The drought package Brown and lawmakers proposed Thursday includes $272.7 million in water recycling and drinking water quality programs funded by Proposition 1, the water bond voters approved last year.
Most developed countries impose little or no additional tax on the active foreign income of multinational companies. Today the United States is the only developed country with a worldwide system and a corporate income tax rate above 30%. Consequently, foreign companies can afford to bid more for acquisitions in the United States and abroad as compared to US companies.
Although DeMaio and Reed belong to different political parties, they both believe pension obligations are siphoning money from local governments’ core services. As city officials in 2012, both backed successful local ballot measures intended to curtail public-pension costs. About two-thirds of voters in San Diego and San Jose approved the proposals. Unions immediately challenged their legality.
Why do state IT debacles happen over and over? Castro says it starts with government’s antipathy for brutal self-assessment. Without it, an organization hides its weaknesses and can’t figure out processes to fix them before they jump into making multimillion-dollar technology decisions.
The findings–to be released as soon as Wednesday–are likely to fuel business demands that Congress rewrite U.S. tax rules. Businesses want Congress to lower the U.S. corporate tax rate, now the highest among developed countries at 35%. They also want to loosen the U.S. system’s unusual global reach.
Since 2008, according to the Judicial Council of California, thousands of court staffers have lost jobs while 52 courthouses and more than 200 courtrooms have been shuttered. In some counties, residents must now make a long drive to a different city to simply pay a fine; in all, the council estimates that 2.1 million Californians have lost access to a courtroom in their community.
How do taxes in your state compare nationally? This convenient pocket-size booklet compares the 50 states on many different measures of taxing and spending, including individual and corporate income tax rates, business tax climates, excise taxes, tax burdens and state spending.
The General Fund has different responsibilities today than it did in 2007 and, therefore, the level of General Fund spending today is not easily comparable to that discussed in our November 2007 Fiscal Outlook. In several key areas of public services, the state has shifted funding responsibilities from the General Fund to (1) other state and local government accounts or (2) individuals and families. Because of these shifts, current General Fund spending arguably is understated relative to what might have been expected prior to the recession. . . In a hypothetical world in which none of the shifts above occurred and the General Fund still paid for all of these expenses, General Fund spending in 2015-16 might be somewhere between $125 billion and $130 billion, much higher than the $113 billion reflected in the Governor’s recent spending proposal.
More than 70 percent think state and local officials should dedicate additional resources to existing roadways. By a smaller margin, 48 percent to 35 percent, they believe more money must be set aside for new road construction.
In 2014 teacher pension systems had a total of a half trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities — a debt load that climbed more than $100 billion in just the last two years. Across the states, an average of 70 cents of every dollar contributed to state teacher pension systems goes toward paying off the ever-increasing pension debt, not to future teacher benefits.
Administration officials have estimated $1.7 billion in revenue from the fees by June 30, 2016, the end of the state’s next fiscal year. But legislative analysts say the state could rake in between $3.3 billion and $7.7 billion in that period.
California’s legislative analyst on Tuesday proposed a new system for funding school facilities: grants to districts based on enrollment.
About one-fifth of the city’s water pipes were installed before 1931 and nearly all will reach the end of their useful lives in the next 15 years. They are responsible for close to half of all water main leaks, and replacing them is a looming, $1-billion problem for the city.
The Board of Equalization released a proposal on Friday to reduce the per-gallon tax Californians pay on regular gas by 7.5 cents per gallon, a 21 percent cut from the current 36-cent excise tax. The new rate of 28.5 cents per gallon could be approved Feb. 24 and take effect July 1, the start of the 2015-16 fiscal year. Californians will still pay some of the highest gas taxes in the nation, based on sales tax, federal taxes, and other fees.
Atkins’ colleagues from San Diego to Sacramento said last week they share her worry over how to pay for the state’s aging and overburdened roads, bridges and highways. But they also said her idea could be in for a long, difficult ride in the Legislature given the public’s disdain for new fees and the lack of a clear connection between state government and the potholes on local parkways.