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Contributor
John
Campbell
John
Campbell (R-Irvine) is a California State Senator representing
the 35th District
in Orange County. He represents the cities of Newport
Beach,
Laguna Beach, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach
and Cypress. He can be reached through his Senate website
and through the website
for his California Senate campaign. [go to Campbell index]
 Toilet
Paper Tax, Pensions And Education
More liberal lunacies...
[John Campbell] 3/21/05
What will they think of next?
I normally
tell you about California political developments. But this
week, a story
out of Florida
takes the proverbial cake. You may remember those lyrics in
an old Beatles song about the "tax man". "If
you try to drive I'll tax the street; if you take a walk I'll
tax your feet; if you go to sit I'll tax your seat; if you
get too cold I'll tax the heat". Well, Florida State Senator
Al Lawson has proposed a $.02 per-roll tax on toilet paper.
The lawmaker says this is needed to pay for wastewater treatment
and sewer upgrades. When it was pointed out that a tax on toilet
paper might result in people using less of it, Florida Governor
Jeb Bush remarked, "That's not necessarily a good thing.” When
combined with California's notorious proposed "diaper
tax,” it seems that even the most elemental of bodily
functions is not immune from Democrats’ taxing ways.
If you can't even go to the restroom without being taxed, what
can you do? What is next, a tax for breathing?
AB 310
Last week,
I told you about Assemblyman Tom Umberg's (D-Santa Ana) proposal
to
increase non-teacher school employee
pensions by 25%. This bill shows what the unions really want
to do with the additional money they claim is for schools. After
I wrote about this, and two newspapers wrote editorials against
it last week, the bill was abruptly dropped. The sponsors said
that it was just a "spot bill" and they never intended
to move forward with it. Uh-huh, sure. The truth is, it exposed
them for what they are really trying to do and they didn't like
that. We can now see the man behind the fiscal curtain and what
his next move is. But they cannot unscramble that egg. We know.
If schools get more money, they do not want it to benefit kids.
They want it to line their pockets further. Remember, it is not
how much money we spend on schools, it is how we spend what we
have.
More Education Stuff
Recently,
Don Perata (D-Oakland), who is President Pro Tempore of the
Senate, stated
that he could work
with Governor Schwarzenegger on education reform including performance
pay and changing the Proposition 98 funding mechanism which he
described as "an escalator without pause.” He was
recently quoted in the Sacramento Bee as saying "We need
to demonstrate that the money we are spending per child is being
spent well. Right now, we're in a pitched battle over the wrong
thing". But the teacher's union doesn't like to hear this
sort of thing, especially from a Democrat. They punished him
by sending mailers to every household in his district criticizing
his position. Of course, Oakland, in his district, has some of
the highest-funded and lowest-performing schools in the state.
The mail campaign attacking him was the thanks he got for telling
it straight. Oh, by the way, Senator Perata is a former teacher. CRO
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