Tag "Taxes"

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Medi-Cal boom squeezes CA health care

Although California officials insisted that expanding Medi-Cal coverage has been an economic boon, critics and Sacramento Republicans warned that the program’s staggering growth has created a costly, nettlesome problem for a state already strapped with challenges. The Golden State has seen

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Bill could make it easier to increase transportation taxes

A bill that a taxpayer group is calling an attack on Proposition 13 and which the California Chamber of Commerce has dubbed a “job killer,” was approved by the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee last week. Assembly Constitutional Amendment 4

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CA gas spikes raise hackles

California gas prices have once again jumped out to dramatic highs, setting consumers on edge and reopening old questions about who’s to blame. Some analysts, including those at GasBuddy.com, pointed a finger at foreign wholesalers, while others, such as Trilby Lundberg, said

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CA housing becomes political football

To borrow one metaphor, California’s housing market has become a double-edged sword, reminiscent of the bonanza days before the 2008 economic crisis. That’s why, to borrow another, it has also become a political football. With residents increasingly priced out of the state’s coastal metropolises, politicians

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CA incentives reel back film and TV production

Hollywood could soon reclaim its once-shaky status as America’s production headquarters. After a near panic touched off by a nationwide spending spree on state incentives for film and television production, programs around the country have begun scaling back or shutting down altogether, leaving California

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Brown prevails over legislative Democrats in budget negotiations

Notching another victory against Democrats to his left on spending, Gov. Jerry Brown rebuffed party legislators pushing him to add last-minute items to the state’s budget. “The final budget is $61 million more than Brown’s proposal in May,” the San Francisco

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CA Dems pressure Brown on spending

New budget deadline, same budget battle. That could be the watchword for Sacramento this week, as leading Democrats in the Assembly and the Senate labored on a spending plan that could survive the governor’s scrutiny. Equipped with a line-item veto, which allows

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Concerns raised over taxpayer disclosure bill

A bill that recently passed the state Assembly would make it easier to disclose confidential tax information and harass businesses, warn Republican legislators. But Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson, the author of Assembly Bill 567, asserts that his measure simply increases

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CA pension plans prompting tough tradeoffs

Despite a sounder economic footing, California’s pensions problem has deepened. That was the conclusion drawn by analysts who warned that new accounting rules would shine a startling spotlight on practices long kept in the shadows. “The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is implementing new

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Bill raising sales tax cap passes CA Assembly

Although Californians already pay some of the highest sales taxes in the nation, a bill that recently passed the Assembly paves the way for the sales tax to go even higher. Assembly Bill 464 increases to 3 percent (from the

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