State Budget
Blog
Spending Watch
The May Revision Should Assume A Weaker Fiscal Position for FY2025-26
The May Revision Should Assume A Weaker Fiscal Position for FY2025-26 Wayne Winegarden April 2025 The recently enacted tariffs are significant tax increases on consumption and production, as I discussed in a February 2025 PRI Issue Brief. These tariffs will increase costs for consumers and reduce profits for businesses both ...
Blog
Read the latest on the Southern California wildfires
State Budget Watch: Lawmakers Should Heavily Scrutinize LA’s Wildfire Funding Ask
Included in the city’s requests are expected relief items, such as a $291 million state loan to help the city pay for debris removal and repairs to damaged city property pending FEMA repayment. But some of LA’s funding list shows city leaders haven’t yet learned their lessons from decades of ...
Blog
Spending Watch
SB 222 Will Weaken California’s Economy and Reduce State Revenues
SB 222 Will Weaken California’s Economy and Reduce State Revenues Wayne Winegarden and Nikhil Agarwal March 2025 The destructiveness of the Eaton and Palisades fires were unprecedented. According to the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, the recent Los Angeles wildfires caused up to $164 billion in property and capital ...
Blog
Spending Watch
Backfilling Lost Federal Education Funding Will Cost California Dearly
Backfilling Lost Federal Education Funding Will Cost California Dearly Wayne Winegarden February 2025 The erratic actions of the Trump Administration are undoubtedly making it more difficult for states to budget for the upcoming 2026 fiscal year. The knee-jerk reaction from many California politicians is to call for more taxes on ...
California
Read the latest about California's ineffective government homelessness programs
A Website About Being Transparent That Isn’t
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has launched a new initiative – accountability.ca.gov – which it characterizes as “bring(ing) together thousands of locally reported data points to provide a clear picture of local communities’ work on California’s most pressing issues, including homelessness.” In case your stomach is full after eating that word ...
Blog
State Budget Week - Learn How the Newsom Education Budget Will Impact You
The Newsom Education Budget: No Bang for the Buck
In the 2019-20 budget–Newsom’s first enacted budget–California spent $103 billion in state, local, and federal funds for education, which translated to $17,423 per pupil. In the governor’s new proposed budget, total education spending comes in at a whopping $137 billion, which pencils out to $24,764 per pupil. All this added ...
Commentary
State Budget Week - Learn How the Newsom Public Safety Budget Will Impact You
The Newsom Public Safety Budget: Budgets are a Reflection of Values
Governor Gavin Newsom spoke recently at Cal State Stanislaus highlighting his workforce initiatives and used the opportunity to introduce his 2025-2026 budget… State budgets are exceptionally complex documents full of granular data but a birds-eye view of spending places our tax dollars in a number of buckets of broad spending ...
Blog
State Budget Week - Learn how the Newsom Budget Will Impact California's Tax Burden
The Newsom Budget on Taxes: Yes, Governor, California Is a High Tax State
California imposes the highest top marginal state income tax rate and one of the highest state and local sales tax rates in the country. It is simply illogical to claim that a state with the highest income tax rate and a very high state and local sales tax rates is ...
Blog
State Budget Week - Learn how the Newsom Transportation Budget Furthers the "Train to Nowhere"
The Newsom Transportation Budget: Newsom Continues to Embrace Costly, Unrealistic State Bullet Train
Progress. The California high-speed rail project has made progress. If progress can be defined as finally laying the first track for a bullet train that is at least a couple of decades behind schedule. Hard to put any faith, though, in the promises and bragging when the HSR is running ...
California
The PRI All Stars Respond to Gov. Newsom’s 2025-26 State Budget
This week, we present an in-depth look at Gov. Newsom’s 2025-25 state budget plan. PRI scholars Wayne Winegarden, Lance Izumi, Steve Smith, and Kerry Jackson join Ro and Tim to explore the budget’s impact on taxes and the economy, education, crime, and transportation. They also explore how the Southern California ...
