An annual $298 parcel tax to fund higher teacher salaries in San Francisco, a measure aimed at attracting and retaining educators in the high cost-of-living city, passed Tuesday night. Sponsored by the United Educators of San Francisco union, the measure — Proposition G — will collect an estimated $50 million a year to boost teacher […]
New tax rules that cap deductions of state and local taxes are having a disproportionate effect on taxpayers who live in states with high income taxes and property taxes. While it’s too early to quantify the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which became effective on Jan. 1, some real-estate professionals say they […]
“When is a fiscal emergency not an emergency? When it’s in California. The phrase may trigger images of desolate streetscapes and fiscal pain, or evoke a new risk for investors who buy municipal bond funds in search of tax-exempt income. But for many Golden State cities, the words signal opportunity. Because of rules designed to […]
The California Taxpayers Association counted 98 proposals to raise local taxes directly, or indirectly through issuance of bonds that would require higher property taxes to repay. The proposed taxes on legal marijuana sales and other retail sales and “parcel taxes” on pieces of real estate were particularly noteworthy for how they were presented to voters. […]
The good news for home builders and house hunters is that lumber prices have sold off since hitting an all-time high in mid May. The bad news: wood prices are still up 67% over the past year, adding thousands of dollars to the cost of each new house. The historic run-up in lumber prices–attributable to […]
The heart of the nation’s tech sector, the astronomically expensive Santa Clara County, leads the state in residents looking to move out of town, a new report found. Using property searches and census data, analysts at realtor.com found that a larger share of residents are leaving Santa Clara County — home to tech behemoths Google […]
“What we do has not just national, but international implications. We’re the fifth-largest economy in the world,” said Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon (D-Whittier), who introduced a bill this year that bars sit-down restaurants from providing plastic straws unless a customer requests one. “You better believe that if we do something and it works here, […]
In a candid interview with the Union-Tribune, Adam Day, the new board chairman of California State University, said that the system needs to improve its graduation rate, more efficiently manage enrollment, find effective ways to use online courses, and carefully weed out academic majors that are no longer drawing significant numbers of students.
San Francisco’s $11.05 billion budget for the coming fiscal year will be the largest in the city’s history. That’s a 9.3 percent — or $937 million — increase over last fiscal year’s budget, which came in at $10.11 billion.
The laws set an initial limit for indoor water use of 55 gallons per-person per-day in 2022, which gradually drops to 50 gallons per person by 2030. Just how consumers will be required to meet the goals remains unknown. The Department of Water Resources and State Water Resources Control Board will conduct studies and recommend […]
In what is considered the largest single investment by any state to promote electric vehicles, California utility regulators Thursday approved $776.5 million to fund and evaluate projects that will be carried out over the space of five years by the state’s three investor-owned utilities. The portion assigned to San Diego Gas & Electric accounts for […]
The list of electronics for which Californians must pay an upfront recycling fee for could get much longer. The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) formally adopted 11 recommendations in May as a part of its Future of Electronic Waste Management in California project, which includes a suggestion to add most devices that […]
But the new solar rule has generated a less sunny outlook from others. Besides generating complaints about raising the cost of new homes in an already expensive housing market in California, the mandate has been criticized by some energy wonks who say the rule does not make economic sense and does nothing to reduce the […]
The California Energy Commission, more or less on the fly, has decreed that beginning in 2020 all new single-family homes and low-rise multi-family residential projects must be built with rooftop solar panels. Although they would add perhaps $10,000 to the cost of a new home, the commission insists that solar arrays would pay for themselves […]
Power companies are shutting so many generating plants in Texas and California that the two most populous U.S. states may struggle to keep the lights on this summer. Texas is facing a generation shortfall in part because there are 5,000 megawatts of power plants that have been retired in the past year, according to a […]