California update

Hospital executives occupy top tier of California's public workers

Three hospital district executives have emerged as among the highest-paid public employees in California, according to a state report, including an official in San Diego County who made more than $1 million in 2009.

Brown shouldn't leave hard choices to voters

Budget talks fold, and California GOP's influence fades further

There's blame to go around

California community colleges to slash enrollment, classes

Facing a state funding cut of up to 10%, California's community colleges will enroll 400,000 fewer students next fall and slash thousands of classes to contend with budget shortfalls that threaten to reshape their mission, officials said Wednesday. 

The dire prognosis was in response to the breakdown in budget talks in Sacramento and the likelihood that the state's 112 community colleges will be asked to absorb an $800-million funding reduction for the coming school year — double the amount suggested in Gov. Jerry Brown's current budget proposal. 

As it now stands, the budget plan would raise community college student fees from $26 to $36 per unit. The fees may go even higher if a budget compromise is not reached.

California's Credit Rating Hinges On Cash Management

Anschutz NFL Stadium Could Leave L.A. Taxpayers With The Bill

Jerry Brown plans to take his case for taxes to voters

Brown Proposes Plan To Reform California Pensions

It's time to tinker with 'untouchable' Prop. 13

But the most obvious thing to do, he argued, would be to quit giving owners of commercial property the windfall break they've gotten under Proposition 13. Lenny Goldberg, of the California Tax Reform Assn., has been lobbying for that very thing for years. 

"In virtually every county in California," Goldberg said, "commercial property owners are paying a much smaller portion of the total property tax burden since Proposition 13." 

In Los Angeles County, he said, homeowners paid 53% of all property taxes in 1975, but today they pay 69%. Commercial property owners have gone from 46% to 30%. In Orange County, homeowners have gone from 59% of the burden to 72%, while commercial property owners have gone from paying 40% to 27%. 

One reason is that commercial property doesn't change hands as often as residential property, so it doesn't get reassessed as frequently. The other reason, Goldberg said, is that commercial property owners have exploited "huge loopholes" by transferring properties to various partnerships and affiliates and avoiding reassessment. 

Cracking down on inequities and abuses on the commercial side could reap an additional $8 billion to $10 billion in property tax revenue each year, Goldberg estimated. When I suggested that the business lobby would surely crush any such attempt, he argued that the current system is so inequitable, it saddles new businesses with onerous taxes and stifles economic development.