Unprecedented Reductions in Sales Tax Advances to Cities

As if more evidence were needed of the state’s ragged economic condition, the Board of Equalization in 2009 made unprecedented reductions in the sales tax it advances to cities.

“There have never been broad scale reductions like this,” said Anita Gore, a spokeswoman for the board.

Each month, the board looks at cash receipts and a variety of other factors and then forwards sales taxes collected to cities.     Read more »

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School Spending Reduced $2.4 Billion in Governor’s Budget

Despite claims by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that education is a top spending priority, his proposed budget reduces state support for public schools by $2.4 billion, the state Legislative Analyst said on January 12.

In its Overview of the Governor’s Budget, the analyst says the governor’s education proposal may not be constitutional, may not receive a necessary federal waiver and violates a budget deal struck in July 2009 setting a minimum funding level for schools $2.3 billion higher than that used by the GOP governor in the spending plan he proposed on January 8.    Read more »

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Ten Years Later, Ratepayers Still Paying for the Energy Crisis

California’s energy crisis in the winter of 2000 — spot market prices hit $2,000 per megawatt hour — may seem like a thing of the past for electricity customers. It’s not.

They’re still paying the price: About $3 billion each year for the next three years.

Of the 58 contracts the state Department of Water Resources negotiated in 2001 and 2002 at a cost of $42.5 billion, 26 still exist with an estimated portfolio cost of $9.8 billion between now and 2015 when the final two contracts expire.    Read more »

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Governor’s Budget Plan Highlights California’s Economic Hurt

Signs of California’s tattered economy are sprinkled throughout Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The most obvious is the steep decline in tax revenues, coupled with years of over-spending, that led to budget shortfalls totaling $60 billion over the past two years and an additional $20 billion in the budget the GOP governor proposed January 8.    Read more »

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Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Budget Plan Has Shaky Assumptions

Gov. Schwarzenegger’s sixth and final budget proposal reflects the themes he’s been sounding since December – increased federal funds or elimination of state programs like in-home care and welfare.

While he touted his commitment to children and education, he used some budgetary sleight-of-hand to reduce the amount the state would be required to pay public schools by more than $800 million – that on the heels of some $12 billion in reductions over the past two budget years.    Read more »

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Controller Issues December Cash Report: Revenues Up But…

(Editor’s Note: This report comes a day before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger releases his budget proposal to close a roughly $20 billion gasp between cash and spending commitments for the fiscal year beginning July 1. He said in his State of the State speech January 6, $6.6 billion of the problem is this fiscal year, the remaining $13.4 billion in the next.    Read more »

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Anecdotal Evidence of An Unintended Furlough Consequence

A friend visited the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento on Friday December 4 to have some blood work done. He encountered a large line of other persons waiting to have blood drawn.

He said many of them were state workers who, now furloughed three of every four Fridays each month, use those vacant days to dispense with non-work related errands of which getting blood tests is apparently one.    Read more »

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The Personnel Craze Sweeping the Nation: Furlough-a-Go-Go!

It’s not just California and Hawaii that have turned to employee furloughs as a means of reducing budget deficits – 22 other states are using them as a means to reduce payroll costs.

Geographically, the states span the nation, from Maine to Oregon and Wisconsin to New Mexico.

A recent article in The Pew Center on the States’ ongoing “Focus on Performance” series, a collaborative project with Stateline.org,    Read more »

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You’re Not Alone California — Check the Aloha State’s Budget

California is by no means alone in its fiscal calamity.

At least 48 states have addressed or still face shortfalls totaling $190 billion in their 2010 fiscal years, a figure representing 28 percent of all state budgets, according to a November 19 report by the Washington D.C. based Center on Budget Policies and Priorities.    Read more »

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A Hidden Budget Deficit: The Unemployment Insurance Fund

Largely overlooked among the angst and rhetoric over the general fund’s stark $21 billion budget gap is the fast-growing deficit in the state’s insolvent Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.

In an October fund forecast, the state Employment Development Department predicted the fund would end the 2009 calendar year $7.4 billion in the hole.    Read more »

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