Inside Riverside

Dennis Hollingsworth Fails To Stop Tax Increases

Well we told you yesterday dear readers, that the elevation of State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth to the position of Senate Minority Leader might not be a good thing.  Well so far it's not paying off.

Hours after Dennis Hollingsworth ousted Republican State Senator Dave Cogdill from the Minority Leader post, the California Legislature approved $12.8 billion in tax increases.

Senator Hollingsworth was powerless to stop it.  The Governor and the other legislative leaders snubbed Hollingsworth's demand to reopen the budget talks and remove the proposed tax increases.  They clearly recognized him as the ineffective lightweight that he is.

Therefore, from this point forward he shall be dubbed Senator Hollingsworthless.

The tax increases that Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworthless failed to stop include:

• A 1 cent increase in the State's sales tax.  Seems like a little, but it's not. 
• A quarter percent increase in the State Income Tax.  Again, seems like a little, but it's not and every little bit will keep adding up.  
• A doubling of the Vehicle License Fee or VLF or car tax.  Yep, history repeats itself dear readers.  This is the same tax increase that got Gray Davis thrown out.  Arnie is hoping that only doubling it will not upset voters as much as tripling it.  Not a wager we'd make dear readers.
• Reducing the dependent child tax credit from $309 to $99.  This will hit low income families and single parents the hardest.  It's one tax increase that we're surprised any Democrats voted for.  

The one tax that was removed was the 12 cents per gallon tax increase on gasoline.  Now before you conservatives run off to give slobbering praises to Senator Hollingsworth as you try to claim some victory for a huge defeat not only for the GOP but for the hard working people of California, it should be noted that it was turn coat Republican Senator Abel Maldonado who got the gasoline tax increase removed from the budget.

Maldonado who has been using the media to build a public persona as a reasonable Republican who would vote for the budget fix, therefore he thinks voters should put him in a higher office, like that of State Controller, provided the necessary vote to pass this flim flam budget and these tax increases.

To be able to say he is still somewhat of a Republican, Senator Maldonado cut a deal with the Wee Five to remove the gasoline tax increase and change the 5% income tax surcharge into an across the board income tax increase.  What he was drinking when he came up with that logic is beyond us, dear readers.

Additionally, Maldonado got the Wee Five to agree to put two  constitutional amendments on the ballot at a cost of many millions of dollars to our already cash strapped state.  

Maldonado's pet amendments are:

1. An amendment to create an open primary that allows the top two vote winners to square off in the November election regardless of party.  This is a much needed reform to bring a sense of balance and bipartisanship back to the state, but it never should have been part of the budget deal. It should have been voted up or down regardless of Maldonado's vote.    
2. An amendment to ban legislative pay increases when their is a budget deficit.  This will pass but it is worthless as the State Constitution prohibits the state to officially run a deficit.  That's why all of the borrowing gimmicks go into place whenever the Legislature overspends tax revenue.  

All but one of Riverside County's legislators voted against this budget and these tax increases.  With our county being dominated with Republicans this shouldn't come as any surprise, but one never knows, especially when five Republicans who campaigned against taxes turned around and voted for them.

Only Democratic Assemblyman Manuel Perez voted for these tax increases, which means he's likely to face a stiff challenge next year.  If the economy is still in the tank and this tax plan that allows the State to keep spending money even as average Californians are pinching pennies does not work, as we here at Inside Riverside believe it won't, then its a good bet dear readers that Perez will only serve one term in the State Assembly.  And rightfully so.  

Anyone who voted for this budget should be ashamed and does not deserve to be in office.  But there's a leadership vacuum in Sacramento and as long as legislators keep choosing people like Dennis Hollingsworthless to be their standard bearer, then nothing is going to change except our rising tax bills. 

  

Conservative Hypocrite Dennis Hollingsworth Ousts Senate Minority Leader

California State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, a Republican from right here in Riverside County, the City of Murrieta to be precise, has been selected leader of the Republicans in the California State Senate.  

Dennis Hollingsworth successfully led a coup against the Senate Minority Leader, Republican Dave Cogdill of Modesto.  Cogdill was overthrown by his own party for embracing a budget deal that will raise taxes on income, sales, gasoline, and vehicle registration.  Senator Cogdill helped broker this bad deal last week as a member of the State's Wee Five (the Governor, Assembly Speaker, Senate President, plus the Assembly and Senate Minority Leaders).

