Member of the Month Archive

State Expects to Receive Surplus Revenue, But Sees Deficits on the Horizon

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

(CalChamber) Despite enjoying a record $34 billion budget surplus and prudent reserves from burgeoning but one-time tax revenues, California budget officials expect to see fiscal deficits in the next three years, state Finance Director Keely Martin Bosler told business leaders during a Jan. 12 California Chamber of Commerce webinar. These projections mean that it is critical to maintain funding reserves if the state wishes to preserve existing programs, and it means that the Legislature should not create new funding obligations, she explained. “We can’t afford additional ongoing spending at all,” Bosler cautioned. In fact, California’s strong financial foundation during this pandemic comes from years o...

California's Export Trade Drops In Latest Numbers But Still Beats The Competition

Thursday, January 07, 2021

(Bacon Economics) California’s export trade continued to be buffeted by resurgent waves of COVID-19 both here and abroad, by ongoing trade disputes, by a weaker dollar, and by a reported shortage of shipping containers available to exporters, according to a Beacon Economics’ analysis of the latest U.S. trade statistics released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. In a month that saw the value of all U.S. merchandise exports drop by 7.5% from one year earlier, California exporters did better. Businesses in the state shipped a total of $14.238 billion in merchandise abroad in November, a nominal 3.5% decline from the $14.757 billio...

What California Exodus? Exits Fell 5.4% Last Year

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

(Orange County Register: Jonathan Lansner) Despite all the talk about a California exodus, 5.4% fewer people left last year for other states — the first decline in eight years, new census stats show. The annual state-to-state migration report shows 653,551 people left the state, the largest exit count among the states in 2019. But my trusty spreadsheet tells me this is a 37,594 drop from 691,145 in 2018. It’s the first decline in eight years and the fewest exits since 2015. Only Missouri had a bigger dip last year. I say this each year this migration data is published: Scale matters when yo...

California Tax Revenue Billions Higher Than Expected, Thanks in Part to Federal Help

Saturday, October 24, 2020

(The Sacramento Bee) From July through September, California collected $8.7 billion more in tax revenue than anticipated, according to the state’s Department of Finance, a bright sign amid a year of devastating economic news. The numbers reflect the positive effect of federal aid, which came in the form of one-time $1,200 checks for individuals and weekly $600 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments for people who lost jobs because of the coronavirus outbreak. They are also partly from taxes on 2019 income, when the economy was booming. Additionally, the numbers are higher than expected in part because the pandemic has not hurt high wage earners particularl...

Gov. Newsom Orders 2035 Phaseout of Gas-Powered Vehicles

Thursday, September 24, 2020

(Lake County News) Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 23 announced that he will aggressively move the state further away from its reliance on climate change-causing fossil fuels while retaining and creating jobs and spurring economic growth. Newsom issued an executive order requiring sales of all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035 and additional measures to eliminate harmful emissions from the transportation sector. The transportation sector is responsible for more than half of all of California’s carbon pollution, 80% of smog-forming pollution, and 95% of toxic diesel emissions—all while communities in the Los Angeles Basin and Central Valley see some of the dirtiest and mos...

Gov. Newsom Signs Three Bills to help Small Businesses Recover from COVID-19, Economic Downturn

Thursday, September 10, 2020

(California Globe) Governor Gavin Newsom on Sept. 9 signed three bills into law aimed at assisting small businesses and construction in California. Senate Bill 1447, authored by Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), was the first bill signed on Sept. 9. The bill institutes the Main Street Hiring Tax Credit, which allows businesses with less than 100 employees to get a tax credit against personal and corporate income taxes each year. The credits are good for $1,000 for each new employee hired between July and November, with a set limit of $100,000 per business. The bill was tied back into the COVID-19 and economic crisis by having businesses qualif...

California Aims to Phase Out New Gas-Powered Vehicles by 2035

Thursday, September 24, 2020

(CalChamber) Governor Gavin Newsom on Sept. 23 issued an executive order that directs the state to require that all new cars and passenger trucks sold within California be zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) by 2035. In response, the California Chamber of Commerce issued a statement pointing out that California needs to have standards that other states and nations can follow. It cannot do it alone. “Banning vehicles with internal combustion engines in just 14 years is unrealistic, since it presumes that consumer demand will not create a viable ZEV market by 2035,” according to CalChamber. “Unless California, along with other states and countries, supports a market for ZEVs tha...

Member of the Month Archive

Subscribe for our updates

Back to Portal