Budget and Finance
Back to homepageDem majority passes 'scapegoat' budget
JUNE 15, 2011 By KATY GRIMES For the first time since 1933, Democrats passed the state budget, without Republican support, and using only a majority vote. Lawmakers may have met the constitutional deadline of June 15 as ordered by California
Read MoreCA GOP Shouldn't 'Go Wobbly' on Taxes
JUNE 16, 2011 I met Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, back in 1993 on a visit she made to California to promote her memoir. I remember her talking about the first Gulf War and how she overcame the
Read MoreBonds Could Sink Split-Roll Tax Increase
JUNE 15, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI California’s convoluted finances, ironically, could preclude a split-roll property tax increase. Such a tax increase would alter Proposition 13 to keep property taxes on homes the same (allowing increases of just 2 percent a
Read MoreBrown Debt Gimmicks 'Balance' Budget
JUNE 14, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Most knowledgeable people realize that California’s debt emperor has no clothes. Even if the mainstream newspaper media continue to clothe the emperor in the robes of an all-wise Buddhist monk who has taken a
Read MoreBudget For A Paycheck?
JUNE 14, 2011 By KATY GRIMES Commentary If you were presented with doing your job or having your paycheck withheld, what would you do? Oh wait – that is how it works for private sector employment. Fortunately, legislators are also
Read More
Budget Tax Rhetoric Ignores Jobs
JUNE 13, 2011 By JOHN SEILER The NBA season is over. But a full-court press is on by Gov. Jerry Brown and the tax-increase forces in the Legislature and government-employee unions to increase taxes $9 billion. In his video address
Read MoreBridge Tax Fails; Local Tax Passes
JUNE 13, 2011 By KATY GRIMES In the California Senate Friday, after a week of budget talks and hearings, the “bridge” tax extensions failed — for now. If passed, the tax extensions theoretically would balance the state budget until voters
Read MoreDems, GOP Butt Heads on Budget, Taxes
JUNE 9, 2011 By KATY GRIMES Budget showdown time. Rumors have been swarming through the Capitol this week over budget issues. Talk of which legislators might agree to a budget seems to be a moot point, as most budget trailer
Read MoreCA Internet Tax Would Hit Small Business
JUNE 7, 2011 By KATY GRIMES Instead of working on making cuts to a growing state government, California lawmakers have been dreaming up new ways to get the state’s residents to pony up more tax money, or “revenue,” as it
Read MoreBrown Cut Only 1% of School “Earmarks”
JUNE 7, 2011 By WAYNE LUSVARDI The word “mandate” sounds like something absolutely essential and mandatory. However, when it comes to school funding “mandates” in California, it is no guarantee that what is being described is an essential job or
Read More