Every January, governors in California are required to propose a budget ("Governor's Budget") for the next fiscal year commencing July 1. Governor's Budgets provide detailed views of state finances but also are a mixture of fiction, facts and Kabuki. The principal fiction takes the form of projected General Fund revenues, about which planners have little idea since ~70 … Continue reading Governor’s Proposed 2021-22 Budget
Category: Budget
California’s COVID-Resistant Tax Revenues
November General Fund tax revenues came in 30 percent above forecast. Through the first five months of the fiscal year, revenues now exceed forecast by $14 billion. Despite the pandemic, 2020 calendar year tax revenues are running ahead of 2019: That's despite a 9.3 percent unemployment rate, more than double November 2019's unemployment rate and nearly 40 percent higher than the … Continue reading California’s COVID-Resistant Tax Revenues
California’s COVID-Resistant Tax Revenues
October General Fund tax revenues came in 37 percent above the 2020–21 Budget Act forecast, according to the latest Finance Bulletin from the California Department of Finance. Revenues through the first four months of the current fiscal year now exceed forecast revenues by $11 billion: Revenue collections from March, when the state’s COVID-19 state of emergency was … Continue reading California’s COVID-Resistant Tax Revenues
Finding Money For Chesa Boudin
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that S.F. DA Chesa Boudin says his department is understaffed and overwhelmed by caseloads. There’s a fix, as we illustrated last June. That fix would eliminate an unnecessary subsidy and free up $120 million. Boudin’s entire budget is $74 million. The most expensive group of beneficiaries of the subsidy are retired police. Several elected officials, including … Continue reading Finding Money For Chesa Boudin
LA Times Can Do Better
The internet has made it easier than ever to get to primary sources such as government budgets. That’s one reason we encourage members of the GFC Network to skip intermediaries and just go direct. For example, earlier today the Los Angeles Times had a front page article entitled “California hopes for relief” in which the reporters … Continue reading LA Times Can Do Better
NYT Can Do Better
A recent article in the New York Times about election results in California included the following sentence (italics added by me): “A measure that would have raised taxes on commercial landlords to raise billions for a state that sorely needs revenue also seemed on track for defeat.” The reporters did not provide support for their assertion — which they … Continue reading NYT Can Do Better
488 Days
Earlier today the State of California finally issued a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the June 30, 2019 fiscal year that ended 488 days ago, the last state to do so. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires big companies to file within 60 days. CAFR’s tell much more than government budgets; e.g., some California budgets have treated borrowings as … Continue reading 488 Days
How LA Could Save $398 Million
Yesterday, LA’s City Administrative Officer announced the city’s budget deficit could reach $400 million to $600 million by the end of the current fiscal year. According to page 201 of LA’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, LA spends $398 million per year supplying health insurance subsidies to retirees under the city’s other post-employment benefits (OPEB) program. LA could … Continue reading How LA Could Save $398 Million
CA Passes A Disappointing Budget
To say we are disappointed in the 2020–21 budget passed on Friday by the State Legislature would be an understatement. It’s bad enough they did not use this moment to reform retirement spending that’s unnecessarily draining $25 billion per year from schools and state services and billions more from local services. Even worse was to … Continue reading CA Passes A Disappointing Budget
California’s Side Letters With CCPOA and SEIU
Much less than meets the eye. So far as we can tell, there’s much less than meets the eye to the side letter arrangements negotiated with CCPOA and SEIU in connection with furloughs. The CCPOA side letter agreement imposes a furlough day per month but a bit less than half of the savings is given back to … Continue reading California’s Side Letters With CCPOA and SEIU