New Jobs Added But State Unemployment Up in October

California’s unemployment rate increased from 12.3 percent to 12.5 percent in October, the state Employment Development Department said November 20.

The national unemployment rate also increased in October to 10.2 percent.

In October 2008, California’s unemployment rate was 8 percent.

While the unemployment rate rose, the state reported 25,700 non-farm jobs added.    Read more »

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California’s Next Governor Faces Four Years of Fiscal Hell

The first term of California’s next governor will be a fiscal nightmare with a cumulative budget shortfall over four years of nearly $83 billion, according to the fiscal forecast released November 18 by the Legislative Analyst. 

During his last year in office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic majority Legislature face a $21 billion gap between revenues and spending commitments, a problem whose solution is made more difficult by the political timidness that usually marks election years.    Read more »

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“Easy,” “Prudent” and “Likely” Ways to Balance the Budget

(Editor’s Note: At a meeting with the Fresno Bee editorial board on November 9, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the state will end the current fiscal year, which concludes June 30, 2010, between $5 billion and $7 billion out-of-balance. The GOP governor’s Department of Finance, based on July revenue estimates, predicts the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2010 already has a $7.4 billion gap between revenue and spending commitments.    Read more »

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Rising Debt Payments Increase Budget Pressures

Among the points made in State Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s wide-ranging testimony to the Senate and Assembly Select Committees on Improving State Government (See the post below) is that California can no longer keep issuing debt willy-nilly.

He explicates the point in his recently issued annual Debt Affordability Report which shows the amount of debt service the cash-starved General Fund pays doubling from $6 billion this year to more than $12 billion in seven years.    Read more »

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Robbing Peter to Pay Paul on State School Funding

 Among the 240 bills vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009 was a measure passed in the closing hours of the legislative session to prevent $400 million in cuts to districts containing the state’s lowest performing schools.

Democrats initially backed cutting schools — already the recipient of deepest cuts this year — as a way to lower the size of the GOP governor’s proposed reductions in health and welfare programs.    Read more »

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Book Review: California in the Balance

Not many primers on California budget history, processes and strategies begin with a Foreward whose third sentence notes that in earlier times “priests scrutinized the entrails of recently deceased birds and mammals to inspire their analysis.”

They are also the words of State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, himself not a common feature of primers on California budget history, processes and strategies.    Read more »

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Bad Budget News Ahead, Fiscal Year Short $1 Billion

SACRAMENTO, October 9 — For the first three months of the fiscal year, total state general fund revenue was nearly $1.1 billion below the estimates used in the recently amended 2009-10 budget, State Controller John Chiang reported today in his monthly accounting of California’s cash balance, receipts and disbursements in September.    Read more »

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School Cut Hurts Minority, Low-Income Students

Some 2.7 million school children  — hardest hit being Latino, African-American, English language learners — will lose $400 million in per-pupil spending unless Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs legislation to prevent the cut.

The reduction was part of the public school cuts approved by lawmakers in July to help balance the budget.    Read more »

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Local Vehicle Registration Surcharge: Tax Or Fee?

One of the more interesting debates occurring on the Assembly September 10 centered on what constitutes a tax.

A bill, narrowly sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on a partisan 41 to 22 vote, would allow counties to continue assessing a $1 surcharge on vehicle registrations to help pay for vehicle theft prevention.    Read more »

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Not Good

California’s unemployment rate rose to 11.9 percent in July, the state Employment Development Department announced August 21.

The United States unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent in July. 

In June, the state’s unemployment rate was 11.6 percent. In July of last year, the unemployment rate was 7.3 percent. 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said this:

“These numbers indicate that we must do everything possible to get California moving forward again.    Read more »

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