Senator Cogdill apparently misread his Republican colleagues on the issue of taxation.  But can you blame Cogdill?  After all, the Republican Party has abandoned nearly all of its core principles at one point or another in the last decade.  

Senator Cogdill must've figured his party would give him a pass for agreeing to a soak the rich, poor, and middle class tax increase.  He probably thought many of them would vote with him just to get the budget done and keep the State of California in business.  Guess again.

Late last night Republicans in the State Senate voted to remove Senator Dave Cogdill and replace him with our own Senator Dennis Hollingsworth.  But don't break out the party favors just yet, dear readers. Hollingsworth is a mixed bag, not only for our county, for the state, but also his own party.

Senator Hollingsworth is one of the most conservative members of the entire State Legislature, if not the most conservative.  Hollingsworth probably has more votes against legislation than any other legislator, while also being a leader in getting the least amount of legislation passed and signed into law.  For six years Dennis Hollingsworth has just taken up space and fed at the taxpayer troth with practically nothing to show for it but his frequent flyer miles.

On the positive side, having a committed anti-tax Republican now as part of the State's Wee Five  may be good in the short term.  If Hollingsworth can hold Republicans in line, he might be able to scale back and possibly prevent the economically devastating tax increases Governor Schwarzennegger and Democratic legislative leaders badly want.

However, Hollingsworth does not have an alternative plan.  Like most Republicans, Hollingsworth only knows how to show up and vote no.  It's the real problem in this whole budget mess. Republicans need to put up a very real and a very detailed plan that balances the State budget without any, or only with extremely limited, tax increases.

Given that state government under the horrible leadership of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has grown 40%, there are plenty of places for the Republicans to cut.  It won't make the Democrats happy. But guess what?  At least with two competing plans on the table real work and real budget compromise can get underway.

On the negative side, Dennis Hollingsworth is bad for his party in the long term.  He is not the kind of Republican that will be able to attract moderate, independent, and Hispanic voters to the GOP that the party desperately needs to expand its numbers and win election's in California.  That will keep California a one party state and continue to lead to state government that has no purpose other than existing.  

Dennis Hollingsworth is also a hard-core fire-breathing Christian conservative that can not agree or collaborate with anyone that does not see the world exactly as he does.  Now Hollingsworth and his followers will probably read the above as a compliment, while progressives and liberals will dismiss it  since believe Hollingsworth is like all Republicans.  That is not the case. 

Hollingsworth's religious views are to the right of George W. Bush.  Yes, you read the right. Hollingsworth's views are further to the right than our recently retired President who was the darling of the Christian right his entire eight years.   To understand this clearly, if Dennis Hollingsworth were a Muslim, he would be a member of the Taliban.

Which of course makes Senator Hollingsworth a hypocrite.  In his 2000 Assembly election, Hollingsworth was forced to admit a long-standing affair with a woman he worked with at the Riverside County Farm Bureau.  

Rumor even has it that Dennis Hollingsworth once filed a false police report when a bike was stolen out of the back of his truck from the driveway of the woman's house.  Hollingsworth would have outed himself for his marital infidelity if he called the theft in from her house, so according to our sources he reported the incident and provided the police with false information about where the bike was stolen.

Dennis Hollingsworth asked for forgiveness from the voters for his affair, and they gave it to him.  Sadly people like Hollingsworth don't share the same kind of mercy and forgiveness with others that have momentary lapses of judgement or who make mistakes in their lives.

Such things aside, hopefully Senator Hollingsworth will be able to get a state budget done that does not contain many or any tax increases.  The State needs to learn to live within its means just like the rest of us dear readers.   That will require more than his standard no vote.  We are hopeful that as Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth will actually start doing the work he is being paid for.  If not, then we will all know that he shortened his name to Hollingsworth from Hollingsworthless.

Recall Of Gray Davis Was Mistake

It's about to become official.  Arnold Schwarzenegger is the worst governor in the history of the state of California.  Yes, Schwarzenegger is even worse than the governor he replaced, Gray Davis.

