With $76B surplus, California proposes rebates for millions

[ffr]

Last edited Tue May 11, 2021, 09:47 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: AP News

Aided by an astonishing nearly $76 billion budget surplus, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday proposed tax rebates of up to $1,100 for millions of households and more than $7 billion to help people affected by the pandemic cover rent and utilities.
-snip-

The stock market also did well, helping California’s tax collections. The state relies heavily on income taxes from the wealthiest people.

The state will also get $27 billion from the latest federal coronavirus spending plan, the U.S. Treasury Department announced Monday.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/california-health-personal-taxes-immigration-business-555e6ec5ba03fa7a0eaade211df21c08

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Rock star Democratic governor. A Democratic supermajority. And budget surpluses, much the same as Democratic President Bill Clinton was able to manage during his eight years as president, despite republican opposition, constant costly bogus investigations that amounted to nothing and $60M lost to try to impeach him.

Republicans have their playbook and you can see what their results are. Democrats have their playbook and the positive results they've shown.

Who are you planning to enthusiastically support next election? The losers who tank the economy and strip you of your democratic rights or the rock star leaders who produce wealth and prosperity?

DO NOT FORGET.

[cloudythescribbler]

1. hate 2 be a debbie downer but aren't states NOT supposed to give away CARES Act money in tax rebates

Since money is fungible, that is essentially what would be happening

Obviously given the silly recall effort, Newsom would be tempted, understandably

But it wd seem that there is a WHOLE lot that can be done -- much more extended targeted relief, including to those who are left out of the CARES Act, upgrading schools, environmental (including green energy projects & forest protection)

[winstars]

6. There are two propositions voted on by the public that he has to do by law.

One is a proposition that requires a certain amount of the surplus to automatically used for schools.

A second proposition mandates that taxpayers get a rebate when a certain surplus figure is reached. There also might be a law mandating some of the surplus go into a rainy day fund...

The $27 million CA got from the Feds adds to the surplus but I think all of the above would have "kicked in" without it.

I think...


Here is his announcement:

[jimfields33]

8. I think they should put it in the pension fund

It underfunded and someday they will have to deal with it. Why not now and be relieved it will be good for decades.

[mjvpi]

16. Rainy day fund, that's a good one. How abut a "No Rainy Day" fund.

Fire cost are going to be crazy this year.

[LudwigPastorius]

18. "Obviously given the silly recall effort, Newsom would be tempted,..."

Call me cynical, but yeah, I do think that has something to do with the Governor's rebate proposal.

[sprinkleeninow]

2. Democrats equal winners. repuQs equal losers. eom

[ancianita]

3. Build better water retention infrastructure. Reform water distribution law. Build homeless housing.

Get a bullet train. Get more wind, solar and energy storage infrastructure.
Spend extra money on long lasting improvements.

Money in pockets is good, but investing for our descendants' future is better.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

5. Don't mention the bullet train if you want to keep CA democratic.

Car country.

[ancianita]

10. Ah. Cool.

[haele]

19. Problem with bullet train are the suburb counties.

Every mid-sized town will want a park and ride or hub stop along the route, so they would need to run several different routes on different timetables to account for the 10 to 20 stops the various state representatives will require before they would sign off on it.
How many stops would be required for an LA to SF route? Going along101 - LA, to Ventura or Santa Barbara? Then one in the middle, say Santa Maria (Also serves Vandenberg AFB), then maybe a stop in Monterey or San Jose, and finally ending up in San Francisco?
However, there can be a case made for several other bedroom towns, wealthy tech enclaves, and tourist destinations that also would claim a stop, and pretty soon, your bullet train is no longer a 1 hour from LA to SF, but 2 to 3 hours, even if limiting the time at the various stations even if you can reduce it to four hub stops along the way as I tried to do. Faster than the Surfliner, but not what people expect from a bullet train.

So there is a significantly larger infrastructure requirement that would go along with any bullet train plan.

Harlem

[ancianita]

21. Thanks.

It's not surprising that it would probably have to be interstate to work. I appreciate your knowledge of the details. Guess I shouldn't have just tossed it out there as part of infrastructure. But just to use a surplus to put money in people's pockets just seemed shortsighted to me.

[cinematicdiversions]

4. 76 Billion... that is like five miles Bullet Train. Nt

[Lovie777]

7. Positive results .....

meantime, California moves forward in helping the homeless and other projects that benefits the state and her people, i.e "bullet train" which I remember monies was denied by shithole's administration. Also, "Covered California" a health care initiative moving forward with strong results helping people acquire affordable health care and which Medi-Cal and or Medicare for all is still a strong prospect for the state. Unemployment benefits continuing, fire prevention, protection and remedy. Drought is a reality.

The governor that the RWers want to recall has done more for the state of California and her people and my gosh to date we are slowly recovering from the Pandemic because majority know here that vaccines do work and CDC protocols do work.

One difference I have seen from Blue States is that they care.

[melm00se]

9. The state of California

is currently holding in excess of $350 billion in debt.

Why not pay some of that down?

[Yavin4]

15. That's tricky.

A state is not like an individual. The debt that a state owes is held primarily by the citizens of that state. IOW, payments on state debt is income to large groups of people. Cut it down by too much and you cut off income to a lot of people.

