Taxes, State Budget | featured news

College students clash with administrators over steeply rising tuition. Public employees shut down statehouses amid cuts to pay and retirement benefits. Teachers and social welfare advocates protest budget cuts. Lawmakers struggle to cope with sharp declines in tax revenue.

Indiana's state government has discovered $320 million in funds it didn't know it had, money that officials stumbled across while enacting statewide belt-tightening measures.

State governments across the country are laying off teachers, closing public libraries and parks, and reducing health care services, but there is one place they could get $23 billion if they could only agree how to do it: Internet retailers such as Amazon.com.

Democratic lawmakers passed a rare on-time state budget Wednesday over Republican objections, but the plan — balanced with a blend of taxes, cuts and clever accounting — faces an uncertain fate at the hands of Gov. Jerry Brown.

Tax income has been outpacing forecasts — good news as Sacramento struggles with a $15-billion budget deficit. GOP leaders are already using it as fodder against Gov. Brown's proposed tax increases.

Gov. Jerry Brown plans to hit the road next week, taking his case for more taxes directly to voters following the collapse of budget negotiations in Sacramento this week.

The billions of dollars in cuts to government services signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown address a portion of the estimated $26-billion deficit facing California. Brown is still negotiating with Republicans on a proposal to put tax extensions before voters.Gov.

In a recession, state lawmakers are taxing personal vices. It’s good for you, they say, but it’s really better for their budgets.

Could marijuana be the answer to the economic misery facing California? Democratic State Assembly member Tom Ammiano thinks so. Ammiano introduced legislation last month that would legalize pot and allow the state to regulate and tax its sale — a move that could mean billions for the cash-strapped state.