Will Gov. Jerry Brown get all the revenue increases he wants from Proposition 30, which voters passed last November? Brown recently said in an interview with Jeremy Hobson of Marketplace Morning Report that Prop. 30 was the main reason California was able to achieve a “balanced budget after years of deep deficits.” The initiative would inject “billions of dollars into our budget” and bring California “its first balanced and sustainable budget in 15 years.” His administration estimated the proposition would “increase state revenues by $6.9 billion by the end of 2012-13, and generate billions of dollars per year until its taxes expire at the end of 2016.” ... In a recent California Common Sense study, Autumn Carter highlighted the differences between governors’ historical January General Fund revenue projections and projections included in budgets enacted in June (although sometimes “June” has meant a later month when the Legislature has delayed enacting a budget). She wrote: “Since 1997-98, actual revenues have been within 2% of January’s projected revenues only two times. By comparison, June’s projections have been within 2% of actual revenues six times. The median error for January’s projections is 4.7%, compared to June’s median error of 1.6%.”

Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed 2013-14 balanced budget is the state's first since 2007-08, thanks largely to higher taxes. A $5 billion spurt in additional revenue in January made the state – at least for the moment – appear to be even more flush with cash. However, that surprising spurt of money simply may be the result of taxpayers "getting income off their books in the hope of limiting exposure to" federal and state tax increases that kicked in Jan. 1.

The head of the California Chamber of Commerce told a gathering of business people in Seaside on Wednesday to get more involved in politics and warned of changes brought by the Affordable Care Act. ... Of the top 10 contributors to California politics in the past 12 years, four were businesses, three were Native-American organizations, two were labor and an individual, Stephen Bing, contributed $53 million of his own money, according to California Common Sense.

After years of budget agony, California is seeing something strange this month: a heap of excess cash. The state is poised to finish January about $4 billion ahead of what forecasters expected in income taxes, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office – the biggest one-month overage that state fiscal experts can recall in recent memory.

In a city without a long list of veritable landmarks, San Jose’s City Hall certainly fits the bill. A gleaming structure that stands some 18 stories high and borrows French inspiration to offer a look that’s very close to government chic, San Jose is proud of its new civic center for many reasons.

The Arizona group that dumped $11 million into California's ballot measure melee this week is led by a Republican activist who calls labor unions "the parasite that is killing our jobs."

Independent spending on California elections has soared by 1,600% in the last decade, according to a new analysis from Common Sense, a nonpartisan research group at Stanford University. Common Sense reviewed data from 2000 through May, and it billed the report as the most comprehensive study of its kind. Research director Mike Polyakov said it is "troubling" how difficult it is to track campaign spending with the secretary of state’s online database, known as Cal-Access.

While California college students are racking up loans, it’s unsettling to know that another institution is swimming in funding: prisons. A non-partisan policy think tank, California Common Sense (CACS), released a report last Thursday, Oct. 4, called “Winners and Losers: Corrections and Higher Education in California.” The study exposes how the state has reduced higher education funding while simultaneously increasing funding for the state prison system since 1980. So at a time when students face a financial dilemma, the California prison system has been rapidly moving forward with rising budgets courtesy of powerful lobbies. The prison system, as a result, has been gulping the state budget, leaving sectors like education and public safety diluted, which calls the student body to vigorously engage in prison reform — from salaries to private prison profits.