Posts Tagged: surplus

Recent News

California, shockingly, has the lowest literacy rate of any state

A volunteer teacher reads to a group of young children. (Photo: Monkey Business Images, via Shutterstock)

Decades of underinvestment in schools, culture battles over bilingual education, and dizzying levels of income inequality have pushed California to the bottom of the pile, making it the least literate state in the nation. Nearly 1 in 4 people over the age of 15 lack the skills to decipher the words in this sentence. Only 77 percent of adults are considered mid to highly literate, according to the nonpartisan data crunchers at World Population Review.

Opinion

Flush with funds, state should now end 2020 business tax hikes

A photo illustration of California's tax code. (Image: Vitalii Vodolazskyi, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: As part of the 2020-21 state budget accord, the governor and Legislature enacted AB 85,  a budget trailer bill that enacted several tax law changes, including a three-year suspension of the net operating loss deduction and a cap on the use of business tax credits.

Opinion

Gov’s plan: ‘Rebate’ and ‘sharing the wealth’ are deeply misleading

Paul Gann, center, author of the 1979 initiative governing excess tax revenue, and Howard Jarvis celebrate the passage of Proposition 13. (Photo, June 1978/ AP file)

OPINION: Let’s not confuse Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to provide $12 billion in new stimulus checks with the state’s constitutional mandate to return excess revenues to taxpayers. That seems to be the goal of those who believe taxpayer refunds are a bad idea and are looking for ways to keep a greater part of the newly announced state surplus to spend.

News

CalSTRS’ finances reflect debt — and surplus

The photo gallery in the main entrance of CalSTRS' West Sacramento headquarters. (Photo: CalSTRS)

The main California State Teachers’ Retirement System pension fund is seriously underfunded, and school district pension costs are more than doubling, biting deep into classroom budgets. But the agency, called CalSTRS for short, has an inflation-protection fund with a growing $9.8 billion surplus and an eye-popping positive cash flow.

Opinion

The high road: Dismantle the ‘wall of poverty’

A homeless man in Oceanside. (Photo: David Little)

With news this week that California’s tax revenues came in $6-$8 billion stronger than previous estimates, California now has an undeniable choice: a high road that lifts up all our people and strengthens our state, or a low road that ignores the nearly one in four residents who live below the poverty line in the wealthiest state in the nation.

News

Water rights’ cost draws scrutiny

The Mokulumne River. Photo: Mountain Counties Water Resources Association)

A provision in California’s landmark 2014 Water Bond Act, Proposition 1, might lead California into overspending on water, something that has drawn concerns from the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal adviser.

News

Oil severance tax at center stage

Pumpjacks in a Kern County oil field, November 2013. (Photo: Christopher Halloran)

It has been killed repeatedly in the state Legislature or at the ballot box, but the backers of an oil severance tax hope 2014 is the year to get it done, to the tune of $2 billion annually. But history is not on their side. Above: Pumpjacks in Kern County, November 2013. (Photo: Christopher Halloran)

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