The exact amount of the new water bond has yet to be determined but will be less than $5 billion, Jerry Meral, director of the California water program at the Natural Heritage Institute, told Reuters this week.
The Legislature agreed, but this week, Brown signed legislation that brings back a pared-down form of redevelopment, authorizing creation of “Community Revitalization and Investment Authorities” with many, but not all, of the same powers.
The state and local revenues were the equivalent of about 20 percent of the state’s overall economy and represented 13.2 percent of all state and local government collections in the nation that year – roughly the same as California’s proportion of the national population.
Tax and transfer programs can create significant bonuses and penalties for low- and moderate-income cohabiters with children. We find that federal tax laws can create marriage penalties that reach almost 10 percent of earnings for our hypothetical couples earning $40,000 or $50,000 a year. In contrast, a prototypical couple earning $20,000 a year could receive a marriage bonus in excess of 10 percent of earnings. Because the transfer programs we consider largely treat cohabiting parents the same as married couples, they create neither significant marriage penalties nor bonuses; however, there may be instances in which couples are misclassified and receive transfer benefits as separate households when cohabiting which could lead to marriage penalties from those programs.
This analysis addresses the growing problem of marriage penalties created by the increased size and coverage of means-tested social-welfare benefits. Depending on the relationship between cohabiters (whether or not they have children in common and whether or not they share food or utility expenses) and their combined and relative earnings, getting married can result in bonuses of as much as 11 percent of their combined income or penalties of more than about 32 percent of their combined income.
The proposed tax increase would generate an estimated $7 billion to $9 billion a year, and run though 2030. The group filing the measure includes the California Teachers Association, other education labor groups, and health care and police unions.
In return, the Fix Our Roads coalition wants California to change how it funds transportation, says Orange County Business Council CEO Lucy Dunn. For one, businesses want transportation taxes and fees to be strictly reserved for transportation projects, she says.
No deal has been reached on a plan to find billions of dollars to pay for road repairs, raising the possibility that one of Gov. Jerry Brown’s priorities could languish until next year.
Los Angeles City Hall union leaders are celebrating a major victory in their fight with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti over who should pay for health care costs.
The same is not true for social welfare programs, such as Medicaid, food stamps or housing assistance, which can impose significant financial penalties on recipients who are married, according to new research from the R Street Institute, a Washington think tank.
A long-sought CalSTRS rate increase, more than doubling the bite from school districts, is the reason given last week for a proposal to increase the lump-sum death benefit, unchanged in the last 13 years.
A proposed four-year salary agreement with the Coalition of L.A. City Unions calls for the council to abandon that 2012 pension plan. Those nearly 2,200 workers would revert back to the older, more lucrative retirement benefits that have been in place for decades — and are increasingly viewed as financially unsustainable.
“This tentative agreement would be a start and would provide some monetary relief for state scientists,” said CAPS Vice President and Bargaining Chair Patty Velez in a statement issued late Friday. “But it still falls well short of closing the huge salary gap between scientists and their engineering counterparts at the state, as well as scientists at the local level and in the private sector.”
The plan would generate $3.6 billion annually while offering the type of regulatory relief Republicans want. That total falls billions short of the $6 billion annually sought by the Fix Our Roads coalition that includes groups representing businesses, cities and counties.
In its first months, California’s expanded film and TV production tax credit has prompted producers of four out-of-state TV shows to decamp for the Golden State, according to the state’s film office.