03/29/2024

News

Most California school construction bonds, parcel taxes pass

With all precincts reporting but not all ballots counted, voters passed school construction bond measures in 89 of 112 K-12 and community college districts. And they passed parcel taxes in eight of the 13 school districts that had placed them on the ballot to create new sources of revenue or to extend existing parcel taxes. […]

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Britain’s universal credit could yet be a success

THE GULF between principle and practice is often fatal for policies—and for political careers. Britain’s government faces a backlash over universal credit, a reform combining six welfare programmes into one. This was widely seen as a good idea about a decade ago. But a series of administrative failures, a senseless decision to make payments well […]

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California Local Government Websites – A 2018 Report Card

Among the 250 cities analyzed, ranging from Suisun City with just over 29,000 residents, to big Los Angeles, with over 4.0 million residents, only two got the top grade of A, Rancho Palos Verdes, located in Los Angeles County, and Poway, located in San Diego County. Grades of F, on the other hand, were handed […]

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Ranking Property Taxes on the 2019 State Business Tax Climate Index

Today’s map shows states’ rankings on the property tax component of the 2019 State Business Tax Climate Index. The Index’s property tax component evaluates state and local taxes on real and personal property, net worth, and asset transfers. The property tax component accounts for 15.4 percent of each state’s overall Index score. Property taxes matter […]

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How government policies and taxpayer money have helped Elon Musk and Tesla

Elon Musk’s companies have propelled his net worth to almost $20 billion. But how have government policies and taxpayer money boosted his businesses? From subsidies at the national and state level, to federal tax credits for consumers buying electric cars and solar panels, to fuel efficiency standards that help bring millions in revenue for Tesla […]

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Dan Walters: Officials walk fine line on using public funds for campaigns

There is “a fine line public agencies, officials and employees walk between legally disseminating information and illegally advocating for or against a ballot measure or candidate” under California law. That’s the opening of an article in publicceo.com, a website devoted to governmental management, written by two lawyers well-versed in the subject. The article, essentially a […]

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Commentary: Opportunity Is Coming to a City Near You

The federal government’s most powerful economic weapon is the tax code, and its most pressing problem is the ailing American Dream. Enter “opportunity zones,” economically distressed communities where new investments can receive preferential tax treatment. The incentives were quietly inserted into last year’s tax-reform bill. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently predicted they could prompt $100 […]

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Steven Greenhut: They’re Coming After the Prop. 13 ‘Loophole’

As always, the state has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. And check out the Transparent California website to see the unbelievably large pay and benefit packages received by California’s “public servants” if you really want to look at where our money goes. This initiative is just a chance to prop up the state’s […]

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Universal Basic Income Has Been Tried Before. It Didn’t Work.

The best available evidence about the potential effects of these programs comes from the federal government’s “negative income tax” experiment. The experiment, which ran from 1968 to 1980, consisted of four random, controlled trials across six states designed to test the negative income tax. Similar to the universal basic income, a negative income tax guarantees […]

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This November, Will California Voters Approve $3.6 Billion Per Year in New Taxes?

If you add up all the voter approved new taxes in November 2016, state and local, you have to include not only $5.0 billion in new local taxes and payments on local bonds per year, you also have to add the voter approved statewide measures. That would include Prop. 51, adding yet another $9.0 billion […]

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Dan Walters: Locals seek new levies despite $4B property tax surge

Cities have been hit the hardest by increases in mandatory payments to the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) as it tries to shrink its large “unfunded liability.” City officials have repeatedly complained about the specter of insolvency if pension payments continue to grow and the League of California Cities has labeled the situation “unsustainable.” […]

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COMMENTARY: With Local Government Collecting Record Revenue, Why Are Voters Facing Hundreds of Tax Measures in November?

With increased tax revenue and economic growth, why are local governments asking voters to approve more taxes? A report by the League of California Cities notes that city pension costs will increase more than 50 percent by the fiscal year 2024-25, and will reach “unsustainable levels.” The report states: “Often, revenue growth from the improved […]

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California’s tax revenues beat expectations by $1 billion over the summer months

Californians paid some $1 billion in taxes above official projections during the first three months of the state’s fiscal year, in what could be a major boost to the government’s bottom line once Gov. Jerry Brown leaves office in January. A monthly report issued Tuesday by the state Department of Finance attributed most of the […]

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Meant to help with mental illness, money from tax on millionaires piles up

While the hepatitis A virus ran unchecked through the streets and homeless camps of San Diego last year, claiming 20 lives and sickening hundreds of others before it was corralled, $170 million in special funding for mentally ill people sat in a county bank account. So much Mental Health Services Act revenue piled up, San […]

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Tax Credit for $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Slips Away

Consumers who wanted to apply a full federal tax credit to buying a $35,000 Tesla Model 3 sedan appear to be out of luck. The electric-car maker said on its website that orders placed by Monday will be delivered by the end of 2018 and therefore are eligible for the full $7,500 federal tax credit. […]

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