Posts Tagged: tax

Calpensions: President Obama said he has directed his labor department to propose rules showing states how to create what in California could be an “automatic IRA,” a payroll deduction that puts money into a tax-deferred savings plan unless workers opt out. The rules are expected to answer a key question: Is Secure Choice exempt from a federal retirement law, ERISA, that not only has employer administrative costs but may also expose employers to liability for failed investments and other problems?

Vending machines spark tax debate

A bank oif vending machines entice a customer. (Photo: Deymos.HR, via Shutterstock)

by ALVIN CHEN posted 07.14.2015

If you buy it in a grocery store, you don’t pay sales taxes. If you buy it from a vending machine, you do. Fair? Assemblyman Matthew Dababneh doesn’t think so, but so far some of his colleagues disagree.

SB277 removes the right of informed consent from California parents. It slid through the Senate Floor on a Democratic Party line, and paused briefly at the Assembly Health Committee Hearing June 9th, drawing over 5,000 people in protest to the Capitol stairs and hallways of Sacramento. Its next stop, this week, the Assembly Floor Vote.

Special session: Fixing the potholes

Downtown Los Angeles, as traffic zips along. (Photo: Sean Pavone)

by JOHN HOWARD posted 06.18.2015

Gov. Brown’s call for a special legislative session to fix California’s crumbling roads, highways and bridges comes as music to the ears of those who build big projects. For months, groups representing labor, contractors, local governments, transportation interests and others worked on legislation to revamp the state’s roads and ease the movement of freight at the state’s ports. That legislation may serve as the centerpiece of the special session.

The high road: Dismantle the ‘wall of poverty’

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

by Laphonza Butler posted 05.13.2015

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.

Calpensions: Employer and employee groups are urging CalPERS to “undertake all efforts” to avoid the “Cadillac Tax,” a 40 percent tax on high-cost health plans imposed in 2018 by President Obama’s health care law, a CalPERS staff report said this month. But it’s far from clear that one of those efforts will be Gov. Brown’s proposal to give state workers the option of a low-cost plan with a high deductible, even though the administration mentions the looming penalty tax as a reason for offering the plan.

Does SCOTUS ruling ease cuts to public retirees’ health care?

Two senior women exercising at a health club. (Photo: Karel Hoppe)

by ED MENDEL posted 03.16.2015

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January weakens the “vested rights” protection of retiree health care based on a labor contract, potentially making it easier for government employers to cut a growing cost. The high court overturned an influential federal appeals court ruling that said retiree health care authorized by a short-term labor contract is presumed to be a lifetime benefit, unless the contract has clear language to the contrary.

Cap-and-trade: Transportation fuels on the block

As rush hour approaches, traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. (Photo: Frontpage)

by JOHN HOWARD posted 02.11.2015

Permission slips covering an array of fuels used in California – and which account for nearly 40 percent of the state’s carbon emissions – will be put on the auction block as part of the state’s landmark law to curb climate-changing greenhouse gases.

PPIC: Brown, Legislature, economy on a roll

Gov. Brown on Jan. 9 in the state Capitol as he unveiled his 2015-16 draft budget. Brown's budget includes the newly approved "rainy day fund."(Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli)

by SAMANTHA GALLEGOS posted 01.28.2015

Likely voters in California are starting off the new year with some new-found optimism about the governor, the economy and — wait for it — the Legislature, according to a new survey released late Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California.

One-year extension for tax-free Internet service law

An illustration of the Internet and world wide web. (Ramcreations, Shutterstock)

by SCOTT SORIANO posted 12.10.2014

Californians concerned about an internet service tax can breathe easier — at least for a year. The federal law known as the Internet Tax Freedom Act, or IFTA, was extended Wednesday. It has been extended several times since it was passed in 1998.