San Diego Tax Fighters' Richard Rider at the podium, with San Diego County Republican Party chair To

BTW, a kind word for the 4 opponents who came with their signs. They made their point with decorum -- not in any way interfering with our press conference. They spoke with the press when reporters queried them for opinions, which was fine. BOTH sides could learn a lesson from their civil behavior. Kudos to those folks for behaving like the adults they are.
— November 1, 2012 8:40 a.m.

San Diego Tax Fighters' Richard Rider at the podium, with San Diego County Republican Party chair To

California has a nasty anti-small business $800 minimum corporate income tax, even if no profit is earned, and even for many nonprofits. Next highest state is Oregon at $150. A few others under $100, with most at zero. www.tinyurl.com/CA-800-tax California small businesses failed in 2011 at a rate 69% higher than the national average -- the worst state in the nation. http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/19/smallbusiness/sma… (based on Dunn & Bradstreet study) America’s top 650 CEO’s rank California “the worst state in which to do business” for the 8th straight year (May, 2012). http://chiefexecutive.net/best-worst-states-for-b… (It’s worth reading the short article, and especially the part about California.)
— November 1, 2012 8:37 a.m.

San Diego Tax Fighters' Richard Rider at the podium, with San Diego County Republican Party chair To

1 in 5 in Los Angeles County receiving public aid. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-welfare22… California has 12% of the nation’s population, but 33% of the country’s TANF (“Temporary” Assistance for Needy Families) welfare recipients – more than the next 7 states combined. Unlike other states, this “temporary” assistance becomes much more permanent in CA. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jul/28/welfar… California prison guards highest paid in the nation. http://www.caltax.org/caltaxletter/2008/101708_fr…
— November 1, 2012 8:35 a.m.

San Diego Tax Fighters' Richard Rider at the podium, with San Diego County Republican Party chair To

CA needlessly licenses more occupations than any state – 177. Second worst state is Connecticut at 155. The average for the states is 92. http://cssrc.us/publications.aspx?id=7707 California’s 2013 “business tax climate” still ranks 3rd worst in the nation – behind New Jersey and New York state. http://taxfoundation.org/article/2013-state-busin… CA public school teachers the highest paid in the nation. CA students rank 48th in math achievement, 49th in reading. http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2011/calfacts/calfa… page 36
— November 1, 2012 8:34 a.m.

San Diego Tax Fighters' Richard Rider at the podium, with San Diego County Republican Party chair To

CA has the 2nd highest gas tax in the nation at 68.9 cents/gallon (October, 2012). National average is 49.3 cents. http://www.api.org/statistics/fueltaxes/ (also CA has the nation’s 2nd highest diesel tax – 77.1 cents/gallon. National average 54.5 cents) California in 2009 ranked 15th highest in per capita property taxes (including commercial) – the only major tax where we are not in the worst ten states. But CA property taxes per owner-occupied home were the 10th highest in the nation in 2009. http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/251.html and http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/1913.ht… (2009 latest year available)
— November 1, 2012 8:32 a.m.

San Diego Tax Fighters' Richard Rider at the podium, with San Diego County Republican Party chair To

California ALREADY has the 2nd worst state income tax in the nation. Our 9.3% tax bracket starts at $48,029 for people filing as individuals. 10.3% tax starts at $1,000,000. Governor Brown has put on the ballot Prop 30 to change the “millionaires’ tax” to 13.3%, starting at $500,000 – including capital gains. If approved, CA will be by far #1 in income tax rates. We will be 21% higher than the 2nd highest state (Hawaii), 34% higher than the 3rd highest state (Oregon), and a heck of a lot higher than all the rest – including 7 states with zero state income tax. http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfoundation.org/… Tables #11 & 13 CA ALREADY has the highest state sales tax rate in the nation. 7.25% (does not include local sales taxes). http://taxfoundation.org/article/state-and-local-… CA corporate income tax rate (8.84%) is the highest west of the Mississippi (our economic competitors) except for Alaska. http://taxfoundation.org/article/2013-state-busin… Table #1 – we are 6th highest nationwide. With our high tax and anti-business policies, CA has become the engine of prosperity -- for the OTHER 49 states.
— November 1, 2012 8:31 a.m.

