SVTA Talk: Thursday, May 16

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May 132013
 

May 16, 2013 at 6:15 PM:

JOE BANISTER,

former Special Agent with the IRS

Third Thursday Taxpayers Toolkit Meeting

* * *

Free for SVTA members
$10 individual non-member
$15 non-member couple

6:15 P.M.: No-host dinner and registration
7:00 P.M.: Meeting

 

***

All are welcome! We especially invite members of neighborhood associations and other community action organizations to come and introduce themselves to our members. Just RSVP and if we can accommodate everyone, we’ll plan to include you on the agenda!

We encourage you to come around 6 o’clock to dine at Harry’s Hofbrau. To help us keep the cost of the facility low, please deposit your dinner receipt in the bucket marked “SVTA” at the cashier’s desk.

* * *

Business meeting – Santa Clara County Libertarian Party

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Apr 232013
 

We will have our second quarter meeting of the Santa Clara Libertarian Party on Thursday, May 23.

If you wish to order pizza please arrive at 7pm.

The  business portion of the meeting starts at 7:30pm.

It will be held at:

           Round Table Pizza

           4400 Stevens Creek Blvd

           San Jose, CA 95129

 

 

 

STEVEN GREENHUT to speak April 18 at Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association

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Apr 152013
 

Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association presents its

Third Thursday Taxpayer Toolkit

THE FUTURE OF CALIFORNIA:
Of Public Pensions and Supermajorities

featuring STEVEN GREENHUT Author of Plunder! and Abuse of Power

April 18, 2013 at 6:15 P.M.

* * *

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

One of SVTA’s favorite speakers, Steven Greenhut now serves as Vice President of Journalism at Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. Until recently, he headed the investigative e-publication, CalWatchdog, for Pacific Research Institute, and before that, he spent eleven years on the editorial board of the Orange County Register.

Greenhut is the author of two books: Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain  (2004, Seven Locks Press), and Plunder! How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation (2009, The Forum Press). He has won the Institute for Justice’s Thomas Paine Award, and is a frequent contributor to Reason Magazine.

* * *

WHEN:

6:15 P.M.         Registration and no-host dinner
7:00 P.M.         Program

WHERE:

Harry’s Hofbrau
390 Saratoga Avenue (between Stevens Creek Blvd. and Highway 280)
San Jose, CA 95129

 

COST:

Free for SVTA members (including those who join or renew at the door)
$10 individual non-member
$15 non-member couple

(To become a member, click here: http://www.svtaxpayers.org/membership-and-renewal.)

RSVP by…
…visiting http://www.svtaxpayers.org/svta-events?eventId=575277&EventViewMode=EventDetails, or
…phoning us at 408-279-5000, or
…e-mailing us at info@SVTaxpayers.org.

All are welcome! We especially invite members of neighborhood associations and other community action organizations. Representatives of related organizations are invited to come and introduce themselves to our members. Just RSVP and we’ll see whether we have room for you on this month’s agenda!

 

We encourage you to arrive early for a no-host dinner and socializing with fellow taxpayers. To help us keep the cost of the facility down, please deposit your dinner receipt in the bucket marked “SVTA” at the cashier’s desk.

* * *

ABOUT SVTA’S THIRD THURSDAY TAXPAYER TOOLKIT MEETINGS:  SVTA is pleased to present keynote speakers in a forum for you, the taxpayer, to come together and share information on specific tax issues and concerns. We invite you to learn with us, as we strengthen ourselves with tools that we, as your taxpayer association, can use to fight for and protect your rights and interests as Silicon Valley taxpayers, homeowners, and business owners.

 

MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR THESE UPCOMING TAXPAYER TOOLKIT EVENTS:
May 16: Joe Banister, former IRS special agent
June 20: John Inks, Mayor of Mountain View
July 18: David Wolfe, Legislative Director of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association

Timothy Sandefur to Speak April 23 at San Jose State

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Apr 082013
 

San Jose State University
Department of Economics

David S. Saurman Provocative Lecture Series

* * * * * * * *

“How Government Stifles Our Innovators:

A Case Study on the Right to Earn a Living in Missouri”

Timothy Sandefur, Esq.

