Legislative Analyst: New Greenhouse Gas Fees Don’t Help the Budget as Much as Governor Says

The $500 million budget savings Gov. Jerry Brown says will occur from the fees California’s heavy industries will start paying this year to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is overstated by some $400 million, according to a report issued February 16 by the Legislative Analyst.

Lawmakers shouldn’t accept the Democratic governor’s claims without seeing specifics, the analyst recommends.

“The governor’s proposal regarding the allocation of (these) revenues raises some concerns,” the analyst says with its customary understatement.

Brown says he’ll give lawmakers details in early 2013 but is confident he will fund the full $500 million in savings.

The analyst’s [....]

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The State of California Public Schools

Are California’s 9,903 schools better off financially now than they were five years ago?

As the largest recipient of cuts  – something on the order of $14 billion —  in the efforts to close the state’s annual mutli-billion dollar budget shortfalls it seems likely the Golden State’s 1,042 school districts would be a lot less golden now than in 2007.

But how much less golden?

The Legislative Analyst’s Office offers some answers in a report released February 6 titled The 2012–13 Budget: Proposition 98 Education Analysis.

Among their findings:

Per–pupil funding is lower than five years ago.  Per–pupil funding in the [....]

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The Legislative Analyst Takes A First Cut at Gov. Brown’s Very Optimistic Budget Plan

The amount of revenue Gov. Jerry Brown says California will receive over the next 18 months is $3.9 billion less than the Democratic governor says, according to an initial review of his spending plan by the Legislative Analyst.

About $3.7 billion of the difference is in estimates of state income tax collections, primarily taxes on capital gains.

The Democratic governor says California taxpayers will reap $96 billion in capital gains in the 2012 tax year. The analyst says $62 billion. That’s roughly $3 billion of the $3.9 billion difference in expected tax revenue.

“Our revenue estimates – including estimates of state revenue gains from the governor’s proposed initiative [....]

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Tax Receipts Down In December — Even Using Gov. Brown’s New Scaled-Back Revenue Estimates.

The state’s revenue collections in December were a net $165 million lower than expected, according to State Controller John Chiang in his monthly cash receipts report January 10.

Sales taxes were $17 million higher during the month than Gov. Jerry Brown predicts in his budget proposal, released January 5.  Income taxes were nearly $70 million lower than Brown hoped and corporate taxes came in $20 million below estimates.

“While we saw positive numbers in November, December’s totals failed to meet even the latest revenue projections,” said Chiang. “These latest revenue figures create growing concern that legislative action may be needed in the near future [....]

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Brown Hurriedly Unveils His New Budget Plan — Five Days Sooner Than Planned

Cuts – mainly in aid to the state’s poor – and a like amount of temporary tax increases would close a projected $9.2 billion budget hole under Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget plan released January 5.

The Democratic governor moved up the spending blueprint’s unveiling from January 10 after it was inadvertently posted on his Department of Finance’s website earlier in the day.

Brown’s presenting of his plan is the first step in a six-month process in which he and the Democratic majority Legislature stitch together a final budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1., which could have elements far different [....]

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Will the State Reach Its December Income and Corporate Revenue Projections?

More than $5.7 billion in income tax collections and $1.4 billion in corporate taxes are supposed to flow into California coffers during the month of December.

So says the predictions in the state budget enacted June 30, which the Brown administration and legislative budget writers say is already $2.2 billion to $3.7 billion, respectively, short of estimates.

December is one of the state’s larger collection months. Quarterly payments of estimated taxes are due for both businesses and individual taxpayers.

April and June are the most significant revenue collection months. 

Through December 22, the Franchise Tax Board reports collecting $607 million in income tax payments and $1.5 billion [....]

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California Unemployment Rate Falls in November

California’s unemployment rate fell to 11.3 percent in November.

Non agricultural jobs increased by 6,600 during the month for a total gain of 211,400 jobs since January, according to data released December 16 by the California Employment Development Department.

The U.S. unemployment rate also fell in November to 8.6 percent.

In October, the California’s unemployment rate was 11.7 percent. In November 2010, the unemployment rate was 12.5 percent. 

Californians holding non-farm jobs totaled 14,170,100 in November. The number of  unemployed Californians was just over 2 million – down by 64,000 from October and 212,000 compared with November 2010.

The unemployment rate is calculated based on a federal survey of 5,500 California households. [....]

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Not Just Millionaires Affected by Governor’s Tax Increase Plan

Gov. Jerry Brown wants his next budget, which he will unveil in early January, to be largely balanced by increasing state income taxes on wealthier Californians and boosting the state sales tax by one-half percent.

The increases would bring an additional $7 billion into state coffers annually until they expire at the end of 2016.

Awaiting title and summary from the Attorney General, the proposal by the Democratic governor would raise taxes on 431,000 of the 8.7 million Californians who pay state income taxes.

All California consumers would experience the sales tax increase.

More than half the state residents who would pay higher taxes [....]

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As Expected, Lower-Than-Hoped Cash Triggers $1 Billion Budget Cuts

Confirming what had already been predicted, Gov. Jerry Brown said Dec. 13 that lower-than-expected revenue estimates required imposing $1 billion in additional budget cuts on public schools, universities and aid for the developmentally disabled and the elderly.

But while the reductions won’t fall as heavily ion public schools as initially thought, the Democratic governor stressed this round of cuts, which mostly take effect January 1, is just the beginning.

Within 30 days, Brown will present his proposed spending blueprint for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2012, which contains a nearly $13 billion gap between revenue and spending commitments, according to predictions by the Legislative Analyst.

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Don’t Tax Me, Tax The Rich Guy Behind the Tree

A key reason for the periodic feast and famine in state income tax collections is that most of the taxes are paid by wealthy Californians.

In the 2008 tax year, the most recent one for which the state has complete statistics, the 118,349 Californians with income of $500,000 or more contributed $16.9 billion — almost 41 percent of the $41.7 billion collected.

The 4,774 Californians with income of $5 million or more paid just under $7 billion in taxes. That’s nearly 17 percent of total taxes paid in 2008, an average tax payment of $1.5 million for each of the 4,774 filers.

More of the taxable income of these wealthy Californians is [....]

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