Don’t be fooled by the new California jobs report out Friday that shows statewide unemployment falling below six percent for the first time in nearly a decade. The state added almost no jobs last month – and 125,000 people stopped looking for work.
Don’t be fooled by the new California jobs report out Friday that shows statewide unemployment falling below six percent for the first time in nearly a decade. The state added almost no jobs last month – and 125,000 people stopped looking for work.
A California lawmaker has proposed a new label for food irrigated with what he calls “fracking water.”
Gov. Jerry Brown’s January budget proposal called for an overhaul of California’s state worker retiree health care system. It faces more than $70 billion in long-term debt. Seven months later, nothing’s changed.
The Department of Finance reports California exceeded revenue projections for the fiscal year by $732 million. Revenues were originally projected to be about $114 billion.
Because of California’s historic drought, the state’s rice crop will be 30 percent below normal –- at 375,000 acres. Experts say the smaller planting will hurt the economy and wildlife that depend on shallow flooded fields.
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 labor dispute between West Coast ports and the longshormen’s union is having an effect on the California economy. Nick Vyas directs the Center for Global Supply Chain Management at the University of Southern California. He estimates California has lost between a half billion and a billion dollars since the port labor dispute began. And he says state leaders should take an active role in trying to end the dispute.
In 2006 California voters approved about $40 billion in bonds to address infrastructure deficiencies. About $5 billion of that hasn’t been spent. Brown’s Department of Finance says about $1 billion will be included in this year’s budget.
A 4 percent sales tax credit on the sale of manufacturing and research and development equipment has gone into effect in California. The credit will last eight years.
Last month DWR announced an initial water allocation of only five percent of requested deliveries from the state water project.
California’s Internet sales tax has brought in more than 260 million dollars since it was implemented about a year ago.
Democratic Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg is shelving most of his effort to streamline the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, this year. The decision came late Wednesday night at the end of the second-to-last day of legislative session.
Foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac says “notices of default,” the first stage of the foreclosure process, went up by just over 3% from April to May. RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist says it was the fourth straight monthly increase. But Blomquist says it’s not a sign of any new problems in California’s housing market.
What some see as California’s most important environmental law, others see as an economic impediment. The 43-year-old California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, guides almost every development project in the state.