Budget and Finance

Back to homepage

State tax receipts down sharply

March 31, 2010 By JOHN SEILER A new study by the U.S. Census Bureau found that the tax receipts of the California state government dropped 13.9 percent. That was fifth highest of the states, with the higher states being: Alaska

Read More

Vallejo avoids tough pension fights

March 29, 2010 By STEVEN GREENHUT (Originally printed in the Wall Street Journal) In 2008, Vallejo, Calif., was nearly broke. Faced with falling tax revenues, rising pension costs, and unmovable public-employee unions, the city was unable to pay its bills

Read More

Hearing details massive state waste

March 25, 2010 By KATY GRIMES Sometimes the most informative legislative hearings are the informational hearings. No vote is taken, there is an abundance of tough talk by legislators, mea maxima culps uttered by egregious state agency heads, and everyone

Read More

Reform group wants higher taxes

March 24, 2010 By KATY GRIMES At a hearing Tuesday in the Improving the State Committee, the new “bipartisan” group, California Forward, made another heartfelt appeal to legislators for support of what is supposed to be something everyone can believe

Read More

So much courage, so few solutions

March 22, 2010 When people ask why I moved to Sacramento to write about California’s notoriously dysfunctional government, I say that in the next two or three years, the government here is likely to (figuratively) crash and burn, and as

Read More

What Budget Crisis?

Mar. 19, 2010 I spend my days attending state Assembly and Senate committee hearings, trying to follow proposed legislation. Most days I end up sitting in a red velvet chair in a committee hearing room, listening to the ridiculous banter

Read More

DOJ to state agencies: pay up

March 17, 2010 By KATY GRIMES The California Department of Justice wants to be compensated by California’s state agencies for legal services. Last year, the DOJ lost $30 million of its budget and had to cut 130 attorneys from its staff. As a way

Read More

Ed funding gets contentious

March 17, 2010 By KATY GRIMES Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal for education funding did not sit well with the Assembly education subcommittee. Coming from two vastly different ideological arenas, committee members appeared more open to spending, instead of budget cutting. Analyzing

Read More

Is high speed rail unstoppable?

Mar. 12, 2010 Sometimes, being a legislator can be a very lonely job. Just ask Assembly member Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point. She’s taking on the proposed California High Speed Rail project, and she doesn’t have a lot of help or

Read More

21% of small businesses on brink

March 12, 2010 By ELISE VIEBECK A report released last week showed that 21 percent of California small businesses believe they will fold in the next three years. The annual survey, conducted by advocacy group Small Business California, revealed low

Read More