Not With A Bang, But A Whimper

by: Robert Cruickshank Sun Jul 19, 2009 at 15:27:25 PM PDT

And so the budget drama hurtles toward its inevitable conclusion, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. Democrats have caved and given Arnold Schwarzenegger what he wanted – a cuts-only budget that does massive and lasting damage to the state of California, to the people who live here, and to our collective future. It’s taken 31 years, but Howard Jarvis is finally going to get the wholesale destruction of public services he always wanted. http://calitics.com/diary/9421/not-with-a-bang-but-a-whimper

New Taxes in California: “Everything is on the table”

State faces new budget shortfall, new tax ideas

Matthew Yi, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Monday, March 16, 2009

(03-16) 04:00 PDT Sacramento –

Less than a month after the Legislature approved more than $12 billion in tax increases to help bridge a $41 billion budget deficit, Democratic lawmakers have proposed more tax and fee measures they say would curb devastating cuts to state programs.

 

 

Taxes, taxes and more taxes

Here’s a sampling of the latest tax proposals by Democratic state lawmakers:

AB87 (Davis)/SB531 (DeSaulnier): Fees for shoppers who use plastic bags.

AB89 (Torlakson)/SB600 (Padilla): Increases the cigarette tax.

AB390 (Ammiano): $50-an-ounce tax on marijuana, which would be legalized for recreational use.

AB462 (Price): 1 percent income tax for individuals who earn more than $1 million a year, to fund public schools and universities.

AB656 (Torrico): Oil severance tax to help fund the state’s community colleges and universities.

AB1019 (Beall)/SB558 (DeSaulnier): Tax or fee on alcohol.

AB1082 (Torrico): Sales tax on pornography.

AB1342 (Evans): Cities and counties would be allowed to raise income taxes and vehicle license fees.

SB96 (Ducheny): Increases the income tax rate on the state’s wealthiest residents while lowering the rate for some middle-class taxpayers.

To read more about the bills online, go to www.leginfo.ca.gov.

E-mail Matthew Yi at myi@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/16/MN1016F4EE.DTL

they feel your pain….

California delaying tax refunds amid cash crisis

Fri Jan 16, 2009 3:09pm EST

 

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California will not pay state tax refunds for individuals and business that overpaid 2008 taxes, in order to conserve dwindling cash for priority payments including school spending and debt repayment required by state law, the state’s controller office said on Friday.

Other state checks to be postponed for 30 days include payments for vendors who provide services and products to the state government and state checks to a million aged, blind and disabled Californians to cover rent and utilities bills, State Controller John Chiang’s office said in a statement.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE50F6JH20090116

A neglected revenue source for California – marijuana

F. Aaron Smith

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The marijuana crop is valued at $13.8 billion annually – nearly double the value of our vegetable and grape crops combined. Our state is the nation’s top marijuana producer. Indeed, the average annual value of our marijuana crop is more than the combined value of wheat and cotton produced in the entire United States.

http://urlet.com/pony.unsolved

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/12/EDA4157U1Q.DTL

California Treasurer Lockyer Warns of Drastic Cuts

California Treasurer Lockyer Warns of Drastic Cuts

Large institutional investors that we need are being very selective about what they buy – and they aren’t buying California ….. This isn’t just a theory. Three weeks ago, we went to market with $1/2 Billion in California power revenue bonds—better-rated than our general obligation bonds. We had to reduce the transaction by 2/3rds because of the lack of buyers. That is extraordinary but it’s not hard to see why. Expecting investors to purchase our bonds NOW, when we can’t agree on a budget that lenders can rely on, is like expecting someone to buy a stock when they know it’s losing value.

The result is that in 9 days when the PMIB next meets, we’ll be forced to start shutting down planned expenditures for highways, schools, flood control, etc. If California can’t sell bonds, we can’t repay the PMIA for the loans it makes to pay for projects. There is a limited supply of assets in the PMIA and we can no longer both lend money for projects and lend money to the General Fund for cash flow.

It means that economic stimulus we all want, won’t occur. Billions of dollars that would have gone to thousands of private sector businesses, creating tens of thousands of jobs, will be cut off.

I’ve provided partial lists of impacted projects. It isn’t selective; it isn’t discretionary. There’s no choice. Every region will be affected if we can’t spend the nearly $5 Billion that had been expected for the rest of the year, and $8 billion more next year.

Schools from Eureka to El Centro, hundreds of projects.

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/12/california_trea.html

draconian cuts ……… raising taxes

California lawmakers OK big budget cuts

Matthew Yi, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Saturday, February 16, 2008

(02-16) 04:00 PST Sacramento - –”State lawmakers Friday approved a series of budget cuts and payment deferrals for the current fiscal year as part of an effort to slash the looming $14.5 billion budget deficit by half.{snip}

In fact, the mid-year cuts approved Friday by lawmakers and which the governor will likely sign Saturday, total just under $1 billion for this fiscal year and $1.2 billion for next year. Other solutions the lawmakers approvedinclude selling $3.3 billion worth of previously voter-approved bonds and delaying a planned early debt payment of $1.5 billion.

Those items helped the Legislature avoid, for now, some of the more controversial cuts that Schwarzenegger offered in January when he unveiled his budget proposal and declared a fiscal emergency that prompted the Legislature to take Friday’s actions.

The governor’s plan includes taking billions of dollars from public schools by suspending education funding guarantees set by Proposition 98, shutting down four dozen state parks and releasing tens of thousands of prisoners.

With at least $7 billion of deficit left to close, those draconian cuts will likely be part of the negotiations for next year’s budget, along with raising taxes.”

http://www.urlet.com/progressives.efficiency