Local government authority is growing in corrections, school funding, and other areas in California, putting pressure on localities to diversify revenue sources. As a result, the parcel tax may become an increasingly important fiscal tool in the state.
California’s rising traffic fines were the subject of debate amid the economic recession as legislators raised total penalties by expanding or adding on new assessments. Four years ago, with the state strapped for cash, then-Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg described the growing traffic penalties as “one of the patches that we’ve relied upon to avoid deeper cuts” to state programs.
CalPERS is about to raise pension contribution rates again, this time by more than 9 percent, a move that will cost state government and local school districts nearly $600 million.
The California Collaborative for Educational Excellence was created by Senate Bill 91, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in July 2013 to help school districts carry out the state’s new school financing law and achieve the goals that districts outline in their Local Control and Accountability Plans.
Nearly $500 million of that can be attributed to income taxes. Corporate tax revenues came in $77 million above expectations. But sales taxes fell short, with revenues coming in nearly $100 million below projections.
The working group was formed in part as a response to the efforts of activists with the Los Angeles Parking Freedom Initiative. The group argues that L.A. has improperly used parking fines to solve budget problems and maximize revenue rather than ease parking problems.
California’s incentives to purchase electric vehicles are under attack, as data shows most of the money goes to consumers who earn twice the national average yet collect cash rebates on Tesla Motors luxury models.
Unless it alters its current funding structure, CalPERS will be even more vulnerable to market losses in the next economic downturn than it was during its devastating plunge in the Great Recession. . . Most of the CalPERS governing board members recognize the adjustments are needed, but they have yet to determine the details and price. They’re trying to temper the impact on state and local governments, which already face pension rate increases of roughly 35 percent to 50 percent over the next six years from the three prior calculation changes.
Education groups, led by the influential California Teachers Association, have complained for years that the state is near the bottom in per-pupil spending, but with recent and sharp increases in spending, California has climbed rapidly in state-to-state comparisons.
Cap-and-Trade revenues are primarily being spent in the southern Central Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California. Though there are clear guidelines for geographically allocating 25% of the Cap-and-Trade revenues, clear guidelines have not been established to geographically allocate the remaining 75%. This report outlines three potential principles for allocating the remaining funds geographically
Overtime for California’s state workers rose 20 percent last year and topped $1 billion even though there are 20,000 fewer employees than in pre-recession 2008, the last time the state paid out so much, according to new payroll data.
As part of its one-state war on global warming, California grants rebates of $2,500 to purchasers of electric vehicles, no matter how wealthy they are, or how much the cars cost. That amounts to a taxpayer subsidy to Tesla Motors, which routinely sells its cars for upward of $100,000, of no less than $34 million so far to 13,600 customers.
The previously undisclosed cost projection, contained in an internal DWP report reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, could mean sharply higher water bills for those who live and work in L.A.
Although DeMaio and Reed belong to different political parties, they both believe pension obligations are siphoning money from local governments’ core services. As city officials in 2012, both backed successful local ballot measures intended to curtail public-pension costs. About two-thirds of voters in San Diego and San Jose approved the proposals. Unions immediately challenged their legality.
Why do state IT debacles happen over and over? Castro says it starts with government’s antipathy for brutal self-assessment. Without it, an organization hides its weaknesses and can’t figure out processes to fix them before they jump into making multimillion-dollar technology decisions.