission moved Moorpark and Simi Valley to a separate district to the east. That arrangement would avoid splitting any city in the county almost.

    It turns out the commission needed to take 2,000 people from the combined Moorpark-Simi Valley population of 158,658 to make the numbers work out. To accomplish that, the commission drew a line down the middle of Wood Ranch Parkway.

    Simi Valley city officials and residents of Wood Ranch appealed to the commission to find its 2,000 people somewhere else.

    “The proposed boundaries fracture neighborhoods in Wood Ranch and place neighbors living on opposite sides of the street in different congressional districts,” wrote Mayor Bob Huber in a letter to the commission. “These divisions appear inconsistent and incompatible with the commission’s goal of respecting neighborhood boundaries to the extent possible.”

    Testifying before the panel at a hearing this week in Oxnard, Richard Olson, representing a Wood Ranch homeowners’ association, asked that the planned community be reunited.

    “There are 2,000 residents who have separated from everything,” he said.

    Jerry Brown says Proposition 13 could be tested if budget talks fail

    Gov. Jerry Brown hinted Thursday that if the budget talks with Republicans break down, the initiative fight that would follow would not be limited to Brown’s plans to raise sales, vehicle and income taxes. He said he expects labor groups to pursue changes to Proposition 13, tweaking the current caps on commercial property taxes, if no bipartisan deal can be reached.

    “I would expect there will be efforts to accelerate the reassessment of commercial property tax,” Brown said.

    During his remarks to about 250 apartment owners and developers at the Moscone Center on Thursday, he acknowledged some of his failures in budget talks, particularly over his proposal to eliminate redevelopment agencies.  “I wouldn’t be ready to write the obituary of redevelopment agencies,” he said. “They’re very powerful and they’re still alive and well despite my best efforts.”

    Enjoy your morning!

  • Americans for Prosperity,  Anthony Cannella,  California,  Peter Foy,  Tom Berryhill

    Audio: Americans for Prosperity California Running Radio Ads to Persuade GOP State Senators to Oppose Tax Extension Election


    Americans for Prosperity, California
    start their “Hold Them Accountable” campaign today with airing radio ads targeting GOP State Senators in the Central Valley.

    Specifically, the ads will focus on Senators Tom Berryhill and Anthony Cannella, both Republicans who seem open to supporting the tax hikes. The ads are part of a media and ground campaign to educate and mobilize citizens in opposition to tax increases.

    “Californians are already among the highest taxed citizens in the country,” stated State Director David Spady. “Yet Governor Brown and his legislative cohorts are cooking up a tax hike scheme that will be felt by every hardworking Californian. These legislators have the ability to stop this tax increase from going on the ballot, we expect them to protect taxpayers.”

    “Governor Brown wants to impose the largest tax increase in California history,” explained State Chairman Peter Foy, who voices the radio ads. “As a group that stands up for taxpayers, we will do everything we can to oppose these terrible tax hikes. That includes holding accountable the legislators who may be coerced into raising taxes on their constituents. Someone has to speak for taxpayers, and Americans for Prosperity will do so.”

    Time is running out for a tax extension election this June. Most pundits are now predicting that Governor Jerry Brown will bypass the California Legislature and the 2/3rds vote requirement (requiring GOP participation) and gather signatures for an initiative placing the matter before voters in November. However, the taxes would then no longer be considered tax extensions, but new taxes since the Schwarzenegger era tax increases (that Brown wants to extend) will expire at the end of June.

    So, will these GOP Senators make a deal with Governor Brown?

    Stay tuned……

  • California Governor 2010,  Peter Foy

    Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy – A Credible Conservative GOP Candidate for California Governor?

    PeterFoy

    Ventura County Supervisor and Businessman Peter Foy

    Yes, Supervisor Peter Foy is interested and has the conservative creds.

    Ventura County Supervisor and leader of a state anti-tax group is plotting a conservative challenge in the 2010 gubernatorial primary to deep-pocketed GOP moderates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner.

    In an interview, Peter Foy, state director for Americans for Prosperity, said the state party should have a strong conservative candidate and he may be just what it needs in the gubernatorial field.

    “There’s no question we need some leadership up in Sacramento,” Foy said at Friday night reception hosted by the anti-tax group at the state Republican convention in Sacramento. “I am thinking about it.”

    Foy, who has served on the Ventura board of supervisors since 2006, runs an insurance and employee benefits consulting business – Peter C. Foy and Associates – in Woodland Hills.

    Foy can wish and then hope for a split vote between Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner and Tom Campbell to win the GOP Governor’s Primary Election in June 2010.

    But…….

    Foy’s name recognition statewide is zero and he is NOT a billionaire like Whitman and Poizner. So, despite his position on conservative issues, his chance to win is not very likely.


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  • Glen Becerra,  GOP,  Mike Stoker,  Peter Foy

    California Delegates to 2008 GOP Convention Announced

    CAGOPdelegtion

    The prress release from the California GOP Delegation

    Timm Herdt of the Ventura County Star has parsed the list and culled out the info on Ventura County delegates and alternate delegates. Remember Flap lives in California’s 24th Congressional District and in Ventura County.

    Delegates:

    • Ventura City Councilman Neal Andrews
    • Former Santa Barbara County Supervisor Mike Stoker
    • Simi Valley City Councilman Glen Becerra

    Alternate Delegates:

    • Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy of Simi Valley
    • GOP activist Dianne Alexander of Thousand Oaks
    • Dean Graham

    Flap has been credentialed by both the Republican National Committee and the California GOP to cover the September Republican National Convention.

    Travel plans are pending…….

    California Primary election June 3 2008 - Gallegly party 030

    Simi Valley Councilman Glen Becerra on GOP primary election night victory party for Congressman Elton Gallegly, Photo by Flap

    Stay tuned……


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