WASHINGTON, D.C., REPORT
Federal Budget Showdown Looms as Children’s Health Care Impasse Continues
By Joe Krahn, Waterman and Associates
jk@wafed.com
With the Thanksgiving holiday around the corner, congressional leaders find themselves in the all-too-familiar predicament of needing to finalize a new budget with little time remaining in the calendar year. As 2008 approaches, there is mounting pressure on Democratic congressional leaders to broker a budget deal with President Bush, who has continued to threaten vetoes of all spending measures that exceed his aggregate $933 billion discretionary spending request.
At the time of this writing, Congress has not sent to the White House any of the 12 regular fiscal year 2008 appropriations bills. In place of a new budget – which, under statutory guidelines, was supposed to be implemented by the October 1 start date of the federal fiscal year – lawmakers approved in late September a short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) that funds federal programs at last year’s spending levels. With the current stopgap funding bill slated to expire on November 16, House Democrats recently attached another short-term CR to the fiscal year 2008 Defense appropriations bill (HR 3222), which is awaiting final action in both chambers of Congress.
[FULL STORY]
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SCO Releases Tax Report, Highlights California's Complicated Property Tax Apportionment System
This week, the State Controller’s Office (SCO) released “Distribution and Reporting of Local Property Tax Revenue”, a review report of the property tax allocation program. This report, requested by the Administration and the Legislature, reviews the practices employed by K-12 school districts, community colleges, and redevelopment agencies to the distribution and reporting of local property tax revenues. Those interested in reviewing the full report can click here.
To summarize, the SCO reviewed 27 of California’s 58 counties, representing about 93 percent of the state’s total population, with a focus on records and reports of all taxing entities. The audit found that, while K-12 school districts and community colleges were generally reporting their local property tax revenues properly, redevelopment pass-through payments were significantly underreported. Additionally, redevelopment agencies did not accurately compute pass-through payments or report financial transaction and fiscal data to the SCO.
[FULL STORY]
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