Education reform groups worried aloud that without strong direction from Sacramento, unions, particularly the California Teachers Association, would exert their influence on local school boards to claim much of the new money for salary increases.
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.
A Pepperdine University study found that a split roll property tax could result in the loss of up to 396,345 jobs in California over the first five years and increase property taxes for businesses anywhere between $6 billion and $10 billion per year.
In this report, the Volcker Alliance examines in detail the budgeting practices of California, New Jersey and Virginia, assessing the effectiveness of each state’s practices. The report highlights the need for effective and transparent budgeting practices by “shining a spotlight on opaque and confusing practices and by identifying more appropriate approaches” when creating state budgets and fiscal policy.
There was, however, a curious omission from the “wall of debt” three years ago – $10 billion in loans from the federal government to prop up the state’s Unemployment Insurance Fund that, like the budget as a whole, was battered by the Great Recession.
“We can’t let communities fall behind. We can’t create a situation in which only the wealthy take advantage of subsidy programs,” said Assemblyman Henry Perea, a Fresno Democrat.
Two Democratic state senators plan to introduce legislation Wednesday to overhaul Proposition 13, the state’s landmark restrictions on property taxes, so local governments can raise more revenue from commercial and industrial properties.
But the question is whether California has done enough to guard against another budget crisis, and experts say that the answer is a resounding no.
Citing growing spending and reduced revenues, bond-rating agency Moody’s has downgraded Richmond’s issuer rating, meaning the city may have to pay higher interest rates if it wants to borrow money in the future.
But this time the proposal by pension-change advocates Chuck Reed and Carl DeMaio has a new twist: Pensions and other retirement benefits themselves would automatically become a matter of ballot-box politics by requiring voter approval any time government officials sought to upgrade benefits.
States and state-equivalents spending the most per pupil in 2013 were New York ($19,818), Alaska ($18,175), the District of Columbia ($17,953), New Jersey ($17,572) and Connecticut ($16,631). States spending the least per pupil included Utah ($6,555), Idaho ($6,791), Arizona ($7,208), Oklahoma ($7,672) and Mississippi ($8,130).
The $15 million state tax credit would be in return for Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) creating about 4,500 jobs across its facilities in Fremont, Hawthorne, Lathrop and Newark, said Brook Taylor, a deputy director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. The agency administers the California Competes program.
Monday’s “Truth and Integrity in State Budgeting” study from The Volcker Alliance examined budget practices in California, Virginia and New Jersey. The findings could be summed up as: Virginia sets the standard, New Jersey is a mess, and California’s budget transparency has gotten better since the approval of majority-vote budgets, temporary tax increases, and a stronger rainy-day reserve.
The Legislature is finalizing a proposed spending plan that’s roughly $2 billion higher than Brown’s $115 billion spending plan. The increase is based on upbeat revenue assumptions from a nonpartisan budget analyst.
Doctors and patients are telling these kinds of stories more often as state Medi-Cal rolls have increased by 4 million under an expansion program created by the Affordable Care Act. Today, more than 12 million Californians, nearly one-third of the state’s total population, are enrolled in the government’s health insurance plan for low-income, disabled and disadvantaged residents.