The personal consumption expenditures price index, which is the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% from April, the Commerce Department said Thursday. It was the biggest rise in more than two years and largely reflected increased prices for energy, including gasoline. Food prices were flat, and prices excluding food and energy ticked up 0.1%.
A CNBC analysis of tax data and figures provided by two major national moving companies shows that states with the highest per-capita taxes, for the most part, are also seeing the biggest net migration out of those states.
Californians support greenhouse gas reduction. But do they also want the state to compel them to change their lifestyles by parking their cars, jumping aboard trolley cars and bicycles, and trading their single-family homes for denser housing, as the CTP and other state policies assume they must?
Gov. Jerry Brown apparently has liberated himself from the self-imposed pledge to ask voters to approve new state taxes.
In a decision that could impact developers across the state, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday to allow Los Angeles and other cities to require that developers provide affordable housing as a condition of getting building permits.
But the loophole is a problem with a relatively small number of properties. And the alleged fix would hammer tens of thousands of property owners who play by the rules and don’t game the system – and who employ millions of Californians.
Much of the media and many politicians blame the San Joaquin Valley’s water shortage on drought, but that is merely an aggravating factor. From my experience representing California’s agricultural heartland, I know that our water crisis is not an unfortunate natural occurrence; it is the intended result of a long-term campaign waged by radical environmentalists who resorted to political pressure as well as profuse lawsuits.
In fact, according to a new calculation out this week, the price gap in May between the California and U.S. averages was a whopping $1.03, the biggest in at least 15 years. The cost “premium” ranged from 80 cents in the Sacramento region to $1.19 in Los Angeles.
The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County dropped Monday for the 21st consecutive day and the 22nd time in 23 days, decreasing a half-cent to $3.756.
PPIC’s newest poll offers a new but familiar glimpse of just how crestfallen Californians seem when it comes to the road ahead. Only 40 percent of likely voters think the state is headed in the right direction, a 9-point decline since March and 4 points lower than all adults who were surveyed this same time in 2014. When the poll is broadened to all adults, it’s more of a split decision; but here, too, PPIC finds a decline in optimism about the direction of California.
The fine for that “infraction” is $250, but when you write a check to pay the ticket you will learn that the Legislature and other authorities have added a raft of surcharges for various purposes to all traffic offenses, from courthouse construction to DNA testing and emergency medical services.
Forty-four percent of exchange policyholders surveyed said it’s somewhat or very difficult to afford their premiums. That’s compared with 25% of adults who had employer-based or other private health insurance.
Neither “smart growth” nor public subsidies have solved California’s housing crisis because the solution does not arise from more regulations or wealth transfers. The shortest path to more supply and affordability is to redirect public investment into public works and drain the litigation and regulatory swamps that provide the institutional support for the exclusive enclaves created in coastal California.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to make more managed care organizations pay a state tax – one likely to be passed on to consumers – is meeting resistance at the Capitol.
Major insurers in some states are proposing hefty rate boosts for plans sold under the federal health law, setting the stage for an intense debate this summer over the law’s impact.