White House economic advisers have produced a steady diet of white papers this year to spotlight the puzzle of sluggish productivity, which economists want a better handle on because it helps explain why incomes for the broad middle class aren’t rising. Their latest target: land-use restrictions.
In 2012, the top 50 percent of all taxpayers (69.2 million filers) paid 97.2 percent of all income taxes while the bottom 50 percent paid the remaining 2.8 percent.
The number of jobs created by new businesses fell 7% in the first quarter from the fourth quarter of 2014 on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said this week. From a decade ago, the figure is down 18%.
Personal income grew in 2014 in 2,662 counties, fell in 438, and was unchanged in 13, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. On average, personal income rose 4.6 percent in 2014 in the metropolitan portion of the United States and rose 3.2 percent in the nonmetropolitan portion. The metropolitan and nonmetropolitan portions grew 1.1 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively, in 2013. The percent change from 2013 to 2014 in personal income ranged from -35.1 percent in Wallace County, Kansas to 83.7 percent in McPherson County, Nebraska.
Silicon Valley-Bay Area’s strong post-recession economic growth is the reason California has had a recovery; hence, the recovery shouldn’t be cause for celebration among the state’s leaders. California’s economic recovery is occurring on the shoulders of just one region. This lack of economic diversification puts the Golden State in a precarious position. And yet, Sacramento continues to pretend everything is just okay.
For example, taxpayers currently pay amounts equivalent to 37% of state firefighters’ salaries to CalPERS to cover their future retirement checks. That payment is based on estimates that the fund’s investments will continue to earn 7.5% over the decades. But if the investments earn just 6.5%, required taxpayer payments for firefighters jump to an amount equal to 55% of their salaries, according to CalPERS documents.
The cuts to government services to pay CalPERS may have just begun. The pension fund has already warned cities that they are in the midst of a six-year span in which pension payments will rise 50%. The new plan will add even more to those costs.
Moreover, says the report from the National Resource Network, California’s distressed cities are more than a quarter of the 297 U.S. cities over 40,000 population that fall into that category. The organization is affiliated with the White House Council on Strong Cities.
Until the 1970s, when Jerry Brown first became California’s governor, state policy makers were unflinching in their mission to build infrastructure that would meet the demands of a rapidly growing state. Building great public works projects was a source of pride. It was costly, but viewed as a small price to pay to live in this verdant paradise.
The consumer price index increased 0.2% in October after a 0.2% decline the previous month, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The rise, driven by higher food and energy prices, was in line with economists’ expectations.
It is important to remember that even in our global economy, states’ stiffest competition often comes from other states. The Department of Labor reports that most mass job relocations are from one U.S. state to another rather than to a foreign location.[1] Certainly job creation is rapid overseas, as previously underdeveloped nations enter the world economy without facing the third highest corporate tax rate in the world, as U.S. businesses do.[2] State lawmakers are right to be concerned about how their states rank in the global competition for jobs and capital, but they need to be more concerned with companies moving from Detroit, Michigan to Dayton, Ohio, than from Detroit to New Delhi. This means that state lawmakers must be aware of how their states’ business climates match up against their immediate neighbors and to other regional competitor states.
Contrary to predictions used to promote the first phase of the Expo light rail line between downtown and Los Angeles’ Westside, a new study has found that the $930-million project has done little to relieve traffic congestion in the area.
So far, these carbon auctions have yielded the state of California approximately $2.8 billion in revenue, said CARB spokesman David Clegern. Half of that money goes to utility companies to offset electricity costs, and the other half is spent on an array of programs intended to help clean California’s air.
While those on the economic ladder’s top rungs are doing very well, the report continued, “many other Californians, however, are not thriving and continue to experience significant levels of unemployment, steeply rising housing and higher education costs, and stagnant wages and incomes.”
But on niche websites devoted to energy production and energy markets, the picture of how California is responding to its mandates is more muddled. A recent free report from SNL, the McGraw-Hill financial publication that typically charges for the proprietary information it provides to shareholders and potential investors, puts California’s progress in a different light: