With the number of six-figure CalPRS and CalSTRS pensions having risen dramatically in the last decade, the state’s ability to fund these pensions comes at the risk of cutting funding for other services. Notably, the amount of money paid per pupil for CalSTRS pension costs continues to rise while school district revenues fall, foreshadowing increases […]
In 2018, almost 31,000 public employees in the state of California received pensions valued at $100,000 or more. With CalPERS paying out over $23 billion in pension benefits over the last year alone, these sizable pensions can, in part, be attributed to pension enhancements passed in 1999 and 2001. Click here to read more at […]
State government employee pension costs are scheduled to increase by $676 million for the 2019-2020 budget year, raising the total bill to $7 billion for the year. Currently, CalPERS has approximately 70 percent of the funds needed to pay off future obligations for the next 30 years. Click here to read the full article at […]
Pointing to California’s “surplus” as a sign that the state is in great financial shape is a grave fallacy and is misleading of the true nature of the Golden State’s finances, argues Patrick Gleason in Forbes. The state’s surplus is meager in the face of its $1 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities, which after adjusting […]
From water taxes to battery fees, California’s legislature is considering almost $6.2 billion in tax increases. Among the new taxes and fees up for consideration, politicians the Capitol are considering taxing water, soda, handguns, prescription opioids, as well as passing fees on tires, batteries, and oil & gas. Click here to read a full breakdown […]
In a scathing rebuke on the practice of rent control, Being Libertarian writer Logan Davies argues that despite a vast number of economic studies pointing to rent control’s many failures, politicians still insist on trying to implement it. Rather than try to apply artificial price ceilings to apartment rents, it would behoove government officials to […]
Beginning next week, online out-of-state retailers who make more than 200 transactions or $100,000 in California will have to register with the state and begin collecting sales tax. In an effort to make the new law more fair for small businesses, Assembly Democrats are seeking to pass a new bill, AB 147, that would raise […]
Looking to make it easier to raise taxes and issue bonds for a number of projects, Assembly Democrats introduced a constitutional amendment that would lower the voting threshold for bonds and special taxes from two-thirds to 55 percent. Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, one of the Democrats sponsoring the bill, believes the proposed legislation will give local […]
In an effort to reverse the tax cuts President Trump put into place in 2017, California lawmakers are considering asking voters to pass an estate tax on the wealthy equivalent to the tax burden prior to the tax cuts. Scott Wiener, a Democrat state Senator from San Francisco, believes the new estate tax would raise […]
While Governor Newsom and the Democrat supermajority in the State Legislature have been mulling over new taxes to fund a variety of ambitious projects, Dan Walters writes the political cost of implementing these taxes would prove to be very high. With California’s taxes already among the highest in the nation, as well as the recent […]
