Posts Tagged: reserve

Opinion

Cutting ‘fatal flaw’ helps budget

Gov. Jerry Brown at a Capitol briefing last year on his revised state budget. Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP

OPINION: Californians can breathe a sigh of relief. When proponents of a 2016 ballot proposal to extend Proposition 30’s tax rates on wealthy Californians amended their measure this week, they did something that was both politically smart and fiscally sound: They eliminated a provision the governor a few days ago called the measure’s “fatal flaw”, that would have exempted this proposed new revenue from the state’s Rainy Day Fund.

Opinion

Targeting the schools’ ‘reserve cap’

School kids at work in a California classroom. (Photo: Monkey Business Images)

OPINION: California voters passed Proposition 2 last November to establish a statewide “rainy day” fund. Unfortunately, a one-size-fits-all law, SB 858, also passed last year as part of the state budget process. SB 858 prevents school districts from saving adequately to prepare for their own rainy day by setting a maximum average “reserve cap” of 6 percent on school districts reserves.

News

Funds for teachers’ pensions gets approval

Full funding of the troubled California State Teachers Retirement System has been approved by the Legislature, with most of the additional $5 billion coming from school districts that get no offsetting money from the state.

News

Pérez, Steinberg: A tense relationship — but productive

State Capitol, Sacramento. (Photo: David Monniaux)

ANALYSIS: Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez of Los Angeles are both Democrats, but the two are hardly friends. The events of the last week captured the uneasy, though often productive, working relationship between the two leaders.

News

Brown unveils new spending plan

Gov. Brown unveils 2014-15 state budget plan.

Gov. Brown has proposed a $106.8 billion state budget for the fiscal year beginning in July that reflects an improving economy, bumps public school funding by more than $6 billion and makes no mention of a $990 million universal kindergarten program sought by legislative Democrats. (Photo: Samantha Gallegos/Capitol Weekly)

News

State’s finances showing strength

In 2013, the Legislature and the Governor agreed to a restrained state budget for 2013–14, and our forecast of state tax revenue collections has increased since last year. Accordingly, we now find that California’s state budget situation is even more promising than we projected one year ago.

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