Actually the Governator started the rainy day fund in Ca
by SixShutouts66 (2024-02-21 14:04:23)

In reply to: This is their history. Their tax structure makes planning  posted by Raoul

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in 2004 and Brown expanded Arnold's idea in 2014 via an approved proposition.

California's unemployment rate has generally been higher than the national average (the link expands on this). I'd guess some of it is due to seasonal work (construction, entertainment, ans tourism come to mind). Other factors are the cash/gig economy that don't count people earning money. I'd add the unemployment rates tend to be higher with a younger population.

Unfortunately, Government in California and probably in general act like families do when the wage earners are working a good deal of overtime or have received unexpected bonuses - thinking that this is how they can live in the future. Many of our legislators are blind to this truism and create (generally worthwhile) expansions to the Government that beneficiaries expect to last and complain about the meanies who cut them back. Note the much beloved/hated Proposition 13 was a backlash to uncontrolled spending when the housing market exploded in the 1970s.

Unfortunately, what I expect is that we'll be faced with tax increases to keep programs alive and moving some Government funding from the general fund to bonds (already one in this upcoming primary).



Post Covid, CA's unemployment rate improved faster than
by Raoul  (2024-02-21 14:29:55)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

the overall US unemployment rate (as it peaked at a higher level: 16.1% vs 14.8%)). In August of 2022 the CA unemployment rate was only 20 bps higher than the US average of 3.6%. Since then the US rate has stayed about flat and CA has risen steadily to now 5.1% at December 2023.

CA was consistently about 30 bps higher on unemployment rate than the US rate for much of 2019.

CA has gone from 3.8% to 5.1% in 17 months. It's an outlier and it certainly fits with the burgeoning budget deficit as higher unemployment leads to less income and more safety net needs.

Best thing for CA would be for NVDA to have great earnings tonight and have many of the employees, including the biggest holders, sell a significant portion of their shares if the stock keeps going up. They could probably raise an extra $10B.