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ARTICLE

Budget Crisis Underscores Needed Reform. Assembly Member Joe Canciamilla has a proposal that he says would give legislators a better opportunity to make sound budget decisions. He would require the Legislature to devote every other year to budget oversight.

Better Business Climate Will Aid State’s Woes. State Senator Chuck Poochigian urges more attention to business climate issues as a prescription for a growing economy.

Taxpayer Perspectives on the Budget Deficit. Cal-Tax President Larry McCarthy sees the crisis as an opportunity to roll up sleeves and dig out the waste and fraud that plague the state budget. This, along with prudent budget planning and measures to promote more jobs and economic growth – not new taxes – should be the front-burner solutions.

Tax $$$: Fraud and Waste. The Cal-Tax staff reports that taxpayers continue to be ripped off by fraud and reckless government spending. Here are examples of a collection of newspaper and government audit reports that amount to billions of misused and abused tax dollars.

Changing the Rules in Midstream: The FTB and Regulated Investment Companies. Cal-Tax General Counsel Greg Turner reports on efforts by the Franchise Tax Board’s staff to change how RICs are treated.

Do Corona residents Need More Debt for Another Bureaucracy? Cal-Tax Vice President Carol Evans argues that the power grab by the council of this Riverside County community would be making a big mistake for taxpayers if it follows through with its plan to take over Southern California Edison’s property.

Overview of the Federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The impact of this program on California education policies is explored by Bill Hauck, chair of California Business for Education Excellence and president of the California Business Roundtable.

Casting a Long Shadow: Californians’ Distrust of Government. From the Public Policy Institute of California, this research brief provides an overview of pollster Mark Baldassare’s new book, “A California State of Mind: The Conflicted Voter in a Changing World.” The author observes that “voters are not pleased by the way governments go about their taxing-and-spending business.”

Confessions of a City Budget Cutter. Linda Morrison, policy analyst and former director of Mayor Ed Rendell’s competitive contracting program, covers Philadelphia’s competitive contracting program. “Hundreds of millions of dollars were saved. I know. I helped make it happen.”

California Amnesty for Unclaimed Property. Edwiges B. Hamblet of Deloitte & Touche alerts taxpayers that this program is about to expire. When it expires December 31, it will have brought in more than $150 million in unclaimed property to the state. Holders of unclaimed property will again be subject to 12 percent statutory interest and penalties.