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Headlines : California, Iowa
Iowa governor warns California: We are coming to take your jobs
Iowa's Republican governor, Terry Branstad, boasted how he balanced the state's budget without raising taxes and is getting calls from California businesses looking to move.
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Headlines
Needy States Use Housing Aid Cash to Plug Budgets
Only 27 states have devoted all their funds from the banks to housing programs, according to a report by Enterprise Community Partners, a national affordable housing group. So far about 15 states have said they will use all or most of the money for other purposes.
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Headlines
Census state pension survey 2007-1010
The U.S. Census collects key data from selected state and municipal pension funds every year. State Budget Solutions consolidated the data for the 222 largest state administered defined benefit pension funds from fiscal years 2007 through 2010 to present an overview of each state's pension funds. See how your state is doing.
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Headlines : California
Savings from state worker pay cut far from assured
Gov. Jerry Brown wants California's state government employees to take a 5 percent pay cut to help balance the budget, yet the savings he forecast in his revised budget proposal are far from assured because he must negotiate details of any cuts with dozens of labor unions that have been reluctant to accept wage rollbacks and hold enormous sway with the Democratic lawmakers who control the Legislature.
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Headlines
Latest studies show growing pension peril
Recent studies by the U.S. Census Bureau, GAO, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and the Harvard Kennedy School detail the continued deterioration and chance of failure of public pension systems within the overall local and state government fiscal crisis. Read these studies and be aware of the extent of this pressing problem.
- View All News Stories
Budget timeframe: Annual
Fiscal Year begins: July 1
Gov. Edmung G. "Jerry" Brown
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 445-2841
Fax: (916) 445-4633
http://gov.ca.gov/
Ana Matosantos, Director of Finance
Department of Finance
915 L Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone (916) 445-3878
Fax: (916) 324-7311
www.dof.ca.gov
2012 Legislative Calendar: Regular Session convenes January 4, adjourns August 31.
Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield (D), Chair, Assembly Committee on Budget, (916) 319-2040
Assemblyman Jim Nielsen (R), Vice-Chair, Assembly Committee on Budget, (916) 319-2002
Sen. Mark Leno (D), Chair, Senate Budget And Fiscal Review Committee, (916) 651-4003
Sen. Robert Huff (R), Vice-chair, Senate Budget And Fiscal Review Committee, (916) 324-0922
Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes (D), Chair, Assembly Committee on Appropriations, (916) 319-2039
Assemblywoman Diane L. Harkey (R), Vice-Chair, Assembly Committee on Appropriations, (916) 319-2073
Sen. Christine Kehoe (D) Chair, Senate Appropriations Committee, senator.kehoe@sen.ca.gov (916) 651-4039
Sen. Mimi Walters (R) Vice-Chair, Senate Appropriations Committee, (916) 651-4033
Assemblyman Henry T. Perea (D) Chair, Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation, (916) 319-2031
Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R) Vice-Chair, Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation, (916) 319-2059
The current state budget can be found here.
Want a more robust, long-term look at your state's fiscal health, beyond the budget? There are two parts: Click here for the FY2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) compiled by the state government, and click here for information on the state's pension liabilities.
California is required to pass a "balanced budget." California Code Section 13337.5 of state law prohibits the annual budget act from authorizing expenditures in excess of revenues. In 2004 the Constitution was amended to include language to specifically prevent the presentation of a budget bill that would appropriate from the General Fund more than that Fund would receive in revenues. California law forbids the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next. The State only budgets for expenditures, not revenues.
The California Constitution limits appropriations to the appropriations limit from the previous year, adjusted for inflation and the change in population. This is commonly called "budgeting for fiscal discipline," and is a way to keep the growth of appropriations from outpacing the growth in revenues from year to year.
Unfortunately, the most recently passed budget relies heavily on accounting maneuvers, including moving tax receipts from one year to a next and borrowing $5 billion against future lottery earnings. The lottery borrowing requires the approval of voters in a ballot measure in a special election the Spring of 2009. If the lottery plan is defeated, midyear cuts and other measures to rein in spending are likely. [from the Institute for Truth in Accounting]
Find the state's bond ratings here.
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State Debt :
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HEADLINES: California
Analyst predicts state budget gap "a few billion dollars" worse
With state revenues slowing to a trickle as the end of April draws near, the state's top fiscal analyst said that California could be "a few billion dollars" shy of Gov. Jerry Brown's budget projections through June 2013.
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HEADLINES: California
Jerry Brown says state budget deficit will probably top $10 billion
Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday that the state budget deficit could increase by $1 billion or more above the $9.2 billion his administration estimated in January.
- View All California articles
Pensions :
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HEADLINES
Census state pension survey 2007-1010
The U.S. Census collects key data from selected state and municipal pension funds every year. State Budget Solutions consolidated the data for the 222 largest state administered defined benefit pension funds from fiscal years 2007 through 2010 to present an overview of each state's pension funds. See how your state is doing.
