New America in California: Publications, Events and More

"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

The spread of the swine flu contagion has yet to reach scary "I Am Legend" proportions, but things are getting pretty hairy out there. The World Health Organization has declared a pandemic, the first flu pandemic in 41 years, as infections continue to climb in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.

Sure, California's economy has seen better days, our budget is a mess, and we've been wondering whether the federal government might help us out with our cash flow. But the barbs sent our way by politicians and commentators in Washington are getting to be a bit much.

The move away from the general fund is a predictable response to a pair of trends that have been chipping away at this money for years, according to Mark Paul, a senior scholar with the non-partisan New America Foundation. First is the tendency to rely ...

How did California's budget crisis happen? On the next Your Call, we continue our week long series about California's economic crisis by focusing on how we got here in the first place. The State has a 24 billion dollar budget deficit. What caused it? Overspending? The state's tax system? Prop 13? The 2/3 majority requirement?

Guests: Lenny Goldberg, executive director of the California Tax Reform Association

California has until July 1 to come up with solutions to fix its $24 billion budget deficit. Joe Mathews, a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times and now a senior fellow with the New America Foundation, offers his insight.  Link to audio

What's going on? All along I thought hordes of angry young men posed the greatest threat to society. Experts are always telling us to worry about the social menace from brooding young Turks with too much energy and time on their hands. They commit the lion's share of crimes and terrorist acts. They generally have the least to lose.

"I think it's the right choice for us," said Councilman Sam Liccardo at a Thursday forum sponsored by the New America Foundation and Common Cause. "The question is how we get there." Original article

Join the New America Foundation and the UC Center Sacramento for a roundtable discussion regarding the financing of California's state and local governments. Special attention will be given to the implications of changes in revenue structures and flows for different levels of government.