Some Reasons for California’s Continuing Revenue Shortfalls

California’s now $26.6 billion budget shortfall is the result of the state spending one-time money on ongoing commitments is a statement commonly heard as lawmakers debate spending plans.

Like so many clichés, it happens to be right.

While not the sole cause of the state’s current fiscal woes – the recession and the 2 million unemployed Californians left in its wake has played a major role – actions taken 10 years ago contributed to the chronic imbalance between spending and revenues.    Read more »

More

Governor Cancels Proposed Sale of 11 State Office Buildings

SACRAMENTO – In a move that will save taxpayers $6 billion dollars over the next 35 years, Governor Jerry Brown today (February 9) called off the previous administration’s “short-sighted” proposal to  sell and leaseback 11 state properties.

“The sale and leaseback proposal was short-sighted and would have cost taxpayers billions of dollars in the long-run,” said Brown, “Selling and leasing back the state’s buildings for one-time gains is not prudent.”    Read more »

More

It May Cost More to Collect The Cell Phones Than Keep Them

(Editor’s Note: Refreshing to see in the Budget Letter that “ongoing device refresh” is still permissable. In the alliterative Reduction Instructions, is “sum” kind of like “add up?” And in the Exemption Request “Is shared resource pooling what regular folk think of as “sharing?”)

-30-    Read more »

More

Change in Accounting in Brown’s Budget Costs Public Schools

Public schools receive $1.5 billion less because of an accounting change employed by Gov. Jerry Brown in his January budget proposal, according to the Legislative Analyst.

In a January 31 briefing, the analyst chided the Brown administration for “not describing the new approach and its implications in its public budget documents” but said, “while imperfectly executed” the new method has “some merit.”    Read more »

More

More Costly to Keep Community College Fees at $26 than $36

To save the state money, fees for the 2.8 million Californians attending community colleges should climb to from $26 to at least $36 per unit, as proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown, according to a recent report by the Legislative Analyst.

Although it seems counter-intuitive, the analyst says that maintaining lower fees at the system’s 180 campuses and education centers actually is more expensive than raising them.    Read more »

More

UC Faces a Budget Hole of Not $500 Million But $700 Million

The University of California faces a more than $200 million deeper reduction than the $500 million proposed in Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget – in part because the state refuses to make a contribution to the 10-campus system’s retirement system.

UC says the state, as it has in the past, should pay a percentage of the employer payments the university makes to its retirement system based on the $3 billion general fund contribution the state makes to the system’s $6 billion instructional budget.    Read more »

More

Is This Press Release More Evidence of an Economic Recovery?

SACRAMENTO – The California New Car Dealers Association announced January 25 that registrations of new cars and light trucks increased by 13.1 percent in California during 2010, compared with 2009. The association forecasts 2011 sales will increase by another 13.3 percent to 1,330,000 new vehicles.

The Honda Civic was the best-selling vehicle in California during 2010, followed closely by the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.    Read more »

More

Don’t Sugarcoat it, Bill. Go Ahead Say What You Really Think

This is a statement issued January 21 by State Treasuer Bill Lockyer about Congress considering allowing states to declare bankruptcy:

“To the folks in Congress cooking this baloney: Don’t bother.  States didn’t ask for it.  We don’t want it.  We don’t need it.

“Bankruptcy would devastate states’ ability to recover from the recession and make the infrastructure investments that create good jobs.     Read more »

More

Some “Unrealistic Expectations” Present in Brown’s Budget

Gov. Jerry Brown said he wouldn’t use the “gimmicks, tricks and unrealistic expectations,” that have marked recently enacted spending plans.

His budget plan would contain “no more smoke and mirrors,” he said in his January 3 inaugural address.

But while the Legislative Analyst’s initial review of Brown’s budget praises the Democratic governor’s spending cuts for generating multi-year rather than one-time savings and laying out some “bold” realignment proposals, the assessment also finds some of the things Brown vowed wouldn’t be there.    Read more »

More

If History Is Any Judge, Gov. Brown’s Budget Speaks Volumes

Jerry Brown is a one-term governor.

If history is any judge.

There are two entwined, long-standing traditions in the Capitol.

One is the habit of chief executives in their last year in office to leave what amounts to a burning brown paper bag filled with dog-doo on the front porch of the next occupant of the corner office, ringing the doorbell, and then running off to laugh uproariously as they try to stomp out the flame.    Read more »

More