Preliminary data from the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) indicate that December 2013 personal income tax (PIT) and corporation tax (CT) revenue collections were a combined $1.6 billion (20 percent) above monthly projections included in the state’s 2013-14 budget plan.
A major public pension reform initiative got a mixed cost analysis last week from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. The measure would give state and local governments the option of cutting retirement benefits current workers earn in the future, while preserving benefits already earned through past service.
The city of Cerritos may be a trailblazer of sorts among local governments, but it’s leading the way on a trail that local governments probably don’t want to follow. The southern California community, which boasts a population just shy of 50,000 residents, is among the first of several city governments in California to go to the mat against the state controller’s review of its shift of local assets from the redevelopment agency.
OPINION: This was the fourth straight year that the squid fishery closed early; the season typically extends all year, from April 1 to March 31. The difference this year – unlike the past – was that the Department collaborated with the squid industry on day-to-day management, including the closure date.
Once, college was seen as the destination for the smartest high school students. Now, however, some of the smartest young people may be those who decide not to go to a traditional college, but instead pursue a career in the skilled trades.
“We have a model of anticipated deliveries,” said Jason Peltier of the Westlands Water District. “Frankly, if we come up on the low end of the range and that’s all the project can produce, I don’t see a sane farmer in the world saying I’m going to pay a whole lot of money for less water than I am getting today. There are fiscal realities that we face. It’s not ‘we’re just going to do it no matter what it costs.’”
State prison officials say some 12,400 California inmates at more than two dozen prisons are participating in a hunger strike to protest conditions behind bars.
The tally provided by the Corrections Department is less than half the amount – 29,000 to 30,000 – that has been cited in published reports of inmates as participating in
Earlier this year Governor Brown, referring to how California voters had supported his Proposition 30, said, “We just got a nice tax, I think we ought to take a deep breath and show how we are spending it in a wise way before we start looking for more money.” Virtually every Californian would agree with the
Steps taken to upgrade the state controller’s payroll computer system have stumbled in recent months.
The need to revamp critical technology is common throughout government, but making it happen for the controller’s office has been especially difficult. Authorities are grappling with decades-old technology as they have struggled to make a transition toward a new
Gov. Brown’s rewritten budget borrows $500 million from California’s cap-and-trade auctions and diverts the money for use in other state programs – a move that drew immediate fire from clean-air advocates.
The administration said the $500 million represents a one-time loan and will be paid back, with interest. Tapping the money was proper, the