Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Wed, Jun 16 2004
James Joyce Is Still Remembered
We'd all like to be remembered, so it's nice to see that Bloomsday is in full swing. You can get a virtual tour of Leopold Bloom's adventures over at Ulysses for Dummies. If they made you read James Joyce's work in school, and you didn't really enjoy it all, and you can only remember snippets of names of his characters, you can look them up at Joyce Country.
posted at: 10:02 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
We'd all like to be remembered, so it's nice to see that Bloomsday is in full swing. You can get a virtual tour of Leopold Bloom's adventures over at Ulysses for Dummies. If they made you read James Joyce's work in school, and you didn't really enjoy it all, and you can only remember snippets of names of his characters, you can look them up at Joyce Country.
posted at: 10:02 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Enterprise Zones: At The Expense Of Other State Taxpayers?
Well, we've done it again. For the 19th year in a row, we missed our state budget deadline. If you look at this flow chart of the budget process, you can see that The Governor's Budget gets to the legislature by January 10. That seems to go fairly well. I don't hear much about that part. It seems to be what goes on between January 10 and June 15 that bogs things down.
If it's true that most of the funding for state services in California is now supported by personal income taxpayers, what are corporations doing to assist us? Hopefully, they are hiring more Californians than ever so that personal income levels rise. The aforementioned PDF spoke of one group of those escaping income taxes being users of something called Enterprise Zones. I was not familiar with such zones. Am I just leading a sheltered life?
I decided to look around for more information. I found the California Association of Enterprise Zones, and clicked on their Enterprise Zones link. I got a long list of communities that are included. These privileges are apparently good for 5 years, but some communities have sought an extension. As closely as I can tell, these tax breaks are offered to employers in economically challenged neighborhoods. Here's the map for Watsonville, which is the town closest to me. West Sacramento has a good-sized Enterprise Zone. I'm just beginning to learn what this means for California taxpayers, and what it means for our state budget and just who those are who manage to escape paying a good share of income tax. But now that I have the scent, I'm off to investigate.
posted at: 09:19 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
Well, we've done it again. For the 19th year in a row, we missed our state budget deadline. If you look at this flow chart of the budget process, you can see that The Governor's Budget gets to the legislature by January 10. That seems to go fairly well. I don't hear much about that part. It seems to be what goes on between January 10 and June 15 that bogs things down.
If it's true that most of the funding for state services in California is now supported by personal income taxpayers, what are corporations doing to assist us? Hopefully, they are hiring more Californians than ever so that personal income levels rise. The aforementioned PDF spoke of one group of those escaping income taxes being users of something called Enterprise Zones. I was not familiar with such zones. Am I just leading a sheltered life?
I decided to look around for more information. I found the California Association of Enterprise Zones, and clicked on their Enterprise Zones link. I got a long list of communities that are included. These privileges are apparently good for 5 years, but some communities have sought an extension. As closely as I can tell, these tax breaks are offered to employers in economically challenged neighborhoods. Here's the map for Watsonville, which is the town closest to me. West Sacramento has a good-sized Enterprise Zone. I'm just beginning to learn what this means for California taxpayers, and what it means for our state budget and just who those are who manage to escape paying a good share of income tax. But now that I have the scent, I'm off to investigate.
posted at: 09:19 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
