California natural gas prices spiked to a five-month high after state regulators approved rules to help gas utilities manage the amount of fuel flowing in pipelines due to the ongoing outage of the Aliso Canyon underground storage facility.
One particularly worrying aspect of this is that low-income and middle-income families might be cutting back spending on food in order to compensate for rising costs in housing and health care.
All of this is an uncomfortable reminder of how difficult it is for low-income and middle-class earners to get by in the Bay Area. The median price for a one-bedroom apartment is $3,590 in San Francisco, $2,290 in San Jose and $2,270 in Oakland, according to the report.
The U.S. average retail price for gasoline was $2.24 per gallon (gal) on May 23, 50 cents per gallon (cents/gal) lower than at the same time last year, and the lowest average price just before Memorial Day weekend (the start of the summer driving season) since 2009.
The report, based on the Board’s third annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, presents a contrasting picture of the financial well-being of U.S. families. Aggregate-level results show several signs of improvement. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said they are either “living comfortably” or “doing okay,” up 4 percentage points from 2014 and up 6 percentage points from 2013. Seventy-seven percent of non-retired adults without a disability are confident that they have the skills necessary to get the kind of job that they want now–an increase of 10 percentage points from the 2013 survey results.
The planners and analysts who watched vehicle miles traveled (VMT) trends seemingly peak are no doubt anxious as the preliminary 2015 VMT numbers produced by the U.S. Department of Transportation showed new record total VMT well ahead of the 2007 number that many had hoped signaled peak U.S. VMT. Perhaps even more disconcerting was the sharp increase in per capita VMT, up approximately 2.6 percent for 2015.
Powerful opponents have emerged to fight Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to streamline affordable housing development — and their main reason isn’t about building homes.
A new wave of natural gas power plants planned for Southern California has stoked a high-stakes debate about how best to keep the lights on throughout the region.
The manager of the state’s electric grid expects current power supplies to meet summer needs for keeping the lights and air conditioning running, except in Southern California, where power plants might lack the needed natural gas. . . Without Aliso Canyon, Berberich’s agency and state regulators worry that high electric demand could require more natural gas for the power plants than Southern California Gas can supply.
To get a subsidized rental unit, so-called affordable housing, in San Francisco it costs a $500,000 investment, a subsidy. $500,000. That means 10 people, it’s $5 million. A hundred people? $5 billion. So you need more housing. There was a time in the 1970s, I think, the median home price in L.A. was like $65,000. So we need more production that will bring, hopefully, the supply is going to bring down the cost. Otherwise, through subsidies and through restrictions, we’re just spending more and more tax dollars and getting very, very little. And the whole program anyway is for very small numbers of people
The reliance on property taxes is not the only thing that varies across the country. The amount that Americans pay in property taxes differs widely. The map below shows the median property taxes paid in each county in the United States.
We also suggest the Legislature consider some modifications to strengthen and expand the Governor’s proposal. Most notably, we suggest the Legislature expand the number of housing projects eligible for streamlined approval by lowering the affordability requirements developers must meet. We also recommend changes to guard against possible actions some communities may take to hinder the use of streamlined approval.
“U.S. consumer prices recorded their biggest increase in more than three years in April as gasoline and rents rose, pointing to a steady inflation build-up that could give the Federal Reserve ammunition to raise interest rates later this year. Other data on Tuesday showed housing starts and industrial production rebounded strongly last month, suggesting the economy was regaining steam early in the second quarter after almost stalling early in the year.”
Economic gauges released Tuesday showed a pickup in industrial output, continued momentum in the housing sector and firming inflation all pointing to stronger—though still unspectacular—growth in the second quarter. That joined other recent data showing a rebound in retail sales, rising consumer confidence and continued job gains.
Coleman, who operates the CaliforniaCityFinance.com website, says the total includes 90 local tax measures on the ballot, 57 bond issue authorizations, which would also require tax increases, and one referendum to repeal a tax.
