U.S. employment growth slowed in August but the jobless rate fell to the lowest level since 2008, a mixed labor-market reading that leaves the Federal Reserve with a challenging decision on whether to raise short-term rates at its September meeting.
But a centerpiece of California’s long-term campaign against emissions — legislation requiring a 50 percent reduction in petroleum use by Jan. 1, 2030 — has set off a fierce battle here, pitting not only a well-financed oil industry against environmentalists, but Democrat against Democrat. The bill easily passed the Senate, but it is faltering in the Assembly because of opposition by moderate Democrats, many representing economically suffering districts in central California. A vote is expected early this coming week.
“Motivated by this thinking, Washington Carbon, an advocacy group in the state, is now trying to put a carbon tax on the 2016 ballot. Initiative Measure 732 would institute a tax on fossil fuels of $25 a metric ton of carbon dioxide (which translates to about 25 cents a gallon of gasoline). Most of the revenue from the measure would be used to reduce the state sales tax by one percentage point. A smaller amount would be used to reduce taxes on manufacturing companies and to fund a tax rebate of up to $1,500 for low-income working families. The overall plan is progressive and revenue-neutral. If passed, the initiative would yield a tax shift, not a tax increase. That is why some environmentalists are opposed. Rather than rebating the money the carbon tax would raise, they want to spend it on environmental and other government programs.”
“This tentative agreement would be a start and would provide some monetary relief for state scientists,” said CAPS Vice President and Bargaining Chair Patty Velez in a statement issued late Friday. “But it still falls well short of closing the huge salary gap between scientists and their engineering counterparts at the state, as well as scientists at the local level and in the private sector.”
Millions of workers who dropped out of the job market during the last economic slump were supposed to jump back in once things turned around. But more than six years after the Great Recession ended, the missing millions are increasingly looking like they’re gone for good..
Upward wage pressures strengthened across the District. Hiring picked up in the information technology (IT) sector, and contacts reported robust across-the-board wage gains for workers in the Internet services and information security sectors. Wage pressures continued to mount in the construction sector with contacts from urban technology centers, such as the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, reporting shortages of skilled labor and significant wage increases. A few contacts in the banking sector observed strong demand for talented employees and, due to vigorous competition, were unable to pass higher wages through to the prices charged for banking services. Hospitality sector contacts in some parts of the District expressed concerns that recent minimum wage increases may raise costs in their industry.
The state Department of Education will release initial results of “Smarter Balance” tests aligned with Common Core standards in English and math next week, and the results are widely expected to show huge shortfalls in what kids have learned.
The plan would generate $3.6 billion annually while offering the type of regulatory relief Republicans want. That total falls billions short of the $6 billion annually sought by the Fix Our Roads coalition that includes groups representing businesses, cities and counties.
Today, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is releasing prototype quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) by state statistics for 2005–2014. The quarterly GDP by state statistics are released for 21 industry sectors and are in both current and inflation-adjusted chained (2009) dollars.
Companies added 190,000 jobs to close out the summer, a number that was better than July’s downward-revised 177,000 and below the expected 201,000 new positions.
Gov. Jerry Brown approved legislation on Tuesday that expands the definition of “Made in U.S.A” to more closely resemble a federal standard for domestically-produced goods in 49 other states.
Gasoline prices in California have been above – way above – national averages because the Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance has been hobbled since an explosion in February. And now, a hearing scheduled for Wednesday on whether to allow the refinery to increase operations has been postponed by air quality officials, the Los Angeles Times reports. Exxon Mobil wants to use old air-pollution control equipment temporarily so it can increase production at the same time it reduces other emissions from the plant. But regulators seem unconcerned about $4 a gallon gasoline and want to study how the proposal would impact area homeowners.
The leader of that pack was Texas. The state’s $1.5 trillion economy is larger than Australia’s and grew at an impressive 5.2% clip last year. . . California’s economy, the largest state economy, grew 2.8%. The Golden State was propelled by a 7.7% growth rate in the third quarter of last year. Florida’s economy advanced 2.7% in 2014 and New York’s economy grew 2.5%.
Today Common Good released Two Years, Not Ten Years: Redesigning Infrastructure Approvals, our new report on the costs of delaying infrastructure permits. The report concludes that a permitting delay of six years on public projects costs the nation over $3.7 trillion, more than double the $1.7 trillion needed through the end of this decade to modernize America’s decrepit infrastructure.
The legislation does not spell out how the state will achieve that level of petroleum reduction. Instead, it maintains the California Air Resources Board’s existing, broad authority over vehicle emissions and fuel standards. And it does not call for an “up or down” vote on ARB regulations.