But UC officials say the system also needs the money to help rescue its pension fund – neglected for two decades and facing $7.2 billion in unfunded liabilities – and to cover the growing cost of retiree health benefits.
For large businesses operating in multiple states, Proposition 65 is a regulatory headache. But for local, family-owned businesses like mine, the law can mean bankruptcy. Ultimately, a well-intentioned public health initiative has been perverted into a trial lawyer’s dream and an entrepreneur’s worst nightmare.
The biennial survey, conducted by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services, found that California’s workers’ compensation costs, $3.48 per $100 of payroll on average, are 188 percent of the national median among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Tax revenue to California’s general fund is running more than $1 billion above estimates since the July 1 start of the fiscal year, the state said Monday, as Gov. Jerry Brown prepares for another round of budget talks next year.
Living costs in California are already much higher than those of other states, which is not only a factor in attracting job-creating investment but is the main reason California has, under an alternative Census Bureau measurement, the nation’s highest poverty rate.
A strike during the past two days by 18,000 nurses at Kaiser Permanente facilities in northern and central California, including three major Sacramento-area hospitals, was the latest salvo by a powerful union that says it is intent on improving the lot of nurses nationwide.
California is among 21 states where tax revenue in the second quarter of 2014 surpassed (after adjusting for inflation) what it was before revenue collapsed during the recession, the Pew report found. California received $34.9 billion in tax revenue from April through June of this year, 5.5 percent higher than its pre-recession high of $31.3 billion in the third quarter of 2006. That is more than triple the U.S. average of 1.6 percent.
If fully implemented, the annual cost of base tuition and fees for a California resident will jump from $12,192 this academic year to an estimated $15,563 in 2019-20.
Chiang added public pension systems to his already large fiscal database. One chart reveals that their “unfunded liabilities” – the gap between assets and liabilities for current and future pensions – exploded from $6.3 billion in 2003 to $198.2 billion in 2013.
Local-government employers contributions to defined-benefit retirement systems have nearly tripled in the last 11 years, according to the most recent data published by the California State Controller’s Office, while employee contributions have nearly doubled.
In a major victory for California labor unions, Gov. Jerry Brown announced Sunday that he has signed legislation that will hold businesses liable when subcontractors violate wage, workplace safety or workers’ compensation rules.
Nearly a quarter of the state’s 38 million residents (8.9 million) live in poverty, a new Census Bureau report says, a level virtually unchanged since the agency first began reporting on the method’s effects.
Her remarks added to a series of statements that began trickling out from the Capitol early this year and have intensified heading into the Nov. 4 elections. The issue, arising now in interviews, candidate questionnaires and debates, is likely to become a major point of controversy in Sacramento in the run-up to 2016.
It’s no small matter. The top 1 percent of California income-tax payers now finance a third of the state’s general fund, so their ability and willingness to pay taxes is central to the state’s fiscal health.
The giant wholesaler that provides drinking water for half the California population has drained two-thirds of its stored supplies as the state contends with a punishing drought, officials said Monday.