Enterprise zones, in which employers in blighted areas get special tax breaks for hiring workers and developing their businesses, have been around for years but have often drawn complaints that they have been abused. Now, they are in Gov, Brown's crosshairs.
From the LAT's Patrick McGreevy: "During his State of the State address last week, Gov. Jerry Brown detoured from his high praise for state government's recent thrift to take aim at a program that he says wastes hundreds of millions of tax dollars."
"Brown's previous efforts to scale back or eliminate the $700-million Enterprise Zone Program gained little traction with lawmakers. The program, which gives employers tax credits of up to $37,000 for each hire they make in areas designated as blighted, has survived despite numerous studies concluding that it does little to create jobs or development."
"Many businesses that receive the credits are in tony neighborhoods where there has been no blight for years. Tax breaks are going to companies in such places as San Francisco's trendy SOMA district and sections of city waterfront where real estate prices are stratospheric and Michelin-starred restaurants abound."
Speaking of taxes, the parcel tax, a fundamental levy critical to school districts, would be changed under new legislation to a split roll, in which larger commercial property could be taxed at a higher rate than residential and smaller commerciaol property. This change, if enacted, would represent a major departure from Proposition 13.
From EdSource's John Fensterwald: "The bill, AB 59, by Assemblymember Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, would nullify a state Appeals Court ruling in December overturning an Alameda Unified School District parcel tax that levied one rate for residential and small commercial properties, and another for larger commercial properties. Bonta also represents Alameda."
"A product of Proposition 13, parcel taxes typically are a flat tax imposed on every real estate parcel regardless of its size or use. They are one of the few ways school districts can raise additional revenues on their own. Parcel taxes require a two-thirds majority to pass, although this year the Legislature will consider a constitutional amendment lowering the requirement to 55 percent."
"Fewer than a dozen school districts, mainly in the Bay Area, have parcel taxes with generally higher rates for commercial properties; some have set lower rates for vacant land and distinguished between single-family and multi-residential unit properties. All of these taxes were jeopardized by the state First District Court of Appeals ruling that rejected Alameda Unified’s Measure H. Passed in 2008 and in effect for three years, it levied $120 per parcel for residential and small commercial properties, and 15 cents per square foot on commercial properties larger than 2,000 square feet, up to a cap of $9,500 per year."
A new study of CalSTRS finances says then huge pension fund needs to raise billions of dollars more annually in order to be fully funded.
From Ed Mendel in Calpensions: "A new report says CalSTRS needs $4.5 billion more a year to fully fund pensions over the next three decades, a 75 percent increase in the $6 billion total annual payments now being made by teachers, school districts and the state."
"There is no cheap fix in the report. A final draft, scheduled to be considered by the CalSTRS board this week, was prepared after meetings with stakeholder groups as directed by a Senate resolution asking for options to address a funding shortfall."
"An additional $3.6 billion a year would yield 80 percent funding, $2.9 billion would prevent the investment fund (roughly $160 billion now) from running out of money, and $1.5 billion would push back the estimated run-out date from 2047 to 2058."
In the state's high-speed rail program, even the losing bidders get paid which, as it turns out, isn't that unusual on big projects.
From the U-T's Christopher Cadelago: "Only one out of five bidders to design and build the first phase of California’s high-speed rail project will win the $1.8 billion contract — but they will all get paid."
"The California High-Speed Rail Authority has agreed to issue a $2 million “stipend” to all four of the losing bidders, an obscure practice used for some large-scale construction projects. Bullet train officials say the incentive was designed to attract bidders and therefore spur better, more competitive proposals."
“It might seem curious to people at first why we would pay losing bidders, but it’s very much a mathematical proposition,” said Dan Richard, authority chairman. “We think that we’ll get better bids and lower bids as a result.”
Candlestick Park, the windy, chilly stadium that sports fans learned to love to hate over the yrears, is being torn down to make way for -- what else? -- a shopping center.
From the Chronicle's Matier & Ross: "Plans are to blow up the 69,000-seat stadium with a 30-second implosion, possibly within weeks of the 49ers' final touchdown next season."
"San Francisco's Recreation and Park Department, which owns Candlestick, had feared it would be stuck spending millions to mothball the 53-year-old structure until Lennar Corp. was ready to build something on the land."
"Lennar, however, figures there's no point in waiting. "The best thing for our development and the neighborhood is not to have that hulking building sitting there empty," said Kofi Bonner, president of Lennar Urban, which plans a retail, residential and office complex for the stadium site and the former Hunters Point Shipyard."
