Sacramento County Business, Economy & Jobs Digest

Sacramento County Consolidated Utilities Billing & Service is making it easier for customers to view and manage their utilities accounts online with MyUtilities.

Despite a $50 million budget deficit, Measure L still requires Sacramento to set aside money for youth programs, Mayor Darrell Steinberg said the city will need to work with partners to meet the law’s goals.

Families have a lot of questions right now about how much help they’ll get paying for college—questions that financial aid offices can’t yet answer.

For months, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has been waging war on the oriental fruit fly, a voracious pest that can attack hundreds of types of fruits and vegetables.

On Jan. 31, dozens of cities and counties are expected to convert thousands of suburban-style tracts into apartment-ready parcels. Will the state hold them to it?

Fast food lives in a consumer sweet spot: demand, convenience and relative affordability. And this pay hike—equal to minimum wage increases during the past five years—will create grand economic unknowns.

A Cal State systemwide strike secured what more than half a year of negotiations and partial strikes couldn’t: a deal.

As the FAIR Plan writes more fire-insurance policies, homeowners complain about poor service, rising costs and threats of getting kicked off.

Locking up a California state prisoner for one year costs nearly twice as much as tuition at the state’s top private universities—due to inmate medical costs and pay boosts for prison guards and other workers.

The swing from a $100 billion surplus to a deficit somewhere between $38 and $68 billion in just two years illustrates the volatility of California’s tax system.

The Sunrise MarketPlace Business Improvement District is marking its 25th anniversary in Citrus Heights with a year-long celebration, while navigating a critical renewal process to continue in operation.

Members of the California Legislative Black Caucus, local officials and supporters convened Jan. 11 for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast in Sacramento.

State officials hope a lottery and an emphasis on first-generation homebuyers will make California’s most generous down payment assistance program more equitable.

Gov. Gavin Newsom presented a $291 billion spending plan to the California Legislature that avoids making cuts to critical expenditures in education, public safety, mental health care reform, and other issues that are priorities.

We need to have a serious discussion about supporting our education investments with stable revenue.

Bucking the “doom loop” narrative, many tech entrepreneurs say San Francisco is still the “it city” for innovation—especially with the rise of AI.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recipe for digging the state out of a multibillion-dollar budget hole has “strengths and weaknesses” while his revenue projections are “plausible, but optimistic,” the nonpartisan analyst’s office said.

California’s projected budget deficit of close to $38 billion likely means some cuts are coming. Among them, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed ending the California State Park Adventure Pass, which offers free access to some state parks for fourth graders.

An overgrown parcel of land on the corner of Auburn Boulevard and Twin Oaks Avenue could become a new food truck plaza.

After facing public outcry, the Sacramento City Council postponed re-voting on a raise for City Manager Howard Chan and requested a change to its rules of procedures.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed that lawmakers tap a rainy day reserve and that a minimum wage increase for health care workers be delayed to help the state fight a $37.9 billion deficit. This projection is more than double what Newsom and other officials had anticipated last year.

Pea Soup Andersen’s, a Buellton, Calif., restaurant just shy of its 100th birthday, closed suddenly. The restaurant's other location, near Interstate 5 in Santa Nella, remains open.

Caltrans has set a Jan. 25 deadline for tech companies to show how generative artificial intelligence might reduce traffic congestion in the state. This follows an executive order that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in September related to this type of AI.

Philadelphia-based Audacy, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with $1.9 billion in debts, owns six radio stations in the Bay Area. These include 95.7 The Game, KCBS and 102.1 Jams.

San Diego Unified School District has received more than $700 million in federal and state relief funds since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with these funds ending, some schools could be facing serious deficits.

Sean Loloee, a first-term Sacramento councilmember, has resigned from office—a move that came weeks after he was federally indicted on charges related to his business Viva Supermarkets.

Stacker compiled a list home prices in the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom metro area using data from Zillow.

The holidays weren’t looking all that sweet for baker Jamie Mack, who recently had to make some hard decisions to keep his business, SpiderMonkey Dessert Studio at Arden Fair.

High prices at hospitals in Monterey County are “an anomaly even among the most expensive” communities in California. One insurance plan there saves money by paying for members’ travel to other counties for procedures.

The dawn of 2024 meant that California’s minimum wage rose from $15.50 to $16 an hour. That puts the Golden State at the second-highest minimum wage for a U.S. state, trailing only Washington state at $16.28 an hour.

A 2021 law passed by the California legislature went into effect Jan. 1, requiring major retailers to maintain an aisle of toys marketed to people of either gender. The bill’s author, Evan Low, said the legislation will help kids “express themselves freely and without bias.”

From new restaurants to retailers and specialty stores, Citrus Heights welcomed many new businesses this past year.