The State of California today is in ruin and the blame belongs squarely at the feet of Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Every voter in 2003 who voted to recall Gray Davis --- even if they did not vote for Schwarzenegger as the replacement --- also deserves a share of the blame.

Six years ago the economy of California was in bad shape and the people got frustrated at then Governor Davis.  Gray Davis who won election as a moderate  but he was not moderate in when it came to spending.  He helped the Legislature spend billions more money than it could support in the long run. When the tech bubble burst and the money ran out, Democrats refused to limit their spending and Republicans for the most part refused t support any tax increases.

Gray Davis decided he had to take matters into his own hands and signed an executive order to triple the the Vehicle License Fee (VLF) which Republicans like to call the car tax.  A Recall Petition was already circulating and Davis outraged everyone that owned a car, truck and motorcycle which is what actually got the recall qualified for the ballot.

Davis shifted hard to the left to shore up the Democratic base.  He signed a law that he had previously vetoed making it once again legal for illegal immigrants to obtain California drivers licenses.  But this was a tremendous miscalculation, because even Democrats hated the car tax and only the most rabid members of the Open Borders Faction of the Democratic Party supported granting illegal immigrants drivers licenses.  

And on top of that most of the people of California were receiving monthly reminders of Gray Davis' ineptitude when the mail came with their electric bills.  Davis' mishandling of California's Energy Crisis in 2000 and 2001 was a big issue to them, that combined with his other lame decisions created a perfect formula for the people to oust Gray Davis from the governorship.

That's when action hero movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger rode up to rescue us all from the Gray Davis Blunder Years and to end the unproductive politics as usual that produced overspending and stymied real reform in Sacramento.

Six years later and California is in far worse shape under the governance of Schwarzenegger than it was under Gray Davis.

The State has a $42 billion budget deficit and no cash flow.  School construction has been halted. Freeway and road construction is about to be stopped.  Prison construction is non-existent.  Tax refund checks can not be issued.  And California's public schools are still amongst the worst in the nation.

And now the man who said he was going to end politics as usual is presenting the oldest solution in the political play book to fix his inability to control runaway state spending --- he's going to raise taxes, even though he has a power to control spending that the President of the United States lacks --- the line item veto.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to tax the people of California more than they've ever been taxed before.  And he's going to do it during one of the worst recessions in the history of the Golden State. But don't blame him alone, he had the help of the Wee Five (the Democrat and Republican leader of the State Assembly, and their counterparts in the State Senate) to come up with this plan that will provide death and taxes simultaneously.  Taxes to the people, death to all what's left of California's economy.

If approved by the Legislature, the Schwarzenegger - Wee Five Budget Plan will:

1.  Raise your income taxes.  There will be a 5% surcharge on what you pay the state in income taxes.  Consider it as a gratuity added against your will at a bad restaurant where the food stinks and the service is non-existent.  

2.  Raise the price of gas.  Each gallon of gas you buy, you will now pay the state another 12 cents per gallon.  They say all of this will go for freeway and road improvements, but rest assured the road you drive won't be fixed.  The money will either wind up in Los Angeles or San Francisco mass transit projects, or borrowed by another state agency to provide a service that you will never ever use.

3.  Double your car tax.  The Vehicle License Fee is going to double as you will soon find out when you get your car registration bill.  Schwarzenegger criticized Gray Davis for tripling the VLF, then repealed the action once he was in office.  Technically by only doubling it Arnie is keeping his campaign promise since he's not tripling it.  Politics as usual if you ask us, dear readers.

4.  Raise the sales tax.  The tax you pay on everything you buy is going up 1 cent.  It doesn't seem like a lot, but during a time when money is tight and families are scraping by to survive, the government isn't going to let you get away with buying less and paying less taxes. Now you can buy less and pay more taxes with this plan.

5.  Cut your child tax deductions.  Yes, if you have a kid you will be penalized for reproducing.  The current $309 child deduction is being cut by 66% to only $103.  Nothing like kicking single parents and working class families when they are down.  Rumor has it this part of the legislation is meant to punish Nadya Suleman for having eight babies at once, but we have not been able to confirm this.

On top of all this, California's schools are still failing miserably and the lunatic 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered that California release one-third of its inmate population to relieve prison overcrowding.  This will result in over 50,000 felons being released on parole well before they finish their prison terms.  And to make matters worse here in Riverside County, the Board of Supervisors two weeks ago unanimously ordered massive cuts in spending to all county law enforcement agencies.  

