Budget and Finance
Back to homepageBrown Signs Punitive Amazon Tax
(This is an updated Washington Examiner story from June 29.) JUNE 30, 2011 By KATY GRIMES With the California legislature having just passed a flawed budget full of accounting tricks, budget gimmicks and money grabs, one area of small business
Read MorePension Iceberg Will Sink State Budget
JUNE 30, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Imagine you’re a passenger on the ill-fated RMS Titanic luxury liner on its 1912 maiden voyage. But the Titanic had no warning of an iceberg lurking below the ocean surface — unlike the Pirate
Read MoreBrown Upholds Farm Worker Secret Ballot
JUNE 30, 2011 By KATY GRIMES After months of protests, lobbying and speeches, on March 31, César Chávez Day, the California Senate passed SB 104 to eliminate secret ballot elections for farm workers voting on unionization. And Tuesday night, in a
Read MoreCal Biz Climate Ranks Pathetic 32nd
JUNE 30, 2011 By JOSEPH PERKINS The Legislature passed a budget this week that assumes $10.6 billion in higher tax revenues flowing into the state’s coffers next year. That sum includes not only the $6.6 billion Gov. Jerry Brown projected
Read MoreBudget Ignores Public Employee Reform
JUNE 29, 2010 Commentary By LANNY EBENSTEIN The state budget approved on Tuesday is the wrong way forward for the state of California. Though this budget does not rely upon new or extended general taxes, it would cut many vital
Read MoreDemocrats Pass Hinky Budget
JUNE 29, 2011 By KATY GRIMES With a surprising lack of debate between parties, the California Legislature passed the budget late last evening, and only with a majority vote, attempting to close what began the year as a $26.6 billion
Read MoreBrown, Leg Conjure Up Phantom Budget
JUNE 28, 2011 By KATY GRIMES In the shadow of the 2009 tax increases set to expire this Friday July 1, Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democrat party leadership announced Monday that a majority-vote budget deal had been reached. There
Read MoreJuly 1 Tax Cut Will Boost CA Economy
NOTE: This article first appeared yesterday in Flashreport.org. JUNE 28, 2011 By JOHN SEILER Assuming Republicans in the Legislature stand solid, Californians could get an early Independence Day gift this year: tax cuts. And that gift will provide a needed
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Redevelopment is Prop. 13 in Reverse
JUNE 28, 2011 by WAYNE LUSVARDI To California redevelopment advocates, the policy brings the Midas touch to cities, turning everything into gold for the Golden State. Redevelopment fans point to all the beautiful new malls, restored Old Town business districts, industrial
Read MoreLittle Hoover Critiques Community Colleges
JUNE 28, 2011 By DAVE ROBERTS If California’s educational system were a student, it would be made to sit on a stool in the corner with a dunce cap on its head. Nearly one in four Californians is functionally illiterate,
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