Category Archives: Budget Crisis
San Diego Business Journal: “Maintain, Expand California’s Enterprise Zone Program”
A commentary in the San Diego Business Journal by Dan Dufrense, director of government relations for Epsilon Systems Solutions Inc. (a business that employs people): Here we go again. California is strapped with more than $20 billion of deficit, a 12.3 percent unemployment rate and a staggering decline in home values. Faced with these daunting [...]
CAEZ Letter Writing Campaign
CAEZ is launching a letter writing campaign in support of the Enterprise Zone program. From the CAEZ.org website: DATED: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 URGENT! State Legislators are discussing possible cuts to or total elimination of the Enterprise Zone Program. Time is critical, decisions will be made within the next few weeks. CALL TO ACTION – [...]
Gov. Wants Legislators to Follow Pres. Obama’s Lead
As reported in Capitol Alert: The Republican governor had his staff install outside his office a repeating video loop of President Barack Obama telling ABC News on Monday, “I can guarantee that the worst thing we could do would be to raise taxes when the economy is still this weak.” The display is in a [...]
San Diego’s 10News on The Enterprise Zones
San Diego ABC affiliate 10 News reported on the potential fate of the Enterprise Zone program in the current budget mess. Here is the video of the televised report: Here is the accompanying story: SAN DIEGO — A program that has put almost 2,000 San Diegans to work could be eliminated by the state in [...]
“Scoring” The Enterprise Zone Program
There is an educational item in Capitol Weekly by John Howard examining the issue of how various things are “scored” for their value in the State budget. Very often items are deemed to be worth one thing for the purpose of the budget, but turn out to be worth a very different amount in reality: [...]
Bloomberg: “Schwarzenegger Seeks Obama’s Help for Deficit Relief”
Reported by Bloomberg: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, anticipating a $21 billion budget deficit, plans to ask President Barack Obama to ease mandates and minimums on social programs to save as much as $8 billion. The Republican governor plans to seek the relief, according to a California official who asked not to be identified because details [...]
Budget Podcast
Here is the KQED podcast with John Myers and Anthony York discussing the next budget crisis and the LAO report. It won’t put a smile on your face. [Audio clip: view full post to listen]
LAO Warns of New Budget Crisis
The LAO has published a report projecting a new budget shortfall of $20.7 billion for the 2010-2011 budget. They say that: Our forecast of California’s General Fund revenues and expenditures shows that the state must address a General Fund budget problem of $20.7 billion between now and the time the Legislature enacts a 2010–11 state [...]
Will There Be a Flat Tax?
From the Sacramento Bee‘s Capitol Alert: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has just announced that he will call a special session in late September so legislators can consider the Commission on the 21st Century Economy’s recommendations for overhauling the state’s tax system. An exact date for the special session has not been set, but the press release [...]
Gov Signs Budget
See The Sacramento Bee.
Budget Deal
We at least have the beginning of a deal: Sacramento Bee: “A deal — at last” Christian Science Monitor: “California budget cuts deep into healthcare, schools” NPR: “California Lawmakers Set Out To Sell Budget Deal” Los Angeles Times: “Governor, legislative leaders begin building support for their budget pact” The Economist: “Plugging the gap“
So Much For the Tax Commission
Remember the Commission on the 21st Century Economy? On its website, the COTCE explains that, “Governor Schwarzenegger’s Executive Order S-03-09 mandated the bipartisan Commission on the 21st Century Economy to re-examine and modernize California’s out-of-date revenue laws that contribute to feast-or-famine state budget cycles.” But apparently the commissioners misunderstood “bipartisan” to mean “two different parties.” [...]
Flat Tax?
The Los Angeles Times picked out an interesting idea from the Governor’s recent chat with the Sacramento Bee’s editorial board (see this post for the video): Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today that he would like to see such “radical” proposals come out of a commission now studying an overhaul of the state’s tax system. The [...]
Video of Gov at the SacBee
Here is the video of the Governor speaking with the editorial board of the Sacramento Bee earlier today: There seems to be some trouble with the audio at the beginning of the video, but it kicks in later.
