The U.S. economy is suffering under crippling deficits, massive debt, and record unemployment. The country needs fresh ideas, novel solutions, and unorthodox measures to stimulate job growth, pay down debt, and balance its budget. Independents will be watching for policy proposals and candidates, who think outside the box, can make the tough decisions, and challenge the status quo when it comes to leading the economy out of a recession. This section will cover breaking news and developments related to the economic health of the country, states and individual citizens.
A ballot referendum being pushed by the nation’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com, Inc., might let California voters review a legislature-approved tax intended to increase state revenue and level the playing field between online merchants and brick-and-mortar retailers.
The recently passed California budget assumed $4 billion in increased revenues. Without that additional income, the budget will not be balanced. Draconian cuts will then ensue, and will hit education hard.
State payroll figures revealed by California State Controller John Chiang show that over 1,400 state employees received more than $200,000 in compensation last year.
California growers have been earning record-high prices on their avocados, and it’s easy to understand why when you learn that Southern California growers are expected to produce a crop that is less than half the size of last season’s.
As a homeowner, it made my heart sing (or at least hum softly) to notice four neighborhood homes not just with for sale signs on them, but with “sale pending” dangles added to the usual “must see” and ” just reduced” enticements. Was this the beginning of the end of the housing slump? Or had homeowners finally come to their senses, clothes-pinned their noses and re-priced their home
Apparently, $4 billion in unexpected new revenue for the State of California materialized out of thin air right in time to be counted for the budget that just passed. But Gov. Brown and the Democrats didn’t get the sales tax extension that they wanted, so sales tax will drop one percentage point and car registrations one-half of a point on July 1.
When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed the 2011-12 budget earlier this month, he claimed that he had erased the city’s $336 million deficit. The only problem was that “the most far-reaching pension concessions package in the United States of America” (Villaraigosa’s words) required concessions from LAPD staff that weren’t yet offered.
