Project Partners

"We need a strategic plan for California. We can let the future happen to us or we can plan our future."

-- F. Noel Perry,
Next Ten founder

"We need to rebuild the public's trust."

-- Leon Panetta, former Chief of Staff to President Clinton

"The people of California are better than this budget."

-- Angela Glover Blackwell, President of PolicyLink

"I decry the loss of civic dialogue in our state."

-- Julie Meier Wright, President, San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation

August 24, 2004

Next-Ten Event Summary

Weighing in on the State Budget

"California families understand their own budgets. They need to understand the state budget just as well." If Californians heed this advice from Tracy Westen, CEO of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies, the first thing they'll notice is the deficit — a sizable one.

The state budget deficit was not solved by the recent budget agreement. The latest analysis of the recently passed state budget predicts a deficit of $6 billion re-emerging next year and $8-10 billion the following year.

Unfortunately, too few residents realize the depth of the problem, and many of those that do aren't quite sure how we got there and — more importantly — what can be done to get us out of it.

That's where Next Ten (www.next-ten.org) comes in. A growing partnership of civic organizations, Next Ten seeks to create a statewide movement for budget reform by engaging masses of Californians in education, dialogue and action.

Educating Californians on Budget Basics

The first step of the Next Ten plan — education about the budget basics — is already under way. Next Ten staff and partners held a series of dialogues with regional business, civic and community leaders throughout the state during May and June of 2004. Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, presented a comprehensive overview of the state budget at each forum.

In his presentation, Levy provided an overview of budget basics, including where revenue comes from, what it's spent on, how the deficit was created (impact of the stock market bubble), and how California stacks up compared to other states.

Solving the "Structural" Deficit

Once attendees finished viewing the numbers, they were asked to discuss their ideas for both revenue and spending changes to make the deficit disappear. It's no surprise that opinions varied, especially since representatives of San Francisco were asked the same questions as those from Orange County. Interestingly though, areas of common ground began to emerge - a step in the right direction for building a future consensus.

read more

Rebuilding the Bridge between Californians and their State Government

Before government can effectively ask its citizens to vote for (and pay for) change, it will have to regain the voters' trust. That's no small job. "How can you trust when there is no transparency?" was a question asked in Orange County. Trust was a major focus of discussion at a recent Next Ten Senior Advisors meeting. This is a bi-partisan group convened by Next Ten to review the project's findings and plan future activities.

"We can look at the public's trust as a bridge," said Leon Panetta, former Chief of Staff to President Clinton. "This bridge is crumbling and in disrepair. How do we build a stronger bridge? We need to rebuild the public's trust if we are going to find support for increased investments on the other side of the bridge."

Overheard at the events

"We are all part of a constituency that believes there is a need for fundamental change." -- Gloria Duffy, President and CEO, Commonwealth Club of California

"The solution should be a combination of increasing revenues and decreasing spending. We can't keep borrowing. We need to make decisions about what are our core priorities and are we willing to fund these." -- South Bay of Los Angeles attendee

"We are stuck making short-term choices that are undermining a broader vision for California. How do we turn it around? We should use this opportunity of the crisis. A crisis is the best opportunity to fix structural problems." -- San Francisco attendee

"We have a serious structural budget problem without a popular solution." -- Tri-Valley of the Bay Area attendee

"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste." -- San Francisco attendee

Additional Resources

Visit Next-Ten.org
See Steve Levy's Budget Education Presentation
Read the meeting notes

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produced and distributed in partnership with the Center for Governmental Studies