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HEADLINES
Latest studies show growing pension peril
Recent studies by the U.S. Census Bureau, GAO, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and the Harvard Kennedy School detail the continued deterioration and chance of failure of public pension systems within the overall local and state government fiscal crisis. Read these studies and be aware of the extent of this pressing problem.
- View All California articles
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Solutions: California
Road Map to Recovery
Document that outlines ten steps to return California to prosperity.
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Solutions: Illinois, California, Texas
Amazonian-Size Taxes
Proposals to tax Internet retail sales are all the rage as states continue to look for more ways to balance their budgets in the face of revenue shortfalls.
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Solutions: California
How to Fix California's Public Pension Crisis
Detailing how the state's public pension system broke and how to fix it.
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Solutions: California
California's Debt Bondage
Article explaining that if spending on state bonds could be suspended for a year, $5.45 billion could be sliced from that $20 billion deficit and arguing that special itnerests should not be permitted to put bonds on the ballot.
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Solutions: Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, California, Louisiana, Colorado
What Works: Fixing State Budgets
Paper suggesting a variety of ways to fixing state budgets in crisis, including freezing or slowing public employee salary growth, privatizing infrastructure and state operations, eliminating prevailing wage and placing constitutional limits on taxing and spending.
- View All Solutions
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Census state pension survey 2007-1010
The U.S. Census collects key data from selected state and municipal pension funds every year. State Budget Solutions consolidated the data for the 222 largest state administered defined benefit pension funds from fiscal years 2007 through 2010 to present an overview of each state's pension funds. See how your state is doing.
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Latest studies show growing pension peril
Recent studies by the U.S. Census Bureau, GAO, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and the Harvard Kennedy School detail the continued deterioration and chance of failure of public pension systems within the overall local and state government fiscal crisis. Read these studies and be aware of the extent of this pressing problem.
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"GASB Won't Let Me" - A False Objection to Public Pension Reform
Pension reform is a separate issue from amortization. These two issues have been conflated by those invoking the GASB proviso for closed DB plans, but this has only sown confusion. This is clearly demonstrated when the reform is structured with amortization payments on total payroll. In this way, the growth in the base for amortization payments is unaffected by the reform, so there is no policy reason for changing the schedule of these payments. The funding schedule for amortization is a red herring, irrelevant to the fundamental policy decision for pension reform. Amortization pays for past debts; pension reform lays a path toward a responsible future.
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OPINION
Public pension 'best practices' omit 1 thing: How do we pay benefits?
Hey, young public employees, what are you going to do when your pension checks bounce after you paid in for decades? That is what will happen in many - maybe all - states and municipalities sooner or later if they do not reform right now. If you want to see the future, just look at Illinois. One citizen there did, and came up with a real reform plan that might work.
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OPINION
COMMENTARY Municipal, state workers should take their pension money and run, fast
Public employees should take their pension money now and run to avoid risk of getting reduced benefits - or nothing - in the future. It's the best deal for them and for taxpayers. A growing chorus of credible voices including the Government Accountability Office, a Federal Reserve bank and now the Harvard Kennedy School Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government confirm state and local government finances are "spiraling out of control" and even draconian reforms only make it "more likely" that future benefits will paid in full.
- View All Pensions
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OPINION: Pensions
Public pension 'best practices' omit 1 thing: How do we pay benefits?
Hey, young public employees, what are you going to do when your pension checks bounce after you paid in for decades? That is what will happen in many - maybe all - states and municipalities sooner or later if they do not reform right now. If you want to see the future, just look at Illinois. One citizen there did, and came up with a real reform plan that might work.
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OPINION: Pensions
COMMENTARY Municipal, state workers should take their pension money and run, fast
Public employees should take their pension money now and run to avoid risk of getting reduced benefits - or nothing - in the future. It's the best deal for them and for taxpayers. A growing chorus of credible voices including the Government Accountability Office, a Federal Reserve bank and now the Harvard Kennedy School Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government confirm state and local government finances are "spiraling out of control" and even draconian reforms only make it "more likely" that future benefits will paid in full.
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BLOG: Pensions
COMMENTARY: This plan could save municipal, state workers' pension checks
Hey, young public employees, what are you going to do when your pension checks bounce after you paid in for decades? That is what will happen in many - maybe all - states and municipalities sooner or later if they do not reform right now. If you want to see the future, just look at Illinois. One citizen there did, and came up with a real reform plan that might work.
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BLOG: Pensions, Federal Government Impact
COMMENTARY: Fed screams softly in warning about public pension crisis
This is what it sounds like when the Federal Reserve Bank screams: "Much has been written about the various headwinds restraining economic activity over the near term. However, our economy also has other headwinds to confront over the medium- to-longer-term. ... the finances of some state and local governments are also under stress and in need of serious adjustments." - Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Sandra Pianalto
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BLOG: Measures to Balance Budgets, Revenue, Budget Transparency
Jerry Brown's "Millionaire's Tax" is anything but
The new compromise, titled the "Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act of 2012," pitches itself exclusively as a "Millionaire's Tax" despite retaining the aspects of Brown's original plan that would hit far more than California's top earners.
- View All Blog & Opinions
