Taxes
Covering topics such as bonds, cryptocurrency, federal aid and pensions.
Now 25,000 members strong, financially secure and long blessed with thoughtful leadership, the Government Finance Officers Association is poised to address the challenges to come for those who manage the public purse.
Chief U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson ruled that the state’s limits on how much political parties can contribute to political candidates and local political parties was unconstitutional but upheld other state campaign finance limits.
The city’s Revenue Stabilization Workgroup was tasked with crafting progressive taxes. Here’s what they came up with.
An independent consultant reported that the problematic rollout of the new payroll software system could be tied to a lack of IT involvement, communication and planning from the county’s own staff.
The Mendocino County board of supervisors decided to use more than $63,000 of opioid settlement funds, approximately 6.5 percent of the total the county received in the first two years of distribution, to fill a $6 million budget shortfall.
The state has the fifth-highest average amount of debt per undergraduate for the class of 2020 and approximately 15 percent of residents have some form of student debt. For many, their way of living will change when payments resume next month.
Just as the city has seen an uptick in COVID-19 cases this month, a cost-saving directive from Mayor Adams will close the public health library that many relied upon during the height of the pandemic.
The city manager’s budget includes $1.5 million on decommissioning homeless encampments, $1.5 million on building fences to keep homeless individuals out of encampment-prone areas and $1.1 million for the “cleaning” of encampments.
Private credit has gained a growing share of pension portfolios over the past decade. It’s time to take a second look under the hood.
The proposed legislation would hold companies liable for accusations of harassment, wage theft and other forms of mistreatment. The fast food industry has spent $3.9 million from Jan. 1 through June 30 on lobbying efforts to kill the legislation.
A budget document shows that Montgomery County’s Democratic Central Committee hasn’t paid the federal government thousands of dollars in fines and fees for unpaid taxes in 2017 and 2018.
Volunteer Florida reported that $32.5 million of the money was awarded in grants to groups such as the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. Another $4 million was set aside for a small-business recovery program.
It is irresponsible and dangerous for politicians to dictate which investments public asset managers must favor. States, municipalities and public pensions are paying higher interest rates on bonds and getting poorer returns on investments.
Inflation rates are coming down, but state and local labor costs will be sticky, as will public-employee health-care expenses. Overall, though, it’s a better outlook for pension funding and astute government cash managers.
The state’s governor is trying to make policy for many generations from now. It’s hard enough to get it right for even a decade or two. How’s your flying car working out?
State Republican lawmakers, the powerful petroleum lobby and the public pension funds targeted by the bill oppose the measure that would divest the state’s retirement funds and sell nearly $15 billion in assets.
Most Read