State Faces Falling Revenue, Dearth of Cash: More Payment Delays Possible for Locals
By Paul McIntosh, Executive Director
pmcintosh@counties.org
Yesterday, the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) released its May update on California's cash flow crisis (link here). Then today, State Controller John Chiang released his office's April summary of receipts and disbursements (summary analysis here, financial statement here).
Controller Chiang reports that year-to-date state revenue is running $2.1 billion below estimates. April income tax returns came in $1.06 billion (16%) below budget estimates, April corporate taxes were down $831 million (35.6%). Significantly for counties, statewide sales tax receipts ran nearly 20% below estimates for the month.
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State Contemplates Raid on Local Revenues
Earlier this week, the Governor's Department of Finance invited CSAC and other local government stakeholders to join a conference call wherein Department officials said that they are considering borrowing $2 billion from local agencies pursuant to the provisions of Proposition 1A (2004).
CSAC Officers immediately filed a letter with Governor Schwarzenegger asking the Governor to remove consideration of borrowing local government funds through a suspension of Proposition 1A as an option being considered for the May Revision. The letter (found here) points out that while boards of supervisors are familiar with the difficulties of cutting budgets and the concept of placing “all options on the table”, some options are just so irresponsible and draconian that they should be immediately removed from that table. Borrowing from local government through the suspension of Proposition 1A (2004) is one such option.
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Administration of Justice
SB 786, by Senator Leland Yee, was recently amended to address the awarding of attorney’s fees in anti-SLAPP (Strategic Litigation against Public Participation) actions.
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Agriculture and Natural Resources
SB 715, by Senator Lois Wolk, passed out of the Senate Local Government Committee this week and has moved to the Senate Floor.
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Employee Relations
Responding to concerns that bilingual applicants are being favored in hiring processes, AB 781, by Assembly Member Kevin Jeffries, would prohibit a city, county, or state government from discriminating against an employee or an applicant for employment on the basis of their ability to speak a language other than English unless the ability to speak a language other than English is an occupational qualification.
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Government Finance and Operations
AB 10, introduced by Assembly Member Curt Hagman, would prohibit public officials from using public resources to commence an action to enjoin the operation of any law or constitutional amendment proposed by initiative petition and approved by a vote of the people.
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Health and Human Services
AB 217, by Assembly Member Jim Beall, would allow the state to draw down federal funding for providing confidential alcohol and drug screening and brief intervention services to specified Medi-Cal beneficiaries.
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Housing, Land Use and Transportation
AB 566, by Assembly Member Pedro Nava, would require that a survey of residents of a mobilehome park for proposed conversion to demonstrate support of a majority of the residents of the mobilehome park.
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Washington, D.C., Report
President Obama unveiled May 7 the much-anticipated details of his $3.4 trillion fiscal year 2010 budget request. The president’s spending plan, which already has generated opposition from several Democratic lawmakers, proposes to reduce $17 billion from 121 programs.
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