controller

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Daily State Taxes

Byuclafaculty

“Pay your taxes with a smile unless, of course, they insist on cash.”* State tax aficionados (yes, there are some – particularly in the legislature and the governor’s Dept. of Finance) tend to watch the daily inflows of income tax in April which is the big tax month.  Right now, total income tax receipts for the current fiscal year are almost exactly where they were at this time last year.   Of course, people who owe taxes tend to mail in their returns at the deadline (which is April 17 this year because the 15th is Sunday and there is a…

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State Budget:Ups and Downs

Byuclafaculty

The latest cash report of the state controller reports ups and downs. Unfortunately, the up is more expenditure than expected through November (expected when the budget was passed in June) to the tune of almost $2 billion. And the down in that period is revenues, down by a little over $1 billion than had been forecast. As prior posts have indicated, automatic trigger cuts in the budget are very likely which will cost UC $100 million. The report is at http://sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CASH/fy1112_nov.pdf

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Controller Warns of Budget Trigger

Byuclafaculty

State Controller John Chiang today released his cash statement for the first 4 months of fiscal year 2011-12. Tax revenue is falling short of projections by about $1.5 billion. He warned that weak revenue inflows are raising the likelihood that the budget trigger will fire, further cutting UC’s budget. See http://sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CASH/fy1112_oct.pdf and http://sco.ca.gov/Files-EO/11-11summary.pdf

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No One Actually Reads or Listens: More on the State Budget

Byuclafaculty

At the moment, Controller John Chiang is being praised for blocking legislators from being paid because they did not produce a “balanced” budget by the June 15th constitutional deadline. But actually what he said is that the legislature made some mistakes in drafting up their budget so that the assumed “revenues” do not add up to assumed “expenditures.” (The fact that the governor vetoed the budget was not relevant to his decision.) The controller has been heralded on Fox News on the right (see http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1013691636001/california-withholds-legislatures-pay/) and just about everywhere else along the political spectrum. If you actually watch the Fox…

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Minimum Wage Threat to State Workers Removed for 2 Months

Byuclafaculty

The governor’s attempt to impose the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour on state workers has been on temporary hold. The Sacramento Bee reports that the hold is effectively at least 2 months. http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/17/2896268/judges-order-buys-california-state.htmlThe threat of paying the minimum wage did not apply to UC employees but had it actually gone into effect, it might have put UC in a difficult position. UC would be in the position of ending furloughs at the same time other state employees were at the minimum. The minimum wage issue arises because there is no state budget in place and, hence, no authorization to pay…