03/28/2024

News

Dan Walters: California’s Deteriorating Highways Need a Different Revenue Systems

Highways have slipped below the political radar, even though Californians rack up more than 300 billion miles of automotive travel each year and even though the highways suffer from severe deficiencies that would, the California Transportation Commission says, cost $700 billion over the next decade to erase, several times what current revenue would produce.

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California Controller Chiang: Where are Our Sales Taxes?

Calling growth in the state’s sales tax receipts “weaker than expected in recent months,” Chiang said he was surprised, “given the improvement in the State’s other major revenues and the economy in general.”

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Pay for State Lawmakers Varies Widely

Those serving in California’s full-time legislature earn nearly $91,000 each year, higher than in any other state in 2014. New Hampshire’s part-time lawmakers, meanwhile, make just $200 per two-year term.

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Daniel Borenstein: Richmond Property Owners Paying Hefty, Hidden Pension Tax

In addition to the standard base rate of 1 percent of assessed value of a property, owners pay more than 20 other items listed on their tax bills. One, misleadingly labeled “City of Richmond,” is actually a levy solely to help fund the retirement plans for workers and retirees.

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Dan Morain: Bloom Energy and déjà vu All Over Again

The California Public Utilities Commission has paid bonuses to what it calls “California suppliers” totaling $52 million. Of that sum, nearly $39 million has gone to one company, Bloom Energy Corp., based in Sunnyvale.

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Assembly Approve Film and TV Tax Credit

The Assembly voted in favor of AB 1839, which would renew and increase a state tax credit — amounting to as much as $400 million a year — to better compete with generous tax subsidies available in such states as New York, Louisiana and Georgia, as well as in Canada and Britain.

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Demand for California Competes Hiring Credits Outpaces Supply

Demand for the state’s first round of business tax credits under the new California Competes program far exceeds supply, with applications totaling $559 million for only $30 million in credits available this year.

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Regulator Hits US Public Pensions for “Misleading” Practices

“Trillions of dollars in liabilities — reflecting amounts promised to state and local government workers — are not appropriately reflected on government books, thereby seriously misleading investors about the riskiness of their investments in municipal securities,” said Daniel Gallagher, one of the five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates U.S. financial markets.

“In the private sector, the SEC would quickly bring fraud charges against any corporate issuer and its officers for playing such numbers games,” he also said in a presentation to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, which writes the rules for public sector debt that the SEC enforces.

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2014 California Green Innovation Index

California’s overall clean economy continues to create new jobs and business opportunities across diverse sectors, ranging from water efficiency and recycling to energy and battery technologies. Between January 2002 and January 2012, employment in California’s Core Clean Economy jumped 20 percent to reach nearly 196,000. During the same time period, jobs in the larger overall state economy grew by two percent

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Multyear Forecast of State Finances Under Governor’s May Revision Proposals

With regard to the 2014-15 budget, we project that if the Legislature adopts the Governor’s May Revision, the state would end 2014-15 with $3 billion in the state’s two budget reserves: the Budget Stabilization Account (BSA) established by Proposition 58 (2004) and the state’s traditional reserve, the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties (SFEU). This total is roughly $850 million higher than the administration’s estimate for these reserves ($2.1 billion).

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Legislative Analyst’s Budget Outlook Brighter Than Brown’s Projections

The increased revenue, spurred in part by a healthier stock market, will be about $2.5 billion more through the next budget year than the governor’s fianance advisors projected, nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said in a report Friday.

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Troubling Signs Amid the Budget Recovery

Without the dramatic revenue dips or spikes of years past, and with scant new policy proposals, this year’s May Revision was about as exciting as a jar of pudding.

But one number jumped out. By next year, the state expects 11 million Californians – 30% of the population to receive Medi-Cal benefits.

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Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight

There is little doubt that the bill’s sponsor, State Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) is well meaning in his effort. But well meaning is not the same as effective—and this bill, unfortunately, will not be remotely successful in dealing with the state’s affordable housing problem. It’s a shame California lawmakers can’t or won’t support meaningful reforms—primarily altering the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)—instead of offering more band-aids.

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Standoff on US Roadway Repairs Becoming “Highway Cliff”

Without quick action by Congress, the U.S. Transportation Department may begin scaling back or halting work on thousands of roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects at the height of the construction season this July, when the nation’s Highway Trust Fund is expected to run dry.

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Addressing California’s Key Liabilities

This report categorizes and provides information about $340 billion in California’s key retirement, infrastructure, and budgetary liabilities. In addition, this report provides a framework for the Legislature to consider in prioritizing repayment of these liabilities and makes recommendations on which liabilities to pay down first and how the state could address such costs in the future.

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