A new report by the independent state Legislative Analyst's Office acknowledges there are legitimate reasons why a lot of the haul—90% are cash assets—will never be claimed, but argues that the $400 million in annual revenues swept into the General Fund is acting as a powerful disincentive for the state to do more.   read more

The information is critical to preparation of income tax forms and was widely anticipated by the 800,000 people, out of 1.3 million enrollees, who receive the mailings. This is the first year people will need to figure in the cost of subsidized healthcare and there was expected to be some confusion and more than a little consternation. The size of the individual subsidies was determined in 2013, based on estimated income in 2014.   read more

CIT has offered to pay $3.4 billion to the private equity and hedge fund investors, including George Soros, John A. Paulson, Michael Dell and former Goldman Sachs partner Steven N. Mnuchin, who created OneWest from the charred remains of IndyMac Bank after costing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) $9.4 billion. CIT pissed off a lot of people when it declared bankruptcy in 2009, especially after the government gave them $2.3 billion in bailout money that didn’t get paid back.   read more

The oil industry’s chief money source for lobbying nearly doubled its spending from $4.7 million to $8.9 million, far outdistancing Service Employees International Union (SEIU) affiliate California State Council of Service Employees at $5.9 million. The oil industry also claimed the third spot on the list, with Chevron Corp. and its affiliates spending $4.3 million.   read more

S&P will pay $210 million to California as part of a deal with 18 other state attorneys general and the District of Columbia that will net them and the federal government $1.37 billion to end litigation over the shenanigans that supercharged the housing bubble and facilitated the subprime mortgage meltdown. S&P will pay CalPERS an additional $125 million for its fine work on three other mortgage securities.   read more

While the average private loan at Corinthian is around $4,700 per student, federal loan debt ranges from $9,000 to $28,000. Corinthian peddled its Genesis loans, with interest rates around 15%, to students to meet a federal requirement that 10% of school revenues come from private sources, then harassed them for payment. More than 60% of Corinthian students defaulted on their loans within three years.   read more

Proposition 63, the “Millionaires Tax,” raised billions for treatment of mental health. “Has homelessness declined? Are programs helping Californians stay at work or in school? Who is being served and who is falling through the cracks?” the report asks. Your guess is as good as theirs.   read more

On Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors declared a fiscal emergency in anticipation of a massive hit in property taxes, 30% of which comes from oil and gas companies. Crude oil prices have dropped 60% since last July and are approaching the 10-year low in 2009 during the depths of the Great Recession.   read more

The Legislative Analyst's Office calculated that 91.4% of school districts (81 of 944) would fail to meet the new standards if they were applied to present budgets, setting off a scramble among them for ways to comply. Overall, school district reserves would have to shrink from $7.3 billion to $2.8 billion. The smallest district would suffer the most.   read more

The BlueCross BlueShield Association published a study (pdf) last week of hip and knee replacements in 64 health care markets across the country. Nowhere was a gaping price differential more pronounced than California. Only the Boston area had a wider disparity in pricing for hip replacement surgery than the L.A.–Long Beach area.   read more

The first offer would have paid 64,000 employees a pittance of the alleged $3 billion in lost wages they suffered between 2005 and 2009. The tech giants ponied up an extra $90 million and resubmitted their settlement offer. Ars Technica did the math and figured that even with the new money, each employee would net around $6,500 after the lawyers were paid.   read more

Like most underfunded, half-neglected public social service efforts, the department has struggled mightily to fulfill its mission. The Auditor reported that the department fails to bill and collect all the money it could be collecting through the “Parental Fee Program,” which considers ability to pay as a factor. The department collects only about 60% of assessed fees and it doesn’t do a very good job assessing those fees in the first place, the report said.   read more

Holder announced that from now on, local and state authorities will not be “using federal law to seize cash, cars and other property without evidence that a crime occurred.” They do a lot of that, in cooperation with federal authorities, through a program called “Equitable Sharing.” A Washington Post story last year calculated that local agencies picked up 81% of the $2.5 billion snared by civil forfeiture nationwide over seven years ending in fiscal year 2014.   read more

Los Angeles Times reporter David Willman has written in the past about a quick deployment of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System (GMD), without the usual testing regimen, after President George W. Bush ordered it up in 2002. So far, the missile is eight for 17 at shooting down its target, despite, according to the lawsuit, the Pentagon staging “carefully choreographed tests that are more predictable and less challenging than an actual attack would be.”   read more

The journalists wanted to write about the top vacation “hoarders” but the list of employees has vague job titles instead of names. Rick Chivaro, the controller’s top lawyer, told them the names were confidential personnel information. As it turned out, Chivaro took second place on the list, accumulating 498 vacation days as of last June. That's six times the limit for government employees.   read more

In a decision thought unlikely to be reversed via instant replay or the U.S. Supreme Court, the three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the law prevented San Jose from luring the Athletics baseball team from Oakland. But Judge Kozinski called baseball's anti-trust exemption "one of federal law’s most enduring anomalies.”   read more