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227 Publications Found
February 1, 1991 - Over the past several years, many of California's counties have experienced increasing financial stress. While Butte County is perhaps the most visible example of recent county financial troubles, our analysis indicates that the problem is inherent to the existing arrangement of state and county responsibilities and affects all counties to greater or lesser extent. The existing county-state partnership suffers from a variety of structural problems—such as program fragmentation, counter-productive fiscal incentives, and the inappropriate division of responsibilities—that both diminish the effectiveness of these programs and reduce the financial viability of county governments
February 1, 1991 - Proposition 98 provides K-12 schools and community colleges with a constitutionally guaranteed minimum level of funding in 1988-89 and thereafter. Under the provisions of this measure, funding requirements for K-14 education programs are determined using a series of complex calculations based on factors related to both workload-based needs and state revenue availability.
February 1, 1991 - Concerns over current levels of educational achievement combined with perceived limitations of current reform strategies, have resulted in proposals for new approaches to schooling. These new approaches are known collectively as "school restructuring." In practice, the term "restructuring" has been used by various groups to advance different visions of reform. However, boiled down to its essential components, school restructuring involves decentralization of authority and increased collaborations at the local level, in conjunction with enhanced accountability.
February 1, 1991 - Strategies for Addressing The State's Budgetary Imbalance
February 1, 1991 - California's Economic and Demographic Environment
February 1, 1991 - Expenditures to support the state's growing prison and parole populations continue to increase at a rapid rate. In addition, the state currently has a limited range of punishment options for many criminal offenders. One potential way to address this growing population in a more effective way is through "community corrections" programs. This approach involves the use of intermediate sanctions as an alternative to state prisons.
February 1, 1991 - In this analysis, we examine some of the major infrastructure- related problems facing the Legislature. These include: (1) identifying the state's infrastructure needs; (2) setting priorities to meet these needs; (3) assessing the state's ability to finance additional bonded indebtedness needed for infrastructure; and (4) establishing a financing plan to carry out the Legislature's priorities, including the extent and timing of future bond measure submittals to the voters.
February 1, 1991 - The state is faced with a large and growing need to revitalize and expand its infrastructure. As discussed in the preceding analysis, doing this requires that it rely on bonds as a financing source. As the state continues to increase its use of bonds for capital projects, it becomes even more important that the bond funds be used in ways that maximize their effectiveness in achieving the state's capital outlay goals.
February 21, 1990 - In this piece, we examine county fiscal capacity—the ability of counties to respond to these needs. First, we describe the county-state relationship and discuss our framework for identifying variations in county fiscal capacity. Second, we provide our findings regarding the fiscal capacity of counties, and discuss some of the counties which rate below average in this regard. Third, we identify the primary factors that contribute to low fiscal capacity. Finally, we offer several alternatives that the Legislature may wish to use to improve the fiscal capacity of California's counties.
February 21, 1990 - In this report, we examine health care services in rural areas within the state. Specifically, we (1) review the characteristics of rural areas and health care services in these areas, (2) discuss current state programs, (3) highlight specific problems we identified within the existing services, and (4) suggest ways the Legislature could improve the provision of health care services to rural areas.
February 21, 1990 - One of the Legislature's challenges over the next decade is to promote adequate access to nursing facility beds for the state's population. Our review suggests that it is possible that there will be a disparity between the need for nursing facility services and the growth of bed supply over the next decade. Furthermore, the current Medi-Cal reimbursement system may be (1) contributing to low supply growth, (2) causing access problems to nursing facility beds for Medi-Cal clients, and (3) providing incentives that encourage expansion of facilities that are more costly to operate.
February 21, 1990 - In this analysis, we review the history of major offshore oil spills near California and the efforts to ensure a reasonable level of safety and environmental protection in this area. We then contrast this with the current system to handle smaller, mostly onshore oil spills in the state. Finally, we present some alternatives to consider in attempting to improve this system.
February 21, 1990 - In this analysis we review command and control regulatory policies (CCR), examine the deficiencies of CCR policies, present an overview of incentives-based regulation (IBR) and discuss specific IBR policies.
February 21, 1990 - In this analysis, we assess for each segment of postsecondary education: (1) long-range enrollment plans, (2) the potential need for new campuses, and (3) how each segment's five-year capital outlay plan addresses needs associated with enrollment growth.
February 21, 1990 - On November 8, 1988, California voters approved Proposition 103, which called for 20 percent rate rollbacks and ongoing regulation of the insurance industry. Our review of the past year's activities by the department suggests that considerable time will pass before the regulatory process has been fully developed and implemented. The department has proceeded slowly; thus, there are many elements of the regulatory approach that have not yet been developed and numerous issues remain to be resolved. In effect, while much activity has occurred over the past year, we are in essentially the same place as when the initiative passed.