California Budget Bites

No Free Lunch

cbporg — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:38:54 +0000

Bond measures often succeed at the polls, and it’s easy to see why. They require only a simple majority vote; generally – but not always – pay for infrastructure, such as schools and highways; and appear to be “free money” since voters aren’t asked to raise taxes in order to repay the bondholders. In reality, [...]

Medi-Cal Enrollment Increases Rapidly in Recession

cbporg — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:27:11 +0000

Medi-Cal, the nation’s largest Medicaid program, swelled to 7 million beneficiaries this year. Since the recession officially began in July 2007, the rate at which Californians have become eligible for Medi-Cal has steadily escalated. From May 2007 to May 2008, Medi-Cal enrollment increased by 2.1 percent. But from May 2008 to May 2009, the most recent [...]

Making the Case for Investment

cbporg — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:26:36 +0000

Looking for some good reading? In the past few weeks, a number of op-eds in the state and national media have made a powerful case for investing in schools, universities, and public programs – and the devastation that occurs when you don’t. In The Washington Post this week, columnist E.J. Dionne writes about the tax-limitation measures [...]

Jobless Workers Get a Little Help for the Holidays

cbporg — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:16:57 +0000

President Obama approved nearly five more months of unemployment benefits for many of the nation’s jobless workers this morning, bringing combined state and federal unemployment benefits to 99 weeks in high-unemployment states such as California. This additional help comes as the national unemployment rate climbed to 10.2 percent in October, a 26-year record. California’s unemployment [...]

Making Sense of News on the Economy

cbporg — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:15:35 +0000

If the Great Recession is over, as many experts believe, why is the US still losing jobs? The nation lost 190,000 jobs in October – the 22nd straight month of job declines – according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics data released today. This news comes after data released last week showed that the economy [...]

SSI/SSP and IHSS Programs Face More Budget Fallout

cbporg — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:01:52 +0000

Yesterday, grants for low-income seniors and people with disabilities were cut for the third time this year as part of the state’s effort to close the massive budget gap that consumed policymakers for much of 2009. The maximum monthly Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) grant for couples dropped from $1,489 in October to $1,407 [...]

Do Official Poverty Data Overlook Too Many Struggling Californians?

cbporg — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:44:10 +0000

Last month, we reported that California’s poverty rate jumped from 12.7 percent in 2007 to 14.6 percent in 2008. That means that 5.3 million Californians – nearly one of every seven – were officially considered to be living in poverty last year. New data from the US Census Bureau suggest that many more Californians may be [...]

Evidence Against Payday Lending Keeps Piling Up

cbporg — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:53:30 +0000

A recent editorial in the San Jose Mercury News shines a much-needed spotlight on payday lending, a topic that we blogged about in June and that was the subject of a 2008 CBP report. Pulling no punches, the editorial concludes that ”predatory payday lending … can destroy the lives of the most vulnerable [and] it [...]

Back-to-School Blues

cbporg — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:44:04 +0000

State budget cuts appear to be taking a toll on workers in the public education sector: As California’s students headed back to school this fall, thousands fewer school employees returned with them. The number of jobs in public educational services – which includes jobs at public schools from the elementary to the university level, as [...]

Health News Round-Up

cbporg — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:20:43 +0000

As Congress continues to debate a range of proposals that could ultimately reform the nation’s health care system, a number of policy institutes have attempted to quantify the costs and benefits of the effort. Health insurance reform explained: The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a number of studies last week related to the national [...]