“School board members are counting on the state to pay for the plan, hoping California will send the district higher-than-expected revenues when calculations are revised next month. Alternatively, the district would look to cut programs and lay off educators to balance a budget deficit most recently projected at $140 million for the fiscal year that starts July 1.”
Olsen’s bill and eight others were part of a package of proposed legislation highlighted Thursday by Assembly Republicans, laws that “will keep California at the leading edge of the modern economy,” backers said.
Experts say employee skills, coupled with a vast amount of private equity, great weather, a range of attractions, and its geographic connection to investment from the rest of the Pacific Rim and Asia, continue to keep California’s economy strong.
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.
Snowpack at 12 percent of average in the Sierra Nevada means there is less runoff to feed rivers and streams that run through dams to generate cleanly produced hydroelectric power. Despite the state’s ambitious clean-air goals, officials are turning to dirtier, more costly fossil-fuel plants to fill some of the power gap. They also will seek more hydroelectricity imports in a region expected to have markedly less to offer this summer.
More locally, Los Angeles County shed more than 62,000 jobs in January although the state’s unemployment rate edged down to 7.9 percent from 8 percent the previous month and 8.8 percent a year earlier.
The average pump price in Los Angeles has risen 75 cents over the past month, according to GasBuddy.com, although Scotto said his prices have jumped $1.24 since Jan. 20. The average price of gas in Los Angeles County jumped 9.9 cents overnight, according to GasBuddy.com
“What’s really making California prices jump more than the rest of the nation is our strict environmental standards,” she said. “Our refineries are converting from their winter blend to the summer blend of gas a little earlier than the rest of the country and they are under maintenance for the turnaround.”
California’s unemployment rate fell to 7 percent in December, a drop of two percentage points from a month earlier, but the state added few jobs last month.
The California Employment Development Department says the number of payroll jobs increased by just 700 last month, despite the improvement in the overall rate.
We applaud the governor’s efforts to protect our environment and address climate change. But the proposed goals will not come cheaply, with additional costs pinching the wallet of every Californian. We feel the need to ask an important question: How do we get there without emptying our pocketbooks and further burdening millions already living in poverty?
“We have a problem,” said former California Gov. Gray Davis, a featured speaker at the summit. “Fewer people are working and those who are working are making less money.”
The Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking Summary from Oregon’s Department of Consumer and Business Services shows that California businesses spend $3.48 for every $100 of payroll issued.
That’s 188 percent of the median cost of $1.85 for all 50 states. California was the third most expensive state in 2012 and the fifth most expensive in 2010.
When it comes to buying a home or renting an apartment, the Los Angeles-Orange County area is the most expensive market among the nation’s 100 biggest metropolises, according to a report released Thursday by the real-estate website Zillow.
Glendale-based Nestle USA is closing its Chatsworth Hot Pockets plant and moving the work to its operation in Mount Sterling, Ky., investing $13 million in expanding the facility and hiring 150 workers.
Most film and television productions turned down for a subsidy from the state of California over a recent four-year period ended up shooting in other states or countries, according to a new report released Wednesday.