Principal Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation

STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC ARE ALL WELCOME TO ATTEND.

Of all the forms of business regulation that restrict economic opportunity and obstruct the right of entrepreneurs to earn a living, none is more senseless than the “Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity.” These laws essentially require entrepreneurs to get permission from their own competition before they may go into business. First devised over a century ago to regulate railroads, these laws remain on the books today in most states, governing businesses as diverse as medical clinics and taxicabs.  They result in higher prices, poorer quality service—and the destruction of economic opportunity for those who need it most.

In his position as lead attorney in the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Economic Liberty Project, attorney and author Timothy Sandefur has brought lawsuits to challenge the constitutionality of these laws in Oregon, Missouri, Nevada, and Kentucky.  In his lecture, Sandefur shows how Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity laws harm business innovators and consumers, and violate what Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas once called “the most precious liberty that man possesses”: the right to earn a living.

Sandefur is a Principal Attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation and an Adjunct Scholar with the Cato Institute.  He is the author of more than 40 scholarly articles on a wide variety of legal subjects, as well as two books: Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century America and The Right to Earn A Living: Economic Freedom and The Law.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

5:15–6:45 P.M.

Engineering Room 189

ABOUT THE DAVID S. SAURMAN PROVOCATIVE LECTURE SERIES: The Department of Economics invites students, faculty, and the general public to consider intellectual arguments on controversial topics. Presenters in the Provocative Lecture Series are noted for their outstanding scholarship and public speaking ability. This lecture series fosters the tradition of higher education to challenge ideas and develop critical thinking in an environment of respect for intellectual discourse. Our goal is for you to develop the critical thinking skills necessary to reach your own informed position on controversial issues. We invite you to attend, to relax, to ponder, and to enjoy the thought process.

Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association interview in Mercury News

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Mar 052013
 

Mark Hinkle of the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association was interviewed after  the unsuccessful attempt to roll back taxes.

Even though it was unsuccessful, libertarians are happy that someone is looking out for the taxpayers.

See the article for more details:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/breaking-news/ci_22717128/santa-clara-county-judge-allows-valley-water-districts

 

Annual Meeting – Jan 26, 2013

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Jan 272013
 

Congratulations to the newly elected officers:

Chair – Ed Wimmers

Vice Chair – Brian Darby

Secretary – Brian Darby

Treasurer – Al Newman

Membership Chair – Angela Wimmers

Newsletter Chair – Cathi Brown

 

Thanks to our speakers:

ArLyne Diamond

Johnny Lee

Mark Hinkle

John Inks

Brian Holtz

 

Meeting of Silicon Valley Taxpayer Association

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Jan 152013
 
For more details see:

http://www.svtaxpayers.org/svta-events

  • Thursday, January 17, 2013
  • 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
  • Harry’s Hofbrau (back room), 390 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, CA 95129

January 17, 2013 at 7:00 P.M.:

MIMI STEEL

Property & Liberty: The Threat to Wealth & Freedom in Modern-Day America

Third Thursday Taxpayers Toolkit Meeting

* * *

Mimi Steel is the President of
the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of
the Citizens Alliance for Property Rights (CAPR)

Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County – 2013 Annual Meeting – Jan 26, 2013

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Dec 232012
 

ANNOUNCING:

 

 

Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County  -  2013 Annual Meeting

Date:  Saturday,  January 26, 2013

 

11:30am   Registration

Noon        Lunch

1pm          Business Session and Program (including officer elections)

4pm          Convention Adjourns

 

Location:  Fish Market

1007 Blossom Hill Road

San Jose, CA

 

The restaurant is about 100 feet west of the Almaden branch of the VTA light rail.

