Volunteer, Sacramento!

Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacramento is asking YOU to be the change in your community and join the Mayor's Volunteer Challenge. Volunteer Sacramento is partnering with Hands On Sacramento and they have set a goal to make Sacramento the number one city in the state for volunteerism.

Getting involved is easy to do. Simply join the Mayor's Volunteering Team, and start volunteering your time! All they're asking is for you (us) to donate as little as 10 hours this year. That's less than an hour each month! Those 10 hours translate into an economic contribution of more than ten million dollars back into our city. Think about that... just a little of your time to give a lot back to your community.

Here at Roni Deutch, A Professional Tax Corporation we have our own Community Action Committee where we donate time, items, and money to local organizations each month. Last month we collected blankets and warm winter clothing for The Effort, A Family Resource Center here in North Highlands, California. We were able to donate seven large bags full of winter items valued at $1,000! You can see pictures of that day here on my Flickr account.

This month (March, 2010) we are organizing an Easter Egg Drive to benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities. Your volunteer act doesn’t have to be on a grand scale. Sacramento is full of organizations and non-profits that you could help for one hour a month! Some on-going volunteer opportunities are located at the Hands On Sacramento website.

Community Lenders Hit the Funding Jackpot

From CNNMoney.com:

Goldman Sachs' banking titans and top congressional Democrats don't often see eye to eye -- executive pay caps, anyone? But here's something the megabank and Capitol Hill agree on: One of the best ways to get financing to worthy small businesses is through a little-known community lending vehicle called a CDFI.

Taken together, Goldman Sachs and the federal government have earmarked more than $300 million to invest in these local financiers in 2010. Compared to Wall Street's bailout billions, that's pennies on the dollar, but for CDFIs it's a jackpot. Next year's funding pool is almost three times bigger than any they've ever had before.

A CDFI is a Community Development Financial Institution, a certification conferred by the Treasury Department. The program gives low-interest government loans, grants and tax credits to organizations that specialize in economically developing low-income and otherwise underserved markets.

CDFIs were a hot topic at the small business lending forum Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner convened last month to brainstorm solutions to the ongoing credit crunch small companies face. Wary of lending to firms struggling through the recession, banks slashed their small business credit this year.

That left CDFIs, which specialize in riskier loans, scrambling to pick up the slack. Funding requests surged. For the 2010 fiscal year, the CDFI Fund received applications totaling $467 million, a 97% jump from 2009.

California Schools' Tough Choices

According to the Wall Street Journal cities across California have been approving parcel taxes to support local education. Schools in lower income areas have been suffering due to the poor economy and have been forced to make cuts left and right. Check out a snippet of the WSJ article discussing the issue below.

Residents of some affluent cities in this broke state are banding together to make up for cuts in public education, opening rifts between rich and poor school districts.

Key to the debate are parcel taxes, flat fees on property that are used by some cities to help fund public schools.

A handful of communities, such as the tony Bay Area enclave of Piedmont, Calif., have passed new parcel taxes to compensate for proposed state cutbacks, and others are considering them. Piedmont said the emergency measures would enable it to lay off only five of its 200 teachers, rather than nine.

"We're very, very fortunate that our community is supportive of our schools," said Ray Gadbois, vice president of Piedmont's school board.

In less-affluent communities where voters are loath to approve parcel taxes, the state's funding cuts are expected to hit harder.

One is Hayward, 15 miles south of Piedmont. At the city's Tyrrell Elementary School, Principal Rosanna Mucetti said she stands to lose nine of 30 teachers.

California requires any local tax increase for a specific purpose be approved by two-thirds of voters. Of the state's 1,042 school districts, only a small number have adopted parcel taxes. Since 1983, at least 245 such levies have been approved, including some that have been renewed, according to data from the lobbying group School Services of California.