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636 Publications Found
February 24, 2005 - Some school districts face huge fiscal liabilities to pay for retiree health benefits. It will be difficult for districts to deal with these obligations without a long-term strategy. We recommend the Legislature take various actions to start addressing this problem. Around 40 percent of school districts face declining enrollment. The state continues to have inequities in revenue limit (general purpose) funding across school districts. We recommend an approach to address both of the problems, allowing declining enrollment districts to increase their per pupil revenue limit until they reach the equalization target.
February 24, 2005 - The 2005-06 budget proposes $20 million in support of a broad-based reform of vocational education in K-12 education. We believe the Governor's proposal addresses a significant problem, but lacks the level of detail necessary for the Legislature to fully evaluate it. We therefore recommend the Legislature direct the Department of Finance to provide to the budget subcommittees prior to budget hearings (1) the details of the proposed plan and (2) responses to our initial concerns about the proposal.
February 24, 2005 - The budget proposes to leave 2004-05 Proposition 98 appropriations at roughly the level provided in the 2004-05 Budget Act. This proposal would create $2.3 billion in General Fund savings over the two years. While the Governor’s 2005-06 spending plan for K-14 grows by $2.9 billion, it does not include funding to cover all K-14 operating expenses that districts would incur under the budget proposal. We recommend the Legislature build a base budget for 2005-06 that fully funds the current K-14 education program.
February 24, 2005 - To the extent that the Legislature chooses to assess a fee to cover the state’s share of costs of the Medfly Preventative Release Program, we offer a number of considerations concerning a fee structure.
February 24, 2005 - The budget proposes an augmentation of $4.8 million and 46 two-year limited-term positions for increased regulatory activities related to tribal gambling. The request would double the size of the California Gambling Control Commission. The request fails to (1) clearly articulate what problems are being addressed, (2) justify a new state gaming lab, and (3) reflect a joint strategy with the Department of Justice. We recommend that the Legislature reject the request and the administration resubmit a proposal which addresses these problems.
February 24, 2005 - The Governor proposes shifting $469 million in General Fund teacher retirement costs to school districts and/or schools. Due to current law requirements, it is likely that the proposal would require a $469 million upward “rebenching” of Proposition 98’s minimum guarantee—nullifying the proposed General Fund savings. In addition, from a long-term perspective, the proposal on its own would not address the retirement system’s shortcomings—the lack of local control and responsibility.
February 24, 2005 - The Governor proposes to lower the grants for all working CalWORKs recipients, by reducing the amount of earned income which is disregarded (not counted) when determining a family’s grant. This proposal results in savings of $80 million and is likely to have minimal impact on the work incentive. We present alternative approaches which are likely to increase the work incentive but result in less budgetary savings.
February 24, 2005 - In 2000, a legislatively mandated study found that it was difficult for social workers to provide services or maintain meaningful contact with children and their families because of the excessive numbers of cases they were expected to carry. Our analysis indicates California now meets or is approaching the three of the five workload standards in child welfare services.
February 24, 2005 - The budget displays transportation funds inconsistently, making it impossible to determine Caltrans’ total expenditures in a given year or to accurately compare different years. Legislative oversight is severely hampered by these inconsistent displays. We recommend the enactment of legislation requiring transportation expenditures to be displayed according to standard budget display requirements.
February 24, 2005 - We describe the fee increased proposed for the state's public universities in the Governor's 2005-06 budget. We raise concerns with how revenue from these fee increases would be treated in the proposed budget. We also recommend that the Legislature adopt a fee policy that pegs the fees students pay to a fixed share of their educational costs.
February 24, 2005 - We describe the state's marginal cost methodology, which is used to calculate the funding required to pay for each additional student that attends the state's public universities. We also recommend that the Legislature revisit the marginal cost formula to better reflect actual costs.
February 24, 2005 - In spring 2004 the Governor developed a "compact" with the University of California and the California State University that specifies funding targets through 2010-11. We describe the compact and its fiscal implications. We also recommend that the Legislature disregard the compact and instead continue to use the annual budget process as a mechanism to fund its priorities and to hold the segments accountable for fulfilling the mission assigned to them by the Master Plan for Higher Education.