It's hard to imagine Gray Davis making California worse than it is now if he had been allowed to complete his term as governor.  Unfortunately Californians now are leery of the recall process and we are going to be stuck with Arnold Schwarzenegger as our governor for another two very long years.  At least he's prohibited from running again next year.  He won't be back.  And that's something to be grateful for.  If there is anything left of our once golden state and its economy by then.

In California No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

The California Supreme Court has done it again.  

In a 4-3 decision, the Golden State's High Court has ruled that when you hear someone screaming for help in a burning building or see a child drowning in your neighbor's swimming pool, that your only course of action is to call 911.  You should not attempt to help, even if the person in need of help does die, because if any injury happens to the person whose life you are saving, you are legally liable for damages.  

KESQ in Palm Springs reports:

Being a "Good Samaritan" can now land you a lawsuit.

A recent decision by the California Supreme Court seems to say so.

This decision makes would-be rescuers legally responsible for any accidental injuries they cause.

It states the California legislature intended for the law to legally protect any person rendering emergency medical care. That would appear to cover CPR and the Heimlich maneuver for example. But if somebody is injured by a bystander pulling somebody out of a pool or a burning car, the rescuer could be legally responsible for injuries.

KESQ 3: Court Allows Lawsuits Against "Good Samaritans"

The ruling stems for a traffic accident on Halloween night in 2004, when Lisa Norti pulled Alexandra Van Horn from a crashed car.  The Los Angeles Times reports:

Torti, Van Horn and three other co-workers from a San Fernando Valley department store had gone out to a bar on Halloween for a night of drinking and dancing, departing in two cars at 1:30 a.m., the justices noted as background.

Van Horn was a front-seat passenger in a vehicle driven by Anthony Glen Watson, whom she also sued, and Torti rode in the second car. After Watson's car crashed into a light pole at about 45 mph, the rear car pulled off the road and driver Dion Ofoegbu and Torti rushed to help Watson's two passengers escape the wreckage.

Torti testified in a deposition that she saw smoke and liquid coming from Watson's vehicle and feared the car was about to catch fire. None of the others reported seeing signs of an imminent explosion, and Van Horn said in her deposition that Torti grabbed her arm and yanked her out "like a rag doll."

Van Horn's suit alleges negligence by Torti in aggravating a vertebrae injury suffered in the crash, causing permanent damage to the spinal cord.

LA Times: Supreme Court Allows Good Samaritans To Be Sued For Non-Medical Care

This ruling ridiculous.  What the State Supreme Court is saying is that we people of California do not have a moral or a humintarian obligation to our fellow human beings when their lives are on the line, because if we do save their lives, but somehow cause another non-life threatening injury while in the course of saving their lives, that we have to pay for damages.  But if leave them alone and let them die, then we are legally in the clear.  

Does this make sense to anyone?

It didn't to Supreme Court Justice Marvin Baxter who called the decision "illogical" and dissented with the ruling, writing :

One who dives into swirling waters to retrieve a drowning swimmer can be sued for incidental injury he or she causes while bringing the victim to shore, but is immune for harm he or she produces while thereafter trying to revive the victim. Here, the result is that defendant Torti has no immunity for her bravery in pulling her injured friend from a crashed vehicle, even if she reasonably believed it might be about to explode.

Action appears to already to be underway to repeal the Supreme Court's foolish decision.  As KESQ reports above, Riverside County Republican Senator John Benoit is already working on legislation to protect Good Samaritans.  While, we here at Inside Riverside does believe that Senator Benoit is not being straight forward about his possible vote to raise taxes and fees to spare welfare programs from spending reductions during California's current budget mess (Inside Riverside: Why Can't Senator John Benoit Give A Straight Answer? ), Inside Riverside does applaud John Benoit's efforts to protect those that would attempt to help fellow citizens in need of life saving action. 

It is important to note that Chief Justice Ronald George supported this foolish decision. A once respected jurist, George who made a name for himself as a Los Angeles County Judge for refusing to dismiss charges against the Hill Side Stranglers, is making a new name for himself as an activist judge using his position to redefine society and it's values. Last year George helped legalize Same Sex Marriage when he ruled to overturn the voter approved definition of marriage in California as being between. 

