June Income Tax Receipts Looking Even Better

With five collection days left in the month, June income tax collections reported by the Franchise Tax Board are running more than $350 million over projections through June 25.

The board reports receiving nearly $4.1 billion in income tax payments and nearly $200 million in refund requests. 

Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget, unveiled in May, expected $3.75 billion to be collected by the board in June, less $291 million in refunds.     Read more »

More

Winner of the 2011 Bulwyer-Lytton Fiction Contest

“Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.”

— Sue Fondrie, Oshkosh, associate professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

Runner-Up:

“As I stood among the ransacked ruin that had been my home, surveying the aftermath of the senseless horrors and atrocities that had been perpetrated on my family and everything I hold dear, I swore to myself that no matter where I had to go, no matter what I had to do or endure, I would find the man who did this … and when I did, when I did, oh, there would be words.”     Read more »

More

June Income Tax Receipts Still Up

June income tax collections from Franchise Tax Board are running more than $300 million over projections through June 22.

The board reports receiving nearly $4 billion in income tax payments and $187 million in refund requests. 

Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget, unveiled in May, expected $3.75 billion to be collected by the board in June, less $291 million in refunds.     Read more »

More

June Tax Receipts Still Looking Up

June income tax collections from the Franchise Tax Board are running $200 million over projections through June 21.

The board reports receiving $3.9 billion in income tax payments  and $174 million in refund requests. 

Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget, unveiled in May, expected $3.6 billion to be collected by the board  in June, less $291 million in refunds.     Read more »

More

Phew!

Governor, Legislative Leaders Agree on Budget Framework

6-21-2012

SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg today announced an agreement on actions the Legislature will consider next week to finalize the 2012-2013 state budget. (Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff of Diamond bar and Assembly GOP leader Connie Conway of  Visalia?)    Read more »

More

The “Reform” of Proposition 25?

 

By Loren Kaye

Some day the Legislature will pass a balanced, gimmick-free budget that will carefully weigh the competing priorities of a diverse state and judiciously determine how to address them. 

While we’re waiting, we’ll be left with an on-time budget. 

Proponents of Proposition 25, the 2010 ballot measure that reduced the legislative vote threshold for the state budget to a simple majority, didn’t promise much — but even then they oversold it.     Read more »

More

A Tad More Revenue Than Expected In June — So Far Anyway

In a bright bit of budget news, income tax collections for June are running ahead of projections with $3.7 billion in estimated taxes received through June 20, according to the Franchise Tax Board.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget, unveiled in May, expected $3.6 billion to be collected by the Franchise Tax Board in June.    Read more »

More

 

Politics on Tap with California’s Natural Resources Secretary John Laird, former state Water Resources Board Chair  Art Baggett  and Cynthia Cory of the California Farm Bureau

(Great Chemistry)    Read more »

More

Today’s Latin Lesson Is Something Lawmakers Try to Squeeze Too Often

 

Ab Asino Lanam 

“Blood from a Stone”

(Literally: “Wool from an Ass”)    Read more »

More

A Place Where the State Might Be Able to Cut Costs

California is now accepting bids through June 25 at 1:30 in the afternoon for “Knife Sharpening Services.”

That’s the title of Solicitation OSP 2012-8.

There are 14 pages of dos and don’t, wherefores, lists of necessary attachments and other requirements if a business wants to apply for a state contract.

Among them is compliance with a Sweatfree Code of Conduct, three references and adherence to the “Darfur Contracting Act” in which a bidder must certify they are not a “scrutinized” business as defined in Public Contract Code section 10476.    Read more »

More