Posts Tagged: accounting

Keeping our water on when the power goes off

A view of homes and stores along Bridgeway Street, Sausalito.(Photo: Boris Vetshev, viua Shutterstock)

by CYNTHIA KOEHLER posted 12.09.2019

OPINION: During last month’s PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoffs, like so many across California, my family lost electricity for four days. We couldn’t turn on the lights, access the internet or charge our phones. But we didn’t lose water for a moment, thanks to the steps our water provider had taken to prepare for this kind of emergency.

The push for zero emission vehicles

An electric vehicle powers up in San Francisco. (Photo: Dan Schreiber)

by DAMON PORTER posted 04.21.2016

OPINION: Even though 2015 was a record sales year for automakers, the percentage of ZEV sales decreased eight percent year over year in California. The Northeast states lag in ZEV sales behind California – presently accounting for less than half of one percent of the regional market – despite some states’ offering consumer incentives and efforts to build convenient refueling stations.

Calpensions: An accounting board best known for requiring the calculation and reporting of the debt owed for retiree health care promised government workers, which often turned out to be shockingly large, is having another moment. This month the Governmental Accounting Standards Board applied new rules for reporting pension debt to retiree heath care.

Calpensions: 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.

Lawn water: A fix for the drought?

Northern California's Lake Oroville, the state's largest reservoir, formed by the Feather River and Oroville Dam. (Photo: Quinn Comendant.)

by CHRIS AUSTIN posted 05.19.2014

It’s enough water to fill Lake Oroville and more, and it’s flowing out on to lawns and landscapes in cities and communities across the state each year, according to the Department of Water Resources (DWR). But with the state deep in drought and water supplies dwindling, there’s a movement underfoot that’s hoping to change that.

The CalSTRS board was told last week that it’s unclear whether the new liability figure will be reported by the state or spread among school districts, where more than doubling current debt might lower credit ratings and drive up borrowing costs.

New government accounting rules will more than double the pension debt reported by CalSTRS, boosting an “unfunded liability” that is now about $71 billion to a newly calculated “Net Pension Liability” of $166.9 billion.

Months before California voters approved new taxes in the Nov. 6 election, accounting practices in the state budget were changed – changes that ultimately could make it much harder to define just how much money the state has taken in or is likely to get.

The changes were approved by the Legislature and governor