San Diego Tax Fighters' Richard Rider at the podium, with San Diego County Republican Party chair To

There is one aspect of this measure that few have reported on. Look at who is FUNDING Prop 30. About 90% of the money (currently over $60 million!) is coming from the labor unions -- including OUT OF STATE labor unions. http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_… [BTW, much of the rest of the Prop 30 funding consists of extortion payments made by big California corporations desperately trying to curry favor with the Sacramento Democrats backing this measure.] Trust the union bosses to understand what Prop 30 is REALLY about -- the continuance of the status quo -- high pay and terrific pensions for CA state and local employees. As goes CA, so goes the nation. And the unions know it.
— November 1, 2012 8:29 a.m.

San Diego Tax Fighters' Richard Rider at the podium, with San Diego County Republican Party chair To

To be fair, this was a PRESS CONFERENCE -- not a rally. No effort was made to bring the troops -- by either side. It's no different than Governor Brown's recent press conference FOR Prop 30 -- which had about 20 supporters in attendance -- almost all government employees. The one BIG difference is that Gov. Brown banned any opponents from standing within one block of his press conference on PUBLIC PROPERTY -- and used multiple police forces to enforce this edict -- threatening arrest to "trespassers." At our press conference, we would not -- and did not.
— November 1, 2012 8:15 a.m.

New Calif. redevelopment law could stop Chargers stadium

I suspect that the big concern for the Chargers is that -- if they are NOT selected to move to the LA stadium -- they will lose a bunch of their current sky box renters -- a key component of a profitable pro football team. San Diego is a "branch office" city, with too few large corporate headquarters located here. With LA without an NFL team, some corporations in that region rent Charger sky boxes. If LA gets a team, the Chargers can say "good-bye" to most of these current renters. Unknown to the public is the number of such LA/OC corps that rent Charger sky boxes. Rumor has it that the number is 20 or more. The Chargers aren't saying. Then there is the Charger sky box CURRENT vacancy problem, which again is rumored to exceed two dozen at this time. I don't expect the Chargers will be releasing such info, even though they desperately seek massive taxpayer subsidies. BOTTOM LINE: With only 3.1 million people and few big corporations, the San Diego region is a small NFL market that likely will struggle financially compared to other NFL teams. IMO, if the Chargers get the opportunity to move elsewhere (with subsidies, of course), it's hard to imagine that we'll be able to keep or attract an NFL team here.
— September 3, 2011 10:26 a.m.

Activist Groups Call for End to War on Drugs

(continued - part 3) 11. Return to a respect for the Bill of Rights with its support for the 2nd Amendment, due process and privacy in one’s personal life. Gun owners are starting to understand that perhaps the greatest danger to their right to keep and bear arms is the hysteria connected with the drug war. 12. End government's Big Brother monitoring of our e-mails, our cell phones, our travels and our financial transactions under the guise of seeking “drug money." 13. Reduce our international balance of payments problem. 14. End the onerous action of asset forfeiture -- the confiscation of property from suspected drug users and dealers (i.e. minorities with a lot of cash) without even charging them with a crime, let alone convicting them. 15. End our inadvertent funding of the communist and terrorist movements around the world, and especially in Latin America (our drug money is used to buy protection for the drug lords and farmers in South America). 16. End our meddling in other countries' affairs in our vain attempt to curtail drug imports to the U.S. Significant savings to future military budgets should result, not to mention avoiding casualties from such conflicts and the increasing risk of a nuclear, biological or chemical warfare reprisal against our cities. 17. Allow companies to design safer, less potent drugs. Note the drop in potency in the “legal” harmful drugs -- alcohol and tobacco. Illegal drugs, however, become even more potent since a more compact product is easier to smuggle and carries no greater penalty if caught. 18. Stop persecuting people for private actions that, while they may harm themselves, do not directly harm others. Understand, with this freedom will come increased responsibility for one's actions. We libertarians come down hard on drunk drivers and others who first harm others and then claim diminished capacity. No “Twinkie defense” would be allowed. One would face both criminal penalties and restitution responsibilities if one harmed others. --30--
— June 22, 2011 4:48 p.m.