A new study from the San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute has ranked the regulatory climate for small businesses in California the worst out of all 50 states — and the Bay Area is a prime example of why.
The trade group, which represents Chevron, Sempra Energy and 25 other major employers, normally opposes taxes. But earlier this month, the roundtable joined forces with the California Chamber of Commerce and organized labor to promote a plan that would raise $6 billion for infrastructure. The plan calls for a mix road-related driver fees and for funneling existing tax dollars into roads, highways and bridges.
It is the nature of recessions that the bigger they are, the bigger the comeback, yet the period since the Great Recession ended in 2009 has seen the weakest U.S. recovery since World War II. The little improvement we have seen hasn’t benefited a significant percentage of Americans. It is also the nature of recessions that they occur about every eight years; America is ill-prepared to weather the one on the horizon.
Growth worries rattled stock markets from China to Germany and the U.S., with the Dow industrials sliding to their lowest finish of the year.
Interests with a stake in better roads will put forward their principles this morning. The approach includes higher taxes on gas and diesel fuels and higher vehicle fees to generate an estimated $6 billion in additional money for state and local road maintenance and improving corridors that enhance trade, such as those to ports.
According to CB Insights data, companies typically close within 20 months of their most recent rounds of financing, with 70 percent dying before raising $5 million. The majority, 55 percent, die before raising $1 million. The explanations for failure are tough to quantify — but the reasons that founders provide publicly serve as a window into common issues in the ecosystem.
Members of a Senate committee tackling a huge backlog of roadway maintenance endorsed legislation that would generate $4 billion annually for repairs by increasing the gas tax 12 cents a gallon and boosting vehicle registration fees up to $100. Another panel approved bills to hike the legal smoking age to 21, regulate e-cigarettes and allow counties to place local tobacco taxes on the ballot.
The independent survey of 1,200 onetime bus riders comes at a time when manufacturing jobs continue to lose ground to the service sector and Orange County residents are increasingly priced out of the housing market. Amid this, bus riders appear to abandon the mass transit staple as soon as they can afford a car.
“It’s conceivable that they might do gas rationing or travel limitations…those are conceivable results,” said Citrus Heights Mayor Sue Frost in an interview. “At the end of the day, the damage goes to the consumer.”
Pavely said she isn’t worried that her bill will die, however. The messaging from opponents is “easy to refute,” she said. The real challenge, she said, is to educate lawmakers on the state’s broader goals on climate change so that laws written after she is termed out continue to advance the program.
The median Bay Area home price rose to within a hair of its all-time high last month, as affordability continues to decline across the region, dipping close to an all-time low in San Francisco, according to new reports on the housing market.
Rising housing costs are propping up inflation for consumers, despite relief at the gasoline pump and mild price increases for many goods.
Enticed by the fat fees generated by foreign and out-of-state students, who pay supplemental tuition ($24,700 for the 2015-16 school year), the UC system has begun to prioritize cash flow over local connections. More and more parents feel like Cal and others have slammed the door in the face of their children. Just look at the statistics for entering freshman: 45 percent of offers at UC Berkeley went to out-of-state and foreign students; the number was 42 percent at UCLA, 39 percent at UC San Diego and 35 percent at UC Davis.
In their latest estimate of the four-year drought’s economic effects, professors at the university’s Center for Watershed Sciences said Tuesday the drought has reduced seasonal farm employment by 10,100 jobs this year. When indirect job losses are thrown in, including truck drivers, food processing workers and others partially dependent on farming, the impact on payrolls comes to 21,000.
That mandate could then become a weapon for anti-development groups to sue builders under the California Environmental Quality Act, said Richard Lyon, the association’s senior vice president.