New America in California: Publications, Events and More

Women face unique challenges when it comes to financial security. To address this issue, join the California Women's Legislative Caucus, the California Commission on the Status of Women, the California Women's Agenda and the New America Foundation's Asset Building Program for a lunchtime discussion on how financial empowerment strategies can create asset ownership and savings opportunities for women throughout California who aspire to be financially secure. This event is free and open to the public and lunch will be… more

Late last year, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called California’s looming budget crisis a fiscal armageddon waiting to strike. Now, as the state faces a $24 billion budget shortfall and major cuts are inevitable, doomsday seems to have come to California, and particularly to its poorest. The one-million-plus Californians on CalWorks, the state’s main welfare program, could lose monthly income beginning in July. Support for those who care for disabled Californians is set to be slashed.

But it's not clear that IOUs are sufficient to force lawmakers to close a deal, said Joe Mathews, Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation.

Lisa Margonelli, fellow at the New America Foundation, another Washington D.C. think tank, countered that the government has invested in young industries before and that this time around is nothing unusual.

Pete Wilson’s California wasn’t too different from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s. The state’s education system lagged behind the rest of the country, interest groups had a tight grip on Sacramento, healthcare costs were rising, and the economy was the worst it had been since the Great Depression. While Wilson may be best remembered for his more controversial stances—like supporting Proposition 187, which sought to refuse services to illegal immigrants—he also managed to pass budgets and break partisan stalemates, ultimately leaving his successor… more

California is an ungovernable state. It is plagued by systemic gridlock and paralysis that is built into its governmental institutions. "California does not work because it CANNOT work," said Micah Weinberg in a quote for George Skelton's Los Angeles Times column.

With only a day left until the State of California starts issuing IOU's, Governor Schwarzenegger is accusing Democrats in the Assembly and Senate of wasting their time. Both houses passed bills avoiding some of the cuts Schwarzenegger has proposed by raising the tobacco tax, imposing a severance tax on oil drilled in California and raising the vehicle license fee to keep state parks open. They acted even though the Governor promised to veto the bills.

Guests:

With California's fiscal woes mounting, and the government in Sacramento seemingly frozen in place, a constitutional convention has been proposed as a way to fix the Golden State's deeply entrenched structural problems.  But as more people have begun considering this option, several important questions have arisen about some of the details of the Convention, specifically:  1) how would the delegates to the Convention be chosen; 2) how would a Convention of delegates chosen by random selection function, and how would the delegates be educated;

"California government does not work because it cannot work," Micah Weinberg, senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, told a reform forum sponsored by his organization last week.

"It's all about expectations," said Gregory Rodriguez, senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank. "The fortunes of any given candidate really depend on our expectations of that person at any given moment and on the candidate's own rhetoric and sense of righteousness."

Steven Hill talks about talking about the California constitutional convention. Original clip Living Room - June 25, 2009 at 12:00pm

One of these is Mark Paul, senior scholar with the non-partisan New America Foundation. "I think it's silly to have a conversation about the future direction of California without talking about Prop. 13," Paul said. "I think it's fundamental. ...

Last week both Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s warned California that it’s in store for downgrades of its credit ratings, already the lowest of any state and approaching the junk-bond status. That’s led to a lot of California bashing. On top of that, Republicans and Democrats in Washington are condescending to the Golden State, and the Obama Administration refuses to guarantee state bonds. Joe Mathews, Irvine Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, is a contributor to the Washington… more

The Obama administration is reportedly considering backing a radical plan to shrink deteriorating American cities by bulldozing entire neighborhoods and returning the land to nature. The idea, which originated in Flint, Mich. -- cratered by the auto industry implosion -- is to persuade disintegrating and depopulated cities to embrace their shrinkage, destroy abandoned infrastructure, save money and thereby stave off fiscal ruin.

Is a constitutional convention in California's future?

With the state's fiscal woes mounting and Sacramento seemingly frozen in place, a group of California leaders has proposed a constitutional convention as a way to fix the Golden State's deeply entrenched structural problems. Perhaps the most important question about a constitutional convention is: Who would be the delegates charged with designing California 2.0, and how would they be chosen?

Faced with a deepening budget crisis and a paralyzed political system, a growing number of Californians have concluded that their government needs a complete overhaul. Join us to meet the leaders of the reform movement, to explore different paths to fundamental change, and to discuss some ideas for creating “California v 2.0,” an upgraded political system that meets the challenges of the 21st century.

Steve Hill, who works at the New America Foundation and was one of the architects of IRV in San Francisco, pointed out that direct runoffs have been tried in San Francisco. "That what we used to have," he told me. "And we saw regular attack ads and ...

“We’ve embedded so many policy decisions into the state constitution, it’s just become unworkable,” said Mark Paul, with the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank. Unworkable. Unmanageable. More and more, pundits and academics say the state is literally “ungovernable.” Original article

Time for a California Constitutional Convention? On the Next Your Call, we'll continue our week-long series on California's economic crisis. What would it take to call a constitutional convention in California, and what could be achieved?

Steven Hill, director of the Political Reform Program at the New America Foundation, is a featured guest. Link to audio

Since Governor Schwarzenegger insists he will not raise taxes, programs such as Healthy Families are still on the chopping block putting health insurance for a million children and their families at risk. In this informative and engaging video, Micah Weinberg, Senior Research Fellow at The New America Foundation, calls out this sort of thinking a Budget Syndrome. A major symptom of this condition is an obsessive focus on taxes and spending. Its side effects include blindness to the true impact… more