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 »

More

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 »

More

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 »

More

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 »

More

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 »

More

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 »

More

Lawmakers Refuse to Surrender Right to Name Highways

Saying it was an abdication of legislative authority, the Assembly Transportation Committee rejected a bill April 9 that would have prevented lawmakers from naming highways, bridges, overpasses and interchanges.

Such signs — which are erected at no cost to taxpayers — have sprouted across California for decades. The ability to create them offers lawmakers a visible way to honor former colleagues, memorialize dead law enforcement officers, salute veterans or showcase a community or place of historic or tourist interest within their districts.    Read more »

More

Move to End Naming of Highways By Lawmakers Faces April 9 Hearing

A state lawmaker is trying to strip the Legislature of one of its perks — naming streets, bridges and highways in honor of persons, often their former colleagues.

Assemblyman Chris Norby, a Fullerton Republican, proposes to transfer authority for naming streets and highway to the California Transportation Commission.

His measure, AB 1645, is scheduled for a Monday April 9 hearing before the Assembly Transportation Committee.    Read more »

More

Two Initiatives Fail to Qualify for the Ballot — 63 Still In Circulation

Measures to require 48-hours prior parental notification if a minor seeks an abortion and to decriminalizes marijuana sales and regulate it like beer or wine failed to submit enough signatures to be placed on the ballot, the Secretary of State reported April 6.

The parental notification measure would have amended the constitution and so required 807,615 valid signatures to make the ballot.    Read more »

More

Peter Douglas, Long Time Head of the Coastal Commission, Dead at 69

For more than 25 controversial years, Peter M. Douglas fought to preserve California’s shoreline as well as the independence of the powerful regulatory agency he helped create.

By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times

Peter M. Douglas, the controversial and resilient executive director of the California Coastal Commission, who for more than 25 years fought to preserve the natural beauty of the state’s shoreline and the independence of the influential regulatory agency he helped create, has died.    Read more »

More