California’s Gas Tax Nightmare
California taxpayers don’t have to fall sleep to have a nightmare. They experience one each and every day when they encounter a costly, confusing and constantly-changing tax system. Unfortunately, most efforts to change this system only make matters worse. Take the gas tax, for instance. California consumers currently pay 71 cents per gallon in taxes […]
California Job Seekers Per Job Opening in 2014
As we note from time to time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) provides rich material to understand the current and emerging job world in the United States and California. In the past few years, we have drawn on JOLTS data relating to the enormous number of job […]
The State’s Rising Dough
The Legislative Analyst’s Office released its look at February revenues yesterday, and found quite a bit more in the piggy-bank than expected. “In total, the preliminary tax agency data indicates that overall PIT collections for February 2014 (all funds) were $2.07 billion, orabout $700 million (52 percent) above the administration’s projections. For the 2013-14 fiscal year to date, […]
Same Old Story with a New Chapter
Recently, I wrote about a story we’ve all heard before: another lawmaker proposing an oil severance tax. It’s a tax that will be ultimately passed on to consumers through higher gas prices as well as higher costs for any other goods or services. It would also result in the loss of thousands of jobs. Now a […]
Is the War Against E-Cigs About Loss of Tax Revenue?
When is a stroller a bicycle? When that stroller is in West Hollywood, where any human-powered, wheeled vehicle must yield to pedestrians on sidewalks. Although electronic smoking devices are no more cigarettes than strollers are bicycles, the City of Los Angeles is moving to reclassify vaporizers as tobacco products that cannot be used indoors, at […]