“The Healthy Families program is short by almost $100 million, according to California health officials. That number will rise, officials said, because the current deficit only covers the program’s operation for January and half of December.” — David Gorn.
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Saying California’s chronic multi-billion dollar shortfalls are over for at least the next five years, Gov. Jerry Brown presented a $139 billion budget Thursday that increases spending for public schools by nearly $3 billion and for higher education by $600 million.
“California came through probably 15 years of great fiscal difficulties. Some of it
Big Soda spent big bucks. That’s how it defeated ballot measures to create soda taxes in two California towns.
In Richmond, in the Bay Area, and in El Monte, east of Los Angeles, the measures would have added a penny-an-ounce tax on soda. Had the taxes passed, they were projected to raise millions of
Public Policy Institute of California
In the wake of Gov. Jerry Brown’s successful campaign to pass Proposition 30, his job approval rating hit a record-high 48 percent among Californians, according to a survey released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). Passage of the measure to increase taxes changed the feelings of
When Republican Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen recently refused to sign the no-tax pledge, she drew fire from many in the GOP and skepticism from Democrats.
But whatever the political fallout, it didn’t have much impact on Election Day: She easily carried the 12th AD, which covers most of Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties.
Drawing
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
Recent reports from the Franchise Tax Board estimate that California faces a roughly $6.5 billion “tax gap” from unpaid taxes. Remarkably, the state has overlooked an easy solution that is already on its books to help close the tax gap: a reward program to encourage whistleblowers to report tax fraud and tax evasion.