July 2, 2020

Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-71-20, which addresses a number of ongoing issues related to COVID-19 and amends a several previous Executive Orders.

June 25, 2020

June 4, 2020

This week, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-67-20, which provides guidance for county election officials with regards to the November 3, 2020 General Election, and clarifies that EO N-64-20, which directed vote-by-mail ballots be sent to all California voters, does not apply to inactive voters.

May 21, 2020

May 15, 2020

May 15, 2020

On Tuesday, Democrats from the California State Senate released a budget proposal with recommendations to address the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan is headlined by two specific recommendations, one which would address renter-landlord stabilization and one to establish a new $25 billion Economic Recovery Fund.

May 7, 2020

May 7, 2020

April 30, 2020

April 23, 2020

The federal government has issued several important updates of interest to California counties. Read on for information on Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce guidance as well as the much-anticipated guidance on “necessary expenditures” approved for reimbursement in the CARES act.

Cybersecurity

April 2, 2020

Businesses will be able to “layaway” up to $50,000 of sales tax liability pursuant to an announcement by the Governor today. The deferral, which could come to as much as $3 billion statewide and provide relief for up to 300,000 businesses, would have a significant effect on county budgets, relying as they do on sales tax revenues to fund 1991 and 2011 realignment programs, transportation projects, public safety, and of course general fund programs broadly.

March 26, 2020

CSAC and a broad coalition of local agency associations—including CACTTC, RCRC, UCC, the League of Cities, CSDA, CSBA, CASBO, and ACSA—have voiced strong opposition to any postponement of the April 10 property tax deadline and sent a letter to policy makers Saturday afternoon.

March 26, 2020

Last week’s news was all bad for the municipal bond market, but actions by both the Federal Reserve and Congress have restored normalcy, at least for now.

March 19, 2020

The Governor’s executive orders to this point have granted much needed flexibility to counties in a number of areas. However, as the COVID-19 crisis lengthens and broadens, a growing number of county employees are working from home, taking sick leave, or being redirected to deal with the emergency.

March 19, 2020

The Census Bureau announced this week that it will be suspending all field operations from March 18 until April 1, 2020. However, the public will still be able to submit their census forms online at 2020census.gov during this time. As of March 18, more than eleven million households had responded.

February 27, 2020

February 18, 2020

The California State Controller’s Office is seeking volunteers to serve on the Advisory Committee on County Accounting Procedures. The Controller’s office is looking to fill a vacancy with regard to the position of County Administrative Officer. 

The Committee is responsible for reviewing and approving county accounting and reporting procedures, which are then written in to regulation by the Controller.  The Committee meets in person or by teleconference one or two times annually. 

January 23, 2020

January 19, 2020

The official start of the 2020 Census will take place on January 21 in Toksook Bay, Alaska. Census Director Steven Dillingham will conduct the ceremonial first counting in the village, where census takers get an early start counting while the ground is still frozen, making travel easier. However, most of the country will not begin receiving census mail until March. Beginning in mid-March, households can respond to the census online, by phone, or by mail.

December 19, 2019

Governor Newsom signed 870 bills into law this year. To keep counties informed of new laws that impact them, CSAC has published a series of articles to spotlight those laws in each policy area. For this last and final week of the series, the Government Finance and Administration policy area provides information on new laws affecting taxes, personnel management, redistricting, employee relations, and more.

The new laws listed below become effective January 1, 2020, unless otherwise noted.

Redistricting

December 19, 2019

Counties have a new tool for measuring and examining their local economies. Late last week, the organization that calculates the GDP for the nation and the states, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, released its first ever official analysis of GDP for every county in the United States.