Business News

SACRAMENTO – State Controller John Chiang on Monday released his monthly report covering California's cash balance, receipts and disbursements in July 2014.

Total revenues for the first month of Fiscal Year 2014-15 totaled $5.4 billion, beating estimates in the Budget Act by $231.9 million, or 4.5 percent.

“Even though July is usually a weak revenue collection month, the new fiscal year is off to a strong start,” Chiang said. “While the state plans to borrow operating funds through revenue anticipation notes, the $2.8 billion needed solely for smoothing out the timing of revenues is at the lowest level since the 2006-07 fiscal year. If we can continue to reduce short- and long-term debts, we can continue to improve our fiscal condition.”

Income tax collections for the month of July came in $244.9 million, or 6.4 percent, above estimates. Corporate taxes topped estimates by $38.1 million, or 13.5 percent.

Sales taxes also beat estimates by $36 million, or 4.1 percent.

The state ended the last fiscal year on June 30 with a positive cash balance for the first time since June 30, 2007.

That means the state had funds available to meet all of its payment obligations without needing to borrow from Wall Street or the $23.8 billion available in its more than 700 internal special funds and accounts.

As of July 31, the General Fund accumulated outstanding loans of $7.9 billion from internal sources, which was $1.5 billion under the budgeted amount.

The state ended the month with unused borrowable resources of $17.8 billion after making $15.4 billion in disbursements.

The most significant payments were $6.5 billion to public schools, which included deferrals from the spring in addition to the normal July scheduled payments.

Details: Written by: Editor; Published: 11 August 2014

SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), Egg Safety and Quality Management (ESQM) program is announcing two vacancies on the Shell Egg Advisory Committee (SEAC).

SEAC makes recommendations to the secretary of CDFA on all matters pertaining to quality standards for shell eggs, uniformity of inspection, adjustment of fees for administration and enforcement, and the annual budget.

ESQM monitors egg quality at production, wholesale, and retail levels.

The goal is to provide California consumers with eggs that are wholesome, properly labeled, refrigerated, and of established quality, while maintaining fair and equitable marketing standards in the California egg industry.

The term of office for a member of SEAC is three years.

Members of the committee receive no compensation, but are entitled to reimbursement for per diem expenses such as the mileage, lodging, meals, and incidental expenses.

The vacancies are for two industry members.

One member is to be a company representative whose principal business is located out-of-state and is registered with the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

The other member is to be a citizen or resident of the state of California and employed by a California egg company that is a registered California egg handler whose entire layer population is under 50,000.

Individuals interested in being considered for the SEAC appointment should send a brief resume and state which vacancy you are interested by July 31, 2014 to:

Anthony Herrera, ESQM Program Supervisor
California Department of Food & Agriculture
1220 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

Additional information is available on the Egg Safety and Quality Management program’s Web page at http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/mpes/esqm.html .

You may also contact Anthony Herrera, ESQM Program supervisor, at 916-900-5062.

Details: Written by: Editor; Published: 22 July 2014

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, along with the U.S. Department of Justice and state partners, on Monday announced a settlement with Citigroup Inc. to resolve federal and state civil claims related to Citigroup’s conduct in the packaging, securitization, marketing, sale and issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities prior to Jan. 1, 2009.

Nationally, the settlement totals $7 billion.

California will recover $102,700,000 in damages, which will reimburse the state’s pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, for losses on investments in mortgage-backed securities of Citigroup and its affiliates.

California also is guaranteed at least $90 million in consumer relief.

“Citigroup misled consumers and profited by providing California’s pension funds with incomplete information about mortgage investments,” Attorney General Harris said. “This settlement holds Citi accountable and compensates the state’s pension funds that protect the retirement savings of hardworking Californians.”

As part of the settlement, Citigroup acknowledged it made serious misrepresentations to the public, including investors, about the mortgage loans it securitized in residential mortgage-backed securities.

The resolution also requires Citigroup to provide relief to underwater homeowners, distressed borrowers, and affected communities through a variety of means including financing affordable rental housing developments for low-income families in high-cost areas. The settlement does not absolve Citigroup or its employees from facing any possible criminal charges.

An investigation conducted by Attorney General Harris showed that offering documents for the securities failed to accurately disclose the true characteristics of many of the underlying mortgages, and that due diligence to weed out poor quality loans had not been adequately performed.

As part of the settlement, Citigroup will provide $2.5 billion in relief to aid consumers across the country, including Californians, in the form of principal forgiveness, loan modifications, donations to housing and legal assistance nonprofits and efforts to reduce blight. $4.5 billion will be paid to settle federal and state civil claims.

The settlement related to California’s pension funds arises from the investigation into mortgage-backed securities by Attorney General Harris's Mortgage Fraud Strike Force, which was formed in May 2011 to comprehensively investigate misconduct in the mortgage industry.

The attorney general's additional efforts to investigate the mortgage crisis include securing an estimated $20 billion for California in the National Mortgage Settlement and sponsoring the California Homeowner Bill of Rights, a package of laws instituting permanent mortgage-related reforms.

In November of last year, Attorney General Harris announced a $300 million settlement with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. over its misrepresentations in residential mortgage-backed securities sold to CalPERS and CalSTRS.

Details: Written by: Editor; Published: 15 July 2014

SACRAMENTO – State Controller John Chiang this week released his monthly cash report for the month of June, and announced that the state's General Fund – the primary account from which California funds its day-to-day operations and programs – ended the fiscal year with a positive cash balance for the first time since June 30, 2007.

A positive cash balance means that the state had funds available to meet all of its payment obligations without needing to borrow from Wall Street or the $23.8 billion available in its more than 700 internal special funds and accounts.

“While this is welcome news after seven years of record-high borrowing just to pay our everyday bills, we still have much work to do,” Chiang said. “We should remain laser-focused on paying down the Wall of Debt, reversing the many accounting gimmicks to which we’ve become addicted and keeping the State as liquid as possible to avoid experiencing the payment delays and IOUs that plagued our State during the Great Recession.

“Another down cycle in the economy is inevitable – we just don’t know when or how prolonged it might be,” he added. “We should be vigilant about preparing for that day while we celebrate the great progress we've made to date.”

Because the state's cash position was over $5 billion more than expected when the Governor released his May budget revision, the Department of Finance – with the concurrence of the offices of the State Treasurer and State Controller – did not produce formal cash flow projections for the May Revision.

As a result, actual June and fiscal year receipts and disbursements are compared against projections provided in the Governor's January budget proposal.

According to the monthly report covering California's cash balance, receipts and disbursements in June 2014, the General Fund had $1.9 billion in cash on June 30, marking the first time it has ended the fiscal year in the black since 2007, when it ended the year with $2.5 billion in the bank.

For the 2013-14 fiscal year, revenues came in at $101.6 billion, or $2.1 billion (2.1 percent) more than projected in the Governor’s budget released in January.

Personal income taxes totaled $66.2 billion, coming in $1.7 billion above the January estimates (2.6 percent).

Corporate taxes totaled $8.5 billion, which was $725 million more than expected (9.3 percent).

Retail sales and use taxes came in at $22.2 billion, or $415 million under (1.8 percent) the estimates.

Revenues for the month of June totaled $14.8 billion, beating estimates in the 2014-15 Governor’s Budget by $304 million (2.1 percent).

Income tax collections for the month of June came in $635 million (7.4 percent) above estimates. Corporate taxes topped estimates by $289 million (13.2 percent).

Sales taxes came in short of estimates by $265.8 million (11.6 percent).