Kersten Communications

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced that California has been awarded more than $2.3 billion of the $8 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment for High-Speed Rail—the largest amount of any state in the nation.  For more information click here

The Legislative Analyst’s Office released its full analysis of the Governor’s January budget proposal for the how to close the $20 billion budget gap projected for 2010-11.  The report is composed of a variety of different sections by department and is available by clicking here.

Kersten Communications has completed a brief report, titled “Governor Uses Flawed Budget Trigger to Obscure the Severity of State’s Budget Crisis,” which takes an inside look at the budget trigger, the political cover it provides, and some of the faulty foundations upon which it is based. 

Just days after the Governor reiterated his support for the recommendations of his Commission on the Twenty-First Century Economy (COTCE) in his State of the State address earlier this month, the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee held a four-hour hearing to re-examine the recommendations of the commission and hear from dissenting tax panel commissioners Richard Pomp and Fred Keeley, a representative from the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), and San Jose State Professor… Read More...

The California Secretary of State has qualified five ballot measures for the state’s June 2010 ballot.  The water bond will appear on the November 2010 ballot, along with other initiatives which are likely to qualify in the coming months.  Here is a brief summary of the June 2010 measures:

2/3 Vote of Electorate to Switch from Private Investor-Owned Utility to Public Provider:  PG&E sponsored this initiative to… Read More...

By Lenny Goldberg | 01/14/10 12:00 AM PST, Capitol Weekly

Since a discussion of tax politics begins and ends quickly in the Capitol, let’s try talking economics instead.

The Governor’s tax commission did the state the favor of opening the discussion of the economics of taxation, and Schwarzenegger called for “major, radical reform” in his State-of-the-State address. So perhaps an economics discussion will attract some real debate, instead of… Read More...

In response to the release of the Governor’s 2010-11 budget proposal to close a $19 billion state budget gap, the Legislative Analyst and California Budget Project have released their analyses of the Governor’s budget proposal. 

The Governor’s budget is available by clicking here:   http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/

The LAO analysis is available here:  http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/main.aspx 

The CA Budget Project summary is available here:  http://www.cbp.org/

The LAO is preparing to release… Read More...

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