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.
California drivers are going to see a bump at the pump starting Jan. 1 – with a good chunk of the money going to kick-start Gov. Jerry Brown’s struggling high-speed rail project.
Experts say the high numbers point to forces that continue to push people out of the city, including pricey housing and poor impressions of the public schools. Workers who make more money are much more likely to live in Los Angeles than those with lower incomes, the analysis shows. Nearly 48% of the highest-paid employees live in the city, compared with 20% of the lowest-paid.
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.
In a new step to expose hidden debt, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board last week proposed that retiree health care debt or “unfunded liability” be reported on the face of government financial statements, not buried inside.
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.
“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.
In addition to getting rid of outdated laws, the project made taxes simpler, cut bureaucratic red tape, speeded up business permits and required state agencies to communicate in plain language.
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.
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.
As news came in Thursday that tax receipts have come in more than $2 billion above revenue projections made by the Brown administration in January, legislative leaders struck a deal on the governor’s rainy day fund plan.
A CalPERS report intended for policymakers, noting that a reform cuts $435 a month from the pensions of many new hires, suggests that a pay raise may be needed to “compete for quality employees.”
What California should be doing is curing the disease by reforming the tax system, stabilizing it and ridding us of the volatility. Broaden the tax base and bank less on the rich, whose incomes fluctuate wildly during periods of boom and bust.
California’s tax revenues jumped by 18.2 percent in 2013, thanks to an improving economy and the impact of a temporary sales and income tax increase approved by voters, a new Census Bureau report shows.
CalSTRS said Thursday that its long-term funding shortfall has risen to $73.7 billion, a stark reminder of the financial issues facing the teachers’ pension fund.