Comments on: Flopped 5 Ignites Meathead Cig Tax

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 14:18:04 +0000

@George – the main point of flopped5 is after is to inform Californians about how these tax funds have been spent, and for many people, they have been spent in ways we did not intend should we have voted for the Proposition. If you actually go and read the entire website, you might understand our concerns more completely… then come back and we can have a dialogue.

By: George Marx

George Marx — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 04:03:24 +0000

First I would question if these are all the facts are has then been edited to make a point that somebody wants made. Nothing is all good or all bad.

Secondly, First 5 is not general taxpayer dollars. If you do not smoke you do not pay. So if you do not smoke then you have not contributed a dime to First 5. In fact according to a 2011 report the California smoking rate among adults was down to an all time low of 12% which means 88% of Californians do not pay a single penny for first 5.

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:22:42 +0000

We have now found a First 5 county that appears to have had a large LEAD contamination problem (3.5 times the federal limit) in 6500 toys it distributed and though they have a web page on it, we can find no evidence of a press release to warn the public or a local newspaper story warning the community. It looks like they announced it on their site and maybe at some child resource centers and that’s it. That was realy “doing something for the kids” huh folks?

Check it out: http://www.flopped5.org/hot-off-the-press.html

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:41:14 +0000

Don –

The website did not push Ms. Novick out the door, though we love your exuberance

However, when someone leaves just a few months shy of her 10 year pension service anniversary, that may say a whole lot, as for most people that is the required service period in order to get the full pension credit. She may have had other service credit elsewhere, but we think it is noteworthy.

Our view is that when Fresno First 5 tried to censure Rob Reiner, Ms. Novick probably realized she and Reiner et al could not control the counties anymore, and to someone like her, that probably means the ship is going down, since the PR can no longer generally be controlled in such a situation, hence she left.

We do agree that there may be an impact for shining a light on their activities. If you have any published information that you think might help us do that, please visit our contact page and let us know at http://www.flopped5.org/contact-us.html

By: Don

Don — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:58:17 +0000

Looks like the iceberg is melting already. Great job Flopped5.org – the $200,000+ per year Lobbyist apparently quit or was forced out. Makes me know there’s more to this First 5 org if all it takes is a website to get them resigning.

Good work! Can’t say it enough – Damn the arrogant “public servant”.

here’s that link again: http://www.flopped5.org

looks like all you really got to do with these people is shine enough light on their crap and they start running for a rock under which to hide…

By: PJ

PJ — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:49:25 +0000

All these task forces and centers for this and that (at the university level) are just highly paid patronage jobs. My “favorite” is the CUIAB Board which has mushroomed over the years too accommodate guys who lost their last election. Jerry Brown even briefly supported abolishing it, but that was a bridge too far I guess.

But campaign managers and defeated pols need money too!

By: Eric in SR

Eric in SR — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:39:13 +0000

Probably not very well, lol….

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:54:05 +0000

“Missouri, with a mere 17 cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes, doesn’t pay a consultant 200 bucks an hour to listen to the radio…”

True, Eric, but can their pregnant teens belly dance?

By: Eric in SR

Eric in SR — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:46:56 +0000

I am a non-smoker. I’d wager that California’s smoking rate hasn’t gone down a bit since this ridiculous First 5 cigarette tax got passed a little over 13 years ago.

Check out http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/cigarette.pdf Though California doesn’t have the highest tobacco tax (yet!), it DOES have the highest gasoline tax (see http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/26079.html), three times Wyoming’s gas tax and over six times Alaska’s.

Missouri, with a mere 17 cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes, doesn’t pay a consultant 200 bucks an hour to listen to the radio, I think it’s safe to say. Heck, I’ll listen to NPR and KPFA, the left-wing station in Berkeley for just $175 an hour–it’ll help my wife and I move out of state that much quicker!

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:26:45 +0000

Of course none of this can be cut.

We must vote for Jerry Brown’s (and all the other crooks’) tax increases.

This is what the liberals who infest this blog will demand.