California Economic Outlook Friday, June 25
7:45 a.m., Social
8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., Meeting
$20.00 includes breakfast buffet
MONTHLY MEETING $20
NOTE LOCATION
HYATT SUMMERFIELD SUITES 2611 Contra Costa Blvd, Pleasant Hill. Located just off 680 with plenty of parking.
This is your opportunity to find out what is going on with California’s economy
Well-known Bay Area economist Gary E. Schlossberg is the featured speaker at the Friday, June 25th breakfast meeting of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association. We are inundated daily with information about the economy but with little context. Here is your opportunity to ask those questions of an expert whose job it is to evaluate that input.
As senior economist with Wells Fargo, Gary Schlossberg is responsible for assessing the economic environment and providing input to the equity and fixed income portfolio management teams at Wells Capital Management which has over $349 billion assets under management. In this capacity he makes presentations to clients, prospects, and investment staff analyzing prospects for the financial markets. He is kwown as a terrific speaker.
Schlossberg entered the financial industry in 1972 as a researcher at the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve Board covering international economic conditions and joined Wells Fargo in 1974. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the City University of New York and a master’s degree from The Pennsylvania State University. Schlossberg is widely quoted a variety of news and industry publications in the Bay Area and national media.
RSVP
Payment for all reservations is required. Early registration is suggested due to limited seating. Reservations can be made by phone, e-mail or at www.cocotax.org. If you have questions, please call me at 925-228-5610 or e-mail me at krishunt@cocotax.org. Prepayment is greatly appreciated. Checks should be mailed to: P.O. Box 27, Martinez, CA 94553, payment can be made on line through Paypal on the CoCoTax website.
An unknown group that is not associated with candidate Mike McGill in the District 4 Supervisorial race has been making phone calls stating that the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association is supporting Mike McGill. Neither our organization nor I, as Executive Director, endorse candidates for any office.
Prop 16 – YES: Imposes Two-Thirds Vote for Local Public Electricity Providers.
CoCoTax did not take positions on other issues. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association did not take a position on Prop 16, but did take a “Yes” position on Prop 13 and “NO” on Props 14 and 15.
LOCAL MEASURES:
Measure C – NO: Mount Diablo Unified School District Bonds
Measure D – NO: West Contra Costa Unified School District Bonds
It is the practice of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association (CoCoTAX) not to take a position on a school bond or parcel tax if they are fairly and clearly presented to the voters. We believe the voters are capable of deciding for themselves. However, the Mount Diablo Unified School District’s Measure C is so egregious, CoCoTax is compelled to oppose this measure for the following reasons:
- The school board first considered a parcel tax that would pay for the kinds of things they need, teacher salaries, maintenance, etc. When told it would not pass with the required 2/3 vote the Board decided to go for a $348 million in bonds that cannot be used to pay for what the Board thought they needed (bonds are used for buildings, etc.)
- However, in order to be able to tell voters (and kudos to Dan Borenstein for uncovering all of this) that their tax rate would not increase, the Board decided to issue the bonds but delay paying for most of them until 2031 when a previous bond issue is paid off. That costly decision could mean that the $348 million in bonds would cost taxpayers as much as $1.87 BILLION.
- In addition, many of the items listed are really maintenance issues which means the Board has been neglecting that important aspect of school operations.
Sadly, Dan Borenstein revealed in his May 2 Contra Costa Times column that when the School Superintendent was asked about total cost of the bonds, he had no idea because the District had not even bothered to calculate it. That is unforgivable.
When I recently spoke with one of the members of the committee that supported this bond and he proudly bragged that they would be able to put solar panels on the schools, save energy, and then instead of paying back these expensive bonds, would put the money into the General Fund. (Comment: this is clearly their way of doing an end run around a parcel tax). I pointed out to him that this is like putting today’s lunch on a credit card and paying for it (plus interest) over 40 years. He had no clue that this is what they were doing.
The mantra of CoCoTax in our critical education role has been that “Bonds aren’t free!” but not even we would have anticipated how uninformed and unapologetic the Mt. Diablo school board would be for Measure C.
The taxpayers and voters of the District should not make the same mistake the school board did – reject Measure C.
Congratulations! According to the Tax Foundation, April 14 is the day the average Californian can start working for themselves instead of working just to pay taxes. Tax Freedom Day is a simple way of answering the question “what does it really cost to pay for government?” It clearly costs plenty!
Californians are working 3 1/2 months out of the year just to pay taxes.
We usually think of income taxes and property taxes as the real “taxes” but don’t forget the daily drain of sales taxes plus work-related taxes like Social Security and Medicare, and so many other items that factor into our lives and really add up. On average, Americans will pay more in taxes in 2010 than they spent on food, shelter, and clothing.
For the nation as a whole, April 9 was Tax Freedom Day but that does not include the future payment on the $1.3 trillion in Federal spending that has been pushed off into the future. If that was included, the Average American would have to work until May 17 for that Tax Freedom Day.
California ranked 7th with its April 14th Tax Freedom Day. What state ranked 50th? Alaska will celebrate that honor on March 26. And the number one ranking (not a contest a state really wants to win) – Connecticut with an April 27th Tax Freedom Day.
If you want to learn more about Tax Freedom Day and how other states fared go to http://www.taxfoundation.org/
As senior economist with Wells Fargo, Gary Schlossberg is responsible for assessing the economic environment and providing input to the equity and fixed income portfolio management teams at Wells Capital Management which has over $349 billion assets under management. In this capacity he makes presentations to clients, prospects, and investment staff analyzing prospects for the financial markets. He is kwown as a terrific speaker.
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