Taxes
Covering topics such as bonds, cryptocurrency, federal aid and pensions.
States are expecting flat revenues and increasing costs in this new fiscal year. They’ll face hard choices even if Congress does not cut major aid programs.
County Manager Bonnie Hammersley has proposed raising the property tax by 1.25 cents to 83.12 cents per $100 in assessed property value to fund the $312.3 million proposed budget and to help pay the county’s debt.
A statewide ballot measure, headed by a startup investor and former Google executive, would tax California’s richest residents to pay for public health initiatives to prevent future pandemics.
The state has poured $500 million into expanding Internet connectivity in rural areas but many residents are still experiencing extremely slow speeds, impacting their ability to do their jobs.
Landlords filed 771 eviction cases in Denver County in March, the largest single-month total since the pandemic began. City officials report allotting a bit more than $49 million for emergency rental assistance.
A Pew analysis finds that a third of states lost residents in 2021. Analysts are debating whether these shifts and slowing population growth rates throughout the country really are signs of “demographic doom.”
In distributing rental assistance funds to prevent evictions, Indianapolis found a creative alternative model, working across departments to get the money out to vulnerable families.
Legislative efforts to shut down offshore oil rigs along California’s coast were reignited after a major oil spill last October. But the costs of shutting down oil production may end up determining the legislation’s fate.
A new Urban Institute study finds tax rebates are a better solution, while efforts that discourage driving would have the most significant long-term impact on the inflation problem.
With the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, the yields on money market funds, state investment pools and bank accounts lag the payouts on safe securities. Staff needs to do its upside/downside homework.
The tax was imposed in 1994 to raise revenue for the Bay Area city’s library services. If the measure doesn’t pass in the June primary, the library system will have to cut 40 percent of its expenditures.
Rising costs are starting to put pressure on budgets and may increase pension risk. Still, government balance sheets are in good shape and the economy remains in growth mode.
Despite the national push towards electric vehicles, the Massachusetts regional transit authority has no immediate plans to transition its 69 buses to electric alternatives. One EV bus is almost double the price of a diesel bus.
State lawmakers discussed the possibility of curbing property taxes by using surplus state funds and restricting the annual growth of a home’s taxable value. But some worry it would shift the burden onto taxpayers.
Failing to invest in the emergency response communication workforce and infrastructure is taking a toll. One important way to bolster call center employee morale and retention is to reclassify these professionals as first responders.
The state announced it would use federal pandemic funds to give one-time bonuses to health-care workers but it omitted the largest group of health attendants, who provide services to about 130,000 low-income Texans.
Most Read
