In case you dilligently and strategically crafted your tax form this year in hopes of getting a fine rebate in 2009, think again. All the tax deductible giving and hours on Turbo Tax might get you nothing more than an IOU from the state.
MSNBC.com reports:
If you expect you'll be getting a refund from California when you file your 2008 state income tax return, be prepared: you may instead receive a "registered warrant." Translation: an IOU.California is rapidly running out of money. Blame it on the state budget deficit that continues to bleed billions of dollars from California's reserves. Facing inadequate credit to make up the difference, California's Controller John Chiang warns that by the end of February, the nation's most populous state may not be able to pay some of its debts, and instead be reduced to issuing those creditors IOUs.
Just don't bank on having a refund check in hand any time soon. The vacation money this year just might have to come from somewhere else.
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Now that the financial industry has taken some cake (to steal a line from Obama) and the auto industry begs from its knees, when will the newspaper industry start whining for the government to bail them out from a lack of innovation?
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Jim Carlton from the Wall Street Journal reports on the CA budget, and its not good:
The governor chided the legislature for failing to heed his call last month to come up with a plan to rein in spending and increase revenues to deal with the tide of red ink. He said in a press conference Wednesday in Sacramento that the deficit keeps increasing at the rate of $40 million a day, and that if nothing is done the state will run out of cash by the end of February. "We're heading towards a financial Armageddon," the governor said.
The Republican governor has wrestled with the Democrat-led legislature for much of this year over budgetary issues. The issue isn't so much between him and the Democrats, but with fellow Republicans who carry enough votes to thwart any spending plan. Because of the Republican minority's opposition to new taxes proposed by the governor and Democratic majority, it took three months before the legislature could agree in September on a budget to close a $15.2 billion deficit for the last fiscal year...
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Califonia is threatening to cancel projects if the government doesn't act fast.
From the Sacramento Bee:
California officials say they'll cancel $5 billion worth of infrastructure projects in two weeks unless there's a fast budget fix....
...This can, indeed, seem like the best and worst of times for an embattled construction industry competing for fewer projects with ever-lower bids. Yet many area construction executives who work throughout California and the West say they're largely looking past the state's budget problems to a coming boom.
Read More...The results are in on a new study of small businesses throughout the country. California does not look good.
From the Orange County Register:
California is one of the worst states in which to own a small business, according to the 13th annual ranking by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council in Washington D.C.
New Jersey is the only state with a lower ranking in the report called “Small Business Survival Index.” The District of Columbia, though not a state, perennially holds last place in the rankings, which are based on 36 tax and policy issues that impact businesses.
California also ranked 49th in the 2007 report.
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The study by the California Postsecondary Education Commission also showed that female high school seniors still do significantly better than males in taking required classes and earning grades and test scores that could gain them admission to the University of California and California State University systems....
Latino and black eligibility for UC's more rigorous standards were 6.9% and 6.3%,respectively, last year, slightly higher than four years ago.
White and Asian students did better in meeting requirements for both universities. For Cal State, 37.1% of white high school graduates were eligible last year and 50.9% of Asians, both somewhat higher than in 2003. For UC, 14.6% of white graduates and 29.4% of Asians met course, grade and test score requirements; those rates were both slightly lower than in the previous survey.
From Politico:
Leading social conservatives blasted Newsweek for its current cover story, "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage," which they said misinterprets both biblical scripture and their own political movement.
“It doesn’t surprise me. Newsweek has been so far in the tank on the homosexual issue, for so long, they need scuba gear and breathing apparatus,” said Richard Land, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. “I don’t think it’s going to change the minds of anyone who takes biblical teachings seriously.”
Forget the honeymoon period. There's work to be done. From the LA Daily News: Once the euphoria of being elected to state office and moving into Sacramento wears off, reality will set in: a terrible economy, a massive budget deficit and new rules to redraw district boundaries and make elections more competitive, even for incumbents.
"What I would tell the freshmen is, 'Hold your breath; you're in for a pretty steep ride,'" said Jaime Regalado, director of the Pat Brown Institute at California State University, Los Angeles. "They will have this exhilarating feeling coming in, but then they will all be deflated by the reality of what they're facing."A message to the 36 freshman lawmakers who were sworn in this week at the state Capitol: Don't get too comfortable.
Will your neighbors be moving to Washington DC soon? They just might. Obama's vetting quite a few Californians for the new administration.
From the Sacramento Bee:
Californians have become viable candidates for top Obama administration positions governing farms, natural resources and the environment.One California congressman, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, is being mentioned frequently as a potential interior secretary. The longtime head of the California Association of Winegrape Growers, Karen Ross, is being widely championed by the state's farmers as a potential deputy agriculture secretary.
At lower levels, too, California candidates abound. Former Mariposa County Supervisor Art Baggett, now a member of the state Water Resources Control Board, is a potential candidate for a federal water resources job. And with roughly 3,000 positions to be filled by presidential appointment, California lawmakers are pressing to ensure the state is well represented.
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The problem with the government "creating jobs."
Rich Lowry writes in the Sacramento Bee:
The push for green jobs is about creating a "negative" energy sector – hampering the energy sector we already have to create one that requires more labor.
To make people buy biofuels or wind power, either these energy sources have to be subsidized (draining resources away from more productive uses) or traditional sources of energy have to be taxed or regulated, which is what Obama proposes with his cap-and-trade plan on carbon emissions.
The latter policy will cost jobs in the traditional energy sector and leave consumers with less to save and spend elsewhere. As Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute points out, advocates of green jobs always emphasize the gross job figures rather than the net because a more complete picture shows they are ultimately subtracting, not adding.
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