Spending Watch
The May Revision Should Assume A Weaker Fiscal Position for FY2025-26
The May Revision Should Assume A Weaker Fiscal Position for FY2025-26 Wayne Winegarden April 2025 The recently enacted tariffs are significant tax increases on consumption and production, as I discussed in a February 2025 PRI Issue Brief. These tariffs will increase costs for consumers and reduce profits for businesses both ...
Read the latest on the Southern California wildfires
State Budget Watch: Lawmakers Should Heavily Scrutinize LA’s Wildfire Funding Ask
Included in the city’s requests are expected relief items, such as a $291 million state loan to help the city pay for debris removal and repairs to damaged city property pending FEMA repayment. But some of LA’s funding list shows city leaders haven’t yet learned their lessons from decades of ...
Spending Watch
SB 222 Will Weaken California’s Economy and Reduce State Revenues
SB 222 Will Weaken California’s Economy and Reduce State Revenues Wayne Winegarden and Nikhil Agarwal March 2025 The destructiveness of the Eaton and Palisades fires were unprecedented. According to the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, the recent Los Angeles wildfires caused up to $164 billion in property and capital ...
Spending Watch
Backfilling Lost Federal Education Funding Will Cost California Dearly
Backfilling Lost Federal Education Funding Will Cost California Dearly Wayne Winegarden February 2025 The erratic actions of the Trump Administration are undoubtedly making it more difficult for states to budget for the upcoming 2026 fiscal year. The knee-jerk reaction from many California politicians is to call for more taxes on ...
Read the latest about California's ineffective government homelessness programs
A Website About Being Transparent That Isn’t
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has launched a new initiative – accountability.ca.gov – which it characterizes as “bring(ing) together thousands of locally reported data points to provide a clear picture of local communities’ work on California’s most pressing issues, including homelessness.” In case your stomach is full after eating that word ...
State Budget Week - Learn How the Newsom Education Budget Will Impact You
The Newsom Education Budget: No Bang for the Buck
In the 2019-20 budget–Newsom’s first enacted budget–California spent $103 billion in state, local, and federal funds for education, which translated to $17,423 per pupil. In the governor’s new proposed budget, total education spending comes in at a whopping $137 billion, which pencils out to $24,764 per pupil. All this added ...
State Budget Week - Learn How the Newsom Public Safety Budget Will Impact You
The Newsom Public Safety Budget: Budgets are a Reflection of Values
Governor Gavin Newsom spoke recently at Cal State Stanislaus highlighting his workforce initiatives and used the opportunity to introduce his 2025-2026 budget… State budgets are exceptionally complex documents full of granular data but a birds-eye view of spending places our tax dollars in a number of buckets of broad spending ...
State Budget Week - Learn how the Newsom Budget Will Impact California's Tax Burden
The Newsom Budget on Taxes: Yes, Governor, California Is a High Tax State
California imposes the highest top marginal state income tax rate and one of the highest state and local sales tax rates in the country. It is simply illogical to claim that a state with the highest income tax rate and a very high state and local sales tax rates is ...
State Budget Week - Learn how the Newsom Transportation Budget Furthers the "Train to Nowhere"
The Newsom Transportation Budget: Newsom Continues to Embrace Costly, Unrealistic State Bullet Train
Progress. The California high-speed rail project has made progress. If progress can be defined as finally laying the first track for a bullet train that is at least a couple of decades behind schedule. Hard to put any faith, though, in the promises and bragging when the HSR is running ...
The PRI All Stars Respond to Gov. Newsom’s 2025-26 State Budget
This week, we present an in-depth look at Gov. Newsom’s 2025-25 state budget plan. PRI scholars Wayne Winegarden, Lance Izumi, Steve Smith, and Kerry Jackson join Ro and Tim to explore the budget’s impact on taxes and the economy, education, crime, and transportation. They also explore how the Southern California ...