 

(if you actually take the light rail to get there, get off at Oakridge)

 

When you get to the restaurant, ask for Fred’s Room

 

 

After long and intense negotiations with the restaurant, we managed to get them to agree to the following…

 

  1. You can order anything on the menu

 

  1. We will all get separate checks

 

c.   There is a mandatory 18% service charge

 

 

http://www.thefishmarket.com/menus/downloadable%20menus/sj_lunch.pdf

 

As you can see, 95% of the menu is seafood.

However, if you are good at playing Where’s Waldo, you should be able to find the hamburger, chicken, and steak listings.

 

Although you can attend the meeting without buying lunch, please understand that

the Fish Market provides this room free of charge in return for us purchasing their food.

 

Please eat lunch with us, so that we leave a good impression with the restaurant.

 

We hope to see you at the Fish Market on January 26!

Report on Silicon Valley Taxpayer Meeting (Nov 15, 2012)

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Dec 092012
 

On Thursday night, Nov 15, 2012, the Silicon Valley Taxpayers had their monthly meeting.

The highlight of the evening was a talk by Randall O’Toole of the Cato Institute about home ownership.

It will not be surprising to visitors to this site to find out the government interference in the housing market is causing many problems.

Here are a few interesting points made by the speaker:

1.  It used to be that the poor owned their own home while the upper middle class rented.

2. Absent government interference, supply of housing is elastic and increased demand does not cause much of a rise in house prices.

3. The states (such as CA) with more government interference (such as zoning, environmental regulations, etc) had less elastic house prices.  This caused wider swings in house prices leading to more homes being way under water than in the states with less government interference.

 

For more details, see Randall O’Toole’s book:

Product Details

American Nightmare: How Government Undermines the Dream of Home Ownership

  • Hardcover: 277 pages
  • Publisher: Cato Institute (May 16, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1937184889
  • ISBN-13: 978-1937184889

You can find it on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=randall+otoole+american+dream

 

Provocative Lecture Series

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Dec 052012
 

 

 San Jose State University
Department of Economics

David S. Saurman Provocative Lecture Series

* * * * * * * *

“Rich States, Poor States”

Jonathan Williams

Director of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council

STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC ARE ALL WELCOME TO ATTEND.

A smart person learns from his or her own mistakes; a wise person learns from other’s mistakes.  Can state governments learn from one another?  Jonathan Williams provides legislators, policymakers, and the American people with timely and honest insight into which public policies encourage economic growth and prosperity and which do not.  Armed with facts and directions on how to foster a prosperous society, states can avoid costly misadventures in government structure and policies. Williams contrasts states that learn lessons with those that do not.

Jonathan Williams is the director of the Center for State Fiscal Reform and the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where he works with state policymakers, congressional leaders, and members of the private sector to develop fiscal policy solutions for the states. Prior to joining ALEC, Williams served as staff economist at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, authoring numerous tax policy studies. Along with his co-authors, Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore, Williams created the annual, award-winning publication, Rich States, Poor States. His work has appeared in many publications including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Investor’s Business Daily. He has written for the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In addition, Williams is a contributor to In Defense of Capitalism (Northwood University Press, 2010). He is a frequent guest on talk radio shows and has appeared on numerous television outlets, including the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Fox Business News. Williams was also the recipient of the prestigious Ludwig von Mises Award in Economics.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

5:15–6:45 P.M.

Martin Luther King Library Room 225

 

ABOUT THE DAVID S. SAURMAN PROVOCATIVE LECTURE SERIES: The Department of Economics invites students, faculty, and the general public to consider intellectual arguments on controversial topics. Presenters in the Provocative Lecture Series are noted for their outstanding scholarship and public speaking ability. This lecture series fosters the tradition of higher education to challenge ideas and develop critical thinking in an environment of respect for intellectual discourse. Our goal is for you to develop the critical thinking skills necessary to reach your own informed position on controversial issues. We invite you to attend, to relax, to ponder, and to enjoy the thought process.

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