News

These companies moved or are about to move their headquarters out of the Bay Area.

A Fortune 500 company that distributes tobacco products and other items nationwide to convenience stores and other retailers is moving its headquarters from California to Dallas-Fort Worth. San Francisco-based Core-Mark Holding Co. plans to relocate to Westlake next year. One of Core-Mark’s biggest clients is Irving-based 7-Eleven Inc. . . . Core-Mark traces its roots […]

Another California company is moving its headquarters to the Dallas area. And this time, it’s one at the intersection of the technology and automotive industries. DealerSocket is relocating its home base to Irving from San Clemente, California, in Orange County, according to CEO Sejal Pietrzak. The software company, which helps auto dealerships manage customer relationships […]

The US manufacturing industry continues to gain momentum. Job openings have been growing at double-digit rates since mid-2017, and are nearing the historical peak recorded in 2001.1 In this dynamic manufacturing environment, Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute launched their fourth skills gap study, to reevaluate their prior projections and move the conversation forward on today’s […]

None of the scenarios in the latest International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook show renewables growing fast enough to meet global climate goals. Under current policies, said the IEA this week, the world would see increasing strains on almost all aspects of energy security and “a major additional rise” in energy-related carbon emissions. And under […]

A new report calls the lie on the grand Paris climate change treaty. None of the promised cuts in CO2 emissions that 200-plus countries made will come close to preventing a climate “catastrophe.” And many of the industrialized nations aren’t even living up to the promises they did make. . . . What did it […]

Retail spending by American households rose in October, a sign outlays started on a strong footing headed into the holiday shopping season. Sales at retail stores and restaurants rose 0.8% from the prior month, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That exceeded the 0.5% increase economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected.

This month’s election was good news for those who believe Californians’ taxes, while already among the nation’s highest, should be increased. Voters elected Gavin Newsom, who has an expansive and expensive agenda, as governor, and also solidified Democrats’ supermajorities in the Legislature, giving them, at least on paper, unfettered power to raise taxes for that […]

The Budget Is in Remarkably Good Shape. It is difficult to overstate how good the budget’s condition is today. Under our estimates of revenues and spending, the state’s constitutional reserve would reach $14.5 billion by the end of 2019‑20. In addition, we project the Legislature will have an additional $14.8 billion in resources available to […]

Gov. Jerry Brown’s parting gift to Gov. elect Gavin Newsom is a state budget so flush with unrestricted tax revenue that top fiscal analysts struggled to find the right words to describe it. “The budget is in remarkably good shape,” reads the annual fiscal outlook by the Legislative Analyst’s Office. “It is difficult to overstate […]

California’s unemployment rate held at the record low of 4.1 percent in October. The state Employment Development Department says Friday that employers added 36,400 jobs last month. A year earlier, California’s unemployment rate was 4.5 percent. The rate hit the record low in September after spending months just a notch higher at 4.2 percent.

Efforts to nudge the nation away from burning fossil fuels and toward harnessing renewable source of energy were rejected by voters Tuesday across a swath of resource-rich states in the western United States. Voters in Arizona, one of the nation’s most sun-soaked states, shot down a measure that would have accelerated its shift toward generating […]

1991 Realignment No Longer Meets Many LAO Principles. Due to the various changes to 1991 realignment programs without corresponding changes to the funding structure, 1991 realignment today no longer meets many of the core principles of a successful state‑county fiscal partnership. Today, counties’ share of some program costs exceeds their ability to control those costs. […]

Counties’ primary role as local service providers continued until the latter half of the 20th century, when they evolved, not always willingly, into managers of an ever-expanding array of health care and social services created by state and federal governments. This bifurcated role created obvious conflicts. Local services, such as parks and police and fire […]

The ballot California voters will tackle on election day is a long one, with dozens of candidates and 11 statewide propositions. While a lot of attention has been devoted to those choices, little has been given to scores of local ballot measures asking for permission to borrow or tax in communities — proposals totaling some […]