Budget and Finance
Back to homepageWill Redevelopment Be Demolished?
JUNE 23, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI As California politicians are deciding whether to have a clean break from the state’s addiction to redevelopment, or to substitute some other methadone-like economic policy drug to replace it, the global economy is subtly
Read MoreLegislators Ordered to Forfeit Pay
JUNE 22, 2011 By KATY GRIMES Do the job right or don’t get paid. That was State Controller John Chaing’s message yesterday to the California Legislature. Chiang told media that the math did not add up in the budget passed
Read MoreBudget Battle Poisons Pesticide Rules
JUNE 22, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Politicized environmental regulation is becoming a protection racket to collect votes. To pass Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget, farmers along the Central Coast of California are having overkill pesticide runoff regulations imposed on them to
Read More'Amazon Tax' Would Kill 25K CA Businesses
JUNE 21, 2011 By KATY GRIMES A growing number of states, including California, are demanding that online retailers such as Overstock and Amazon collect and pay sales tax. eBay, the world’s largest online auction company and not necessarily a retailer, is
Read MoreCalif. Economy 47th Worst of States
JUNE 21, 2011 By JOHN SEILER California’s stagnating economy suffered more bad news by ranking 47th of the 50 states for economic outlook. The ranking comes from the new, fourth edition of “Rich States, Poor States: The ALEC-Laffer State Economic
Read MoreState's Ongoing Nutty Budget Battle
The following first appeared in the City Journal California. JUNE 20, 2011 By STEVEN GREENHUT Watching the California budget drama unfold reminds me of the “Seinfeld” episode in which George Costanza pretends he has to sign papers on a house he’s leasing
Read MoreProp. 13 Split Roll Would Be Ripoff
JUNE 20, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI and CHARLES B. WARREN Democrats in the California Legislature want to repeal the property tax reassessment protections of Proposition 13 for commercial properties under the dubious notion that there is a pot of California
Read MoreRedevelopment Agencies on the Brink
JUNE 20, 2011 By STEVEN GREENHUT Hours before the midnight Wednesday deadline for passing a state budget, legislative Democrats rammed through a ridiculous, gimmick-laden, majority-vote spending plan that failed to reform anything and failed to impress Gov. Jerry Brown, who
Read MoreThe Paycheck Protection Budget
JUNE 17, 2011 The California Legislature just passed a budget. Less than 24 hours later, the governor vetoed it, leaving many political wonks scratching their heads in wonderment at why Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a budget from his own party.
Read MoreChapman CA Forecast Warns Legislature
JUNE 16, 2011 By JOHN SEILER This morning, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed the budget passed yesterday by the Democratic-run California Legislature. Even as he was doing so, Chapman University was revealing a sobering economic forecast that should make the Legislature
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