Facebook did more than break the hearts of investors when its IPO tanked. Governor Jerry Brown factored a tax windfall of $1.9 billion over two years into his budget calculations through 2012-13, based on a Facebook trading price of $35 per share. The stock’s opening price at its initial public offering in May was $42. The price fluctuated between $38 and $45 before plummeting. As of August 1, it was trading at $20.88.   read more

Until last week, the 500+ special funds that receive a fourth of the money to run state government hadn’t been properly audited. Ever. Finding $54 million hidden in a couple of Parks and Recreation accounts a few weeks ago and the promise that billions more might be stashed away elsewhere have ignited public interest in the little-known special funds.   read more

No one knows better than Governor Jerry Brown the harm that will be done if recent cuts in the state’s innovative prescription drug monitoring program force it to shut down, as predicted, by year’s end. Brown unveiled the internet-based database version of the tracking system, known as CURES, in September 2009 when he was attorney general.   read more

California mental health care is in a transitional stage, or disarray, depending on your perspective. Many of the changes to core government services—driven by enormous budget cuts during a dire economic environment—have come while the state is doling out billions of dollars generated by Proposition 63 for unusual preventive, wellness measures.   read more

Most adults think twice before they give their children at college a debit card. Fortunately, debit card companies can relieve parents of the burden of educating their children about debt by marketing their products, in cooperation with schools, directly to students. In California, the financial institution most likely to be servicing the campus is Higher One Holdings, Inc., which has contracts with half of the state’s community colleges and a number of other institutions of higher learning.   read more

California, leaving no stone unturned in its hunt for budgetary savings, has suspended key elements of the state’s 58-year-old landmark open government act in order to save $96 million in 2012-13. The Ralph M. Brown Act, named for the Modesto Assemblyman who authored it, applies to state and local government and requires at least 72 hours notice for a public meeting, the posting of agendas ahead of time and limitations on conducting public business in private meetings.   read more

The government’s 500 “special funds” are only about 40% the size of the state’s $91.3 billion General Fund—where income and property taxes go to be spent—but they have something special besides their name going for them: they aren’t tracked very well.   read more

Buoyed by having experienced its 11th straight month of job growth, Californians tried to forget that the June improvement was miniscule; lower jobless numbers could be accounted for by discouraged job seekers giving up the hunt; and the state still has the third worst unemployment in the nation.   read more

The average retiree in the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) receives around $28,000 a year, which by and large supplants Social Security for them. But when enraged Californians break out the pitchforks and flaming torches to protest overgenerous pension payouts they think are bankrupting the state, they’re often focused on the $100,000-a-Year Club.   read more

While most state employees received a 4.6% pay cut as of July 1, most state Senate staffers have received pay increases over the last 12 months. Fewer Assembly staff members have also received merit pay raises during the same period, usually in the 3.6% to 5% range.   read more

The city of Compton in Los Angeles County says it will run out of cash September 1, becoming the fourth California municipality to join the bankruptcy conversation. San Bernardino, which voted its intention last week to file for Chapter 11 protection, declared a fiscal emergency Wednesday, clearing the way for it to skip months of mediation otherwise required by the state and speed toward bankruptcy.   read more

Although both major parties to the record-setting $122.5 million damage settlement of the 2007 Moonlight Fire in Northern California seemed satisfied with the outcome, the fighting might not be over. “Typically, a settlement signifies the end of a dispute, but this is just the beginning,” Sierra Pacific Industries attorney William Warne said.   read more

After three and a half years of twisting in the wind, Tribune Corporation’s plan for exiting bankruptcy was approved by Judge Kevin Carey in Wilmington, Delaware. Lawyers have collected more than $400 million in fees from the parent company of the Los Angeles Times, already buried under $13.5 billion in debt by its previous owners. But the rocky ride for the remaining employees will continue over at least the next six months as decisions are made on how to carve up the remaining assets.   read more

Raising the specter of Enron’s intrusion into the California energy market a decade ago, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is investigating allegations that JPMorgan Chase & Co. manipulated the state’s market in 2010-11 for millions of dollars in windfall profits.   read more

Los Angeles officials have accused US Bank of being one of the city’s largest “slumlords” and filed a civil suit against it worth potentially “hundreds of millions of dollars” for its handling of 1,500 foreclosed residential properties.   read more

California has had a lot of shoddy schools for a long time. That’s why the state settled a landmark lawsuit, Williams v. California, eight years ago by setting up an $800 million repair fund to fix health and safety hazards, and improve dilapidated campuses (often in low-income areas). The Emergency Repair Program should be wrapping up about now, but instead it sits inert with half of its money unspent and hundreds of schools unsure if they’ll get funds already requested.   read more