What is the difference between pandering and leadership? Simple: When you go before a group of voters and tell them what they want to hear, that's pandering. But when you go before the same group and tell them what they need to hear, even if it isn't popular, that's leadership.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, is ramping up her push for a new blue ribbon commission to propose an overhaul of California's tax system. She says that, under the present system, revenue is so volatile that periodic budget crises – such as the massive mess the state now finds itself in – are unavoidable.