Economy

At this point, it’s practically a California tradition. First, state judges find a loophole in California’s constitutional bulwark against new, higher taxes. Then conservative legislators and anti-tax activists rush in to patch the hole with a new ballot proposition. This week, the state Supreme Court made the first move in this familiar two-step by issuing a ruling that both anti-tax crusaders and proponents of more local investment say could make it much easier for city and county governments to raise new taxes. Now California conservatives are counter-punching.

Tax reform may not be much more than a glimmer in the eye of Republicans in Washington D.C., but their promise of lower rates and closed loopholes appears to be already jostling state and local finances.

(Update: Gov. Jerry Brown split on these bills, signing into law AB 168 to prohibit job interview questions about previous salary, but vetoing AB 1209, which would have required companies to submit pay data categorized by gender, race, and ethnicity. The governor said he worried thatt bill would “encourage more litigation than pay equity.”) California […]

As the quieter ‘companion bill’ to Monday’s cap-and-trade extension legislation, Assembly Bill 617 sought to placate environmental justice advocates who have increasingly complained that the state’s globally ambitious climate policy overlooks a local problem: poor California communities living in the shadow of polluters. The bill, sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia of Bell Gardens, was […]

A mutant octopus? A psychedelic Rorschach test? The world’s most elaborate Chinese finger trap? No, this CALmatters creation is the California state budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year. Follow its fiscal tributaries from tax revenues on the left to spending on the right, and you’ll see where the state’s priorities lie—all 183 billion of them. […]

It's early, but it looks like good news for public health advocates.

Angelo Henry describes himself as “unemployed,” but that isn’t entirely right. Under California labor law, he’s a self-starting freelancer. An entrepreneur. A 25 year old with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Southern California, Henry is a semi-reluctant tenant at his mother’s Pasadena house in search of full-time work. In the meantime, like […]

State lawmakers just approved more than $180 billion in spending. Where is that money going?

Amy Woods got a call last year from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, informing her that the mother of her 2-and-a-half-year-old foster son had just given birth to another boy. The newborn needed a home: Would she take him in? Woods was given 24 hours to make the decision, but […]

As Sacramento kicks off its yearly scramble to pass a state budget, lawmakers have yet to agree whether one controversial provision will make the cut: an untested $6 billion scheme that the governor says could save the state billions more but that some analysts warn has received too little scrutiny. As part of his revised […]