Richard Rider is Tax-Fighter of the Year

An announcement by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association about Richard Rider, the 1994 Libertarian candidate for California governor, and a 2005 candidate for San Diego mayor:

Sacramento --- The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has selected taxpayer advocate Richard Rider as its 2009 Tax Fighter of the Year.

Rider serves as Chairman of the San Diego Tax Fighters, but his work has benefited taxpayers throughout the state. His successful suit against the county of San Diego (Rider vs. County of San Diego) forced a rollback of an illegal 1/2-cent jails sales tax, a precedent that has saved California taxpayers over fourteen billion dollars, including $3.5 billion for San Diego taxpayers.

Rider @ LPSD: Think Outside The Library Box

An Aug. 12 San Diego Tax Fighters article by Richard Rider on the San Diego County Libertarian Party blog:

San Diego County has a number of public library systems open to the general public.  Two operations are quite large - the San Diego County and San Diego City libraries.  In addition, the cities of Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Oceanside, Coronado, Escondido and National City each have their own library systems.

Without exception, each jurisdiction's library department has become a swelling financial drain on taxpayers.  A byproduct has been the reduction of the hours of operation.  This expanding cost - reflecting primarily the mushrooming compensation packages for public library employees - has been a growing problem in good times.  During this recession, it's become a much bigger problem.

It's time to consider an alternative way of delivering library services.

LPSF: Top-Two Primary Equals Closed General Election

From the LPSF blog, a letter to the editor:

In June 2010, the voters of California will be voting on State Senator Abel Maldonado's ballot measure to restructure federal and state elections in California. We request in articles about the Maldonado ballot initiative your stories refer to it as the "top-two" election proposal, not the "open primary" proposal.

The Maldonado system is not an open primary. Political science textbooks have defined "open primary" for over 100 years to be a system in which each party has its own primary. However, the voters are free on primary election day to decide which party's primary ballot to use.