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New fee would push S.F. housing costs even higher
The cost of housing in San Francisco and Silicon Valley has been a national news story throughout 2015. On Wednesday, for example, USA Today reported that teachers could no longer afford to live in San Francisco. This has prompted hand-wringing
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CA tax board owes 27,000 overcharged taxpayers
The California Franchise Tax Board potentially owes millions of dollars to 27,000 taxpayers who were overcharged interest after applying overpayments from one year to estimated tax payments in the following year. Due to FTB interest miscalculations going back nearly two
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Contra Costa supervisors paid twice for vehicle costs
Some members of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors are facing sharp questions about their ethics and honesty over perceived double-dipping on car allowances, Dan Borenstein of the Bay Area News Group reports. At the behest of Supervisors Mary
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Bullet train agency still slow to acquire land
Buying land for California’s bullet train remains a slow and contentious process for the state’s high-speed rail agency — but the state’s top rail official said this week he doesn’t expect any “significant” project delays as a result. The California
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CA water cops crack down
With California residents and wildlife struggling to cope, officials have introduced a fresh round of crackdowns on water consumption, dealing a blow to farmers and municipalities thirsty for more. Hard targets Water suppliers braced for fines in areas where consumption didn’t hit aggressive
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GOP mega-donors gather in SoCal; meet with candidates and discuss policy
Hosted by the organization bearing the Koch brothers’ name, Some 450 business leaders came together in Southern California to think through their policy priorities for 2016. At stake was nearly $890 million in funds to be allocated through the end of next year,
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Large counties could be required to increase number of Supervisors
The idea of increasing representation by having fewer constituents per elected representative is getting some attention. On the state level, an initiative filed by John Cox proposes to reorganize state governance by molding a Neighborhood Legislature whose goal is to reduce campaign
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Brown declares fire emergency
Faced with a string of large, dangerous fires, Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency. “Firefighters in steep terrain and rugged conditions in California are fighting nearly two dozen wildfires that have torched more than 134,000 acres,” CNN
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CA considers state pot bank
Grappling with the regulatory challenges faced by liberalizing marijuana laws, California officials floated the idea of a state-run bank for the cannabis industry. The plan, which would have struck many observers as outlandish just a few years ago, arose in
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CA ‘conundrum’: Water use down, bills up
Californians reacted impressively to Gov. Jerry Brown’s late-spring call for major water conservation, cutting usage by 27 percent in June. But many aren’t happy about it — because for millions of ratepayers, conservation hasn’t led to cost savings. Newspapers around
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