The best thing to do with the surplus would be to put it back into the state's economy which generates more economic activity and build out and repair the state's infrastructure which also creates more economic activity.

There's nothing wrong with government debt so long as it is spent on projects that create jobs and more economic opportunity. The state took on debt to build their college and university systems, and look how the state benefitted for years from that.

[ancianita]

22. ...

The state took on debt to build their college and university systems, and look how the state benefitted for years from that.

Exactly. The gene edited coronavirus came out of Berkeley and is now delivered through vaccines. Public investment in education has the highest ROI (7:1) of any industry.

[DBoon]

28. If the money was borrowed at very low insterest rates, not a smart move

If you borrow money cheap, you don't repay it early.

Chances are interest rates will go up, better to not pay back a cheap loan early.

[Turbineguy]

11. Wow!

Keep that up and you'll be wealthier than Bezos!

No wonder republicans want to throw Newsom out.

[msfiddlestix]

12. when my neighbors whine about Newsom's occasional stupid stuff, I remind them

What Republican Governors did to our general well being as low income seniors and to never forget how well we did during this devastating year as a result of the pandemic. We have been awarded generous stimulus based increases in our monthly "food stamp" balances, we have better coverage with regard to our health care benefits which Republican controlled state government stripped away/obstructed from enactment in the past, and so many other benefits we receive under a Democratically controlled state.

And that the moment a Republican Governor should take control, we can just kiss all the good stuff that make our lives a little bit easier goodbye. That's 100% guaranteed.

That always shuts their whining down. I have had my complaints with stupid stuff he's done right in the face of issuing out edicts during the pandemic, the French Laundry soiree he attended just after telling California residents no hair salons, no dining at restaurants. A number of confusing, often conflicting information regarding the pandemic issued out in daily press briefings has been a constant source for criticism, but that's also happened on a national level.

We're low income seniors and we vote. And we're voting for Dems up and down the ticket. period.

[Shanti Shanti Shanti]

13. How many de-salination plants would that make?

[EndlessWire]

26. Fixing the water infrastructure

is a good idea. We have to cough it up and build water desalination plants. We are not going to suck the ocean dry. We need water all up and down the state. If we have so much surplus, we could probably get that plus a rebate.

[IronLionZion]

14. Or wildfire management

fix their power lines and trim trees in fire prone areas.

[Tree Lady]

24. City of Santa Rosa must be hurting

High 3-4 feet weeds already dead all over town in city driving areas, after the fires I would make that maintenance a priority. I just came back from there visiting family.

She actually lives in Rohnert Park where landscaping is green and cut.

[Demnation]

17. Help the poor, help Cv-19 recovery, then why not get going on a high-speed rail?

[ripcord]

20. Many of the people on pandemic unemployment won't get it

People who only had unemployment earning won't get this because the unemployment income tax exemption will put them at 0 income for the year.

[apnu]

23. sure why not pay the tax payers a dividend

Is it because Gavin is facing a bullshit recall? Yes.
Is the recall bullshit dirty pool? Yes.

So yeah, why not write checks to the voters. If they want to play bullshit games, they should expect bullshit responses.

[roamer65]

25. Hire a shit ton of Californians to rake the forests.

[EndlessWire]

27. LOL!

If they had to show some qualifying effort to get Fed money, I'd go for that! The Rake Corps could have a logo, tee shirt uniforms, hardhats, just a complete Rake uniform with labeled vehicles. There's no end to how you could spend money on our beloved forest Rake Corps. Maybe we could get an air tanker out of it.

What's the name of that Bear? Well, only YOU can prevent leaf fall in the forest. Tell Smokey to move over!

[AZ8theist]

29. Taxing the rich creates budget surpluses??

Who could have known????

[onetexan]

30. What happened to the craycray's efforts to recall Newsom? Haven't heard of news past couple months

I wholeheartedly support Newsom. Granted he's made some mistakes, but he's a damn good governor.

[haele]

31. Looks like they're grooming former SD Mayor Falconer.

Last edited Wed May 12, 2021, 08:16 PM - Edit history (2)

And they're hoping that they can use any of Newsom's plans for the surplus this year against him during fire season when it gets closer to November.

BTW, Faulcaner can run centrist - he can get some homeless advocates and police reformers behind him, and he replaced a problematic and going senile long time Democratic representative who was elected Mayor prior to him, so he can possibly claim he can "fix problems" while reaching across the political aisle. He is the closest candidate that could be in a threatening position during the recall; the RWNJs will hold their nose and vote for him if Golden Calf T***** is coaxed to get involved.

Big money is involved, Democrats can't be complacent.

On edit, Laz saw him on a recent politics shoe; it looks like the GQP money is going to run Faulcaner as a LGTBQ friendly Drumphster. They just can't seem to give up that bitter orange Kool-aid.

That's not a winning strategy In California.

Haele

BTW, personal observation after 43 years in San Diego, being Mayor of this town is where political careers die. I'm waiting to see if Todd Gloria can overcome that curse...

[onetexan]

32. i found this

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-05-11/opposition-grows-gavin-newsom-recall-poll

don't think the recall effort's going to get very far, & more than likely Newsom w be reelected. For CA's sake i hope that's the case. Majority of voters approve of him and given how liberal CA is i highly doubt a GOP candidate would win.