The Zero Effect

“Over the years, a number of smart people have learned the hard way that a long stream of impressive numbers mulitplied by a single zero always equals zero.”

                                            –Warren Buffett    Read more »

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State’s Daily Tax Receipts Begin End-of-the-Month Climb

With one day before April 17th’s tax filing deadline, the state reported receiving almost $455.5 million over the weekend, boosting the month’s collections to nearly $1.6 billion.

April is by far the largest month of the year for income tax receipts. Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget predicts $9.4 billion in both payments to the Franchise Tax Board and withholding from employee paychecks, which is sent by employers to the Employment Development Department.    Read more »

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The Richard “Fresh Air” Janson Memorial Bridge

Drivers passing over the Sonoma Creek Bridge on Highway 37 between Novato and Vallejo may notice the bridge is named after Richard “Fresh Air” Janson.

Janson, who died in 1951, was a carver of duck decoys.  Janson’s work was the ‘gold standard’ against which all other Pacific Coast decoys are evaluated,” according to Assembly Concurrent Resolution 68 of 1996 naming the bridge in Janson’s honor.    Read more »

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Jason Hodge, Democratic Candidate for the 19th Senate District    Read more »

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Budget Hole Deepens, Increasing Importance of April Collections

Making April tax receipts even more important, revenues collected by the state in March were $236 million below the nearly $6 billion estimated in the budget, the state Department of Finance said April 13.

Since the beginning of the current fiscal year on July 1, revenues are almost $900 million below projections.    Read more »

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Tax Time Is Also Crunch Time for the State

This month, California taxpayers will be a major determiner of  how deeply state services, including support for public schools, will be cut beginning July 1.

For obvious reasons, April is the state’s biggest single month for income tax collections. Budget writers are counting on over $9.4 billion

Counting all sources of taxes – sales, income and business – nearly $12.1 billion is expected to flow into state coffers by April 30, $100 million less than the nearly  $12.2 billion predicted for June.    Read more »

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A Classy Panhandle…

“Can I have some of your power and influence rub off on me?”

— A solicitation for a handout from a gentleman on a downtown Sacramento street    Read more »

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Peter Tateishi — Fixer of the Assembly

Peter Tateishi is a Republican candidate for the 8th Assembly District, which was created in the new redrawing of legislative lines. It includes communities and unincorporated areas northeast and southeast of Sacramento, including Carmichael where Tateishi lives with his wife, Anna Feliz, and daughter Victoria, his campaign website says.

Drivers in the area Tateishi wants to represent can’t help but see a number of lawn signs placed by him and the five other candidates who also seek the seat.    Read more »

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Plan Menus Accordingly: April is National Grilled Cheese Month

While the presidential proclamation making this declaration was not immediately discovered through a relatively thorough Internet search, numerously press reports corroborate the headline.

Kraft Foods says that while the origin of the grilled cheese sandwich is unknown, similar recipes appeared in the cookbooks of Ancient Rome.

Of those who buy sliced cheese, (preferably Kraft, presumably) 74 percent make a grilled sandwich at least once a month.    Read more »

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Some Policy Making Advice from “The 97-lb Recovery”

Here are the last few paragraphs of Time’s “The 97-lb Recovery,” by Rana Foroohar & Bill Saporito. The piece is a comprehensive assessment of where the economy is and where it might be going: 

“If housing recovers, the American economy will truly begin to feel like it’s in recovery. But when it does–be it a year from now, or three, or five–the problem that precipitated it will still be with us.    Read more »

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