Taxes

Three statewide ballot propositions and hundreds more local measures will test California voters' appetites for higher taxes and more debt for public works projects.

California was nearly $2 billion over forecast in corporate tax receipts this summer, including by $844 million in July. A tax change meant to help the budget deficit helped drive the surge.

A decades-old battle over taxing corporate income has been rekindled in a dispute involving Microsoft, a retroactive change in taxation law and two lawsuits.

California's politicians have argued for two decades about how to deal with volatility. Should California increase rainy day reserves, or just avoid spending surpluses?

California Gov. Gavin Newsom's brags about the state's economy, but its unemployment rate is still the highest in the nation. The fund that pays unemployment insurance benefits also faces an immense deficit.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and fellow Democrats in the Legislature tend to govern by decree, a habit they've criticized in former President Donald Trump.

Proponents of a ballot measure to limit tax increases claimed the California Supreme Court had political motives in a recent ruling that removed it from the ballot. A careful reading of the decision indicates otherwise.

The California Supreme Court blocked a pending ballot measure that would have made it more difficult to raise taxes, adding another chapter the state's history of writing laws through the ballot.

The state Supreme Court takes a business-backed initiative to make it more difficult to raise taxes off the Nov. 5 ballot. Gov. Newsom and legislative leaders sued to kick it off.

Progressive groups, labor and civil rights organizations do well, while anti-tax, business and police fare poorly, according to a CalMatters Digital Democracy analysis.