As always dear readers, we will keep you posted on the relevant developments in this matter.

Why Can't Senator John Benoit Give A Straight Answer?

On Sunday, the Desert Sun ran an interview they labeled a conversation with newly elected California Republican State Senator John Benoit regarding the Golden State's latest budget crisis, with the State being short $42 billion by 2010.

The interview with Senator Benoit, which you can read in it's entirety here The Desert Sun: A Conversation With John Benoit, is jarring and incoherent.  Benoit uses typical political double-speak to give the Desert Sun long-winded comments intended to make him sound educated and informed, yet Benoit never really answer the paper's questions.  

All of the questions asked of Benoit were simple, many that deserve a Yes or No answer up front, but Benoit never gave a simple or a straight forward answer to any of the 6 questions posed of him.

Here are the three questions the exemplify Benoit's verbal gymnastics in the interview/conversation:

The Desert Sun asked Benoit "Republicans have remained steadfastly against raising taxes, rejecting a Democratic proposal for a combination of cuts and increases. Do you know what is in the Republican plan?"

 Instead of giving a simple Yes or No answer, Benoit said "If you look at the state budget, its biggest item is education and we agree it is important, but it is the biggest item and the biggest cut, no getting away from that."

Does this mean Benoit does not know what the Republican plan is?  Or does it mean he does know, but he's open to supporting the Democratic plan or a compromise bi-partisan plan?

The Desert Sun then asked Benoit "How do you feel about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comments, in which he said he felt lawmakers are doing a dismal job while the state is “headed toward financial Armageddon?”

This question could clearly be answered with "Yes, it's that bad" "It's things are bad, but there's nothing we can't fix by working together in a bipartisan fashion," or "No, Arnold is blowing the whole thing out of proportion."  

Instead John Benoit again dodges the question and replies "The Governor said some things. Everyone is very concerned. It is a very serious situation."  Well duh!  But does Benoit agree with what the Governor said or not?

Finally, the big question the Desert Sun asked of Benoit was this:  "What do you think of an increase in the vehicle license fee?"    Benoit answered "There's talk that if we had it back, we wouldn't have a problem." 

So is Benoit open to raising the Car Tax or not?  He says later in the answer to this question that " to simply say to raise the car tax … that will have a dampening effect on the economy."  But it should be noted dear readers, that not once in this interview did John Benoit rule out raising the vehicle license fee, other state fees, or taxes.  It would have been easy for Benoit to say he was 100% opposed to raising the vehicle license fee, but interestingly enough he did not say any such thing.

Benoit's evasive answer is extremely odd given the fact that since 2003 the vehicle license fee, known to most as the car tax, has been one of the Third Rail's in California politics.  To raise or attempt to raise the vehicle license fee is political suicide.  Many pundits believe that raising the car tax was the final straw that led voters to recall Democratic Governor Gray Davis in 2003.

So is Benoit open to raising the car tax and other taxes and fees to solve California's budget problem?

If so, then the Democratic leadership in the Senate and the Governor are probably happy to be able to count Benoit as an open-minded Republican who will vote for a balanced solution to California's budget woes.  But while the majority of the California's moderate voters would probably accept such a solution that would spare education and welfare from drastic cuts by temporarily increasing some state taxes and fees, those of us who are his constituents in RiversideCounty may not be too hot for this change of position.

Benoit won election to his safe Republican Senate seat after the fierce campaign he ran in the June election promoting his tax fighting credentials while pummeling his hapless opponent Russ Bogh for being too liberal because Bogh had the support of Riverside County's cops and firefighters.  Such a change in position and priorities would be a bitter pill for the Republicans that helped put Benoit into office to swallow.  

Still, John Benoit does need to be honest and upfront with his constituents.  If his position on tax increases has changed and he is now open to raising state taxes and fees to protect public education and assistance to needy families during this deep and lingering recession, he needs to let the people he represents know this.

Telling the truth, especially when switching positions, is something most politicians find difficult if not impossible to do.  Which may the the reason dear readers why Benoit gave such a bizarre and meandering interview to the Desert Sun this last weekend.