California Economic Summit launches One Million Challenges in 2016 Roadmap to Shared Prosperity
The California Economic Summit released its 2016 Roadmap to Shared Prosperity today, highlighting a set of ambitious goals—the One Million Challenges—that will be vital to expanding sustainable economic growth in every part of California. The Summit also welcomed U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein as honorary chair of this multi-year effort to advance the priorities of the state’s regional […]
California Economic Summit Introduces One Million Challenges
The California Economic Summit has unveiled three ambitious new goals—the One Million Challenges—that will be the focus of its growing coalition of business, environmental, labor, and civic leaders at the next statewide Summit two weeks from today in Ontario. With Californians facing a widening opportunity gap, fast-rising housing prices, and dwindling water supplies, the Summit […]
What’s Missing From California’s Transportation Special Session
Most of the attention in the special legislative session tasked with finding money for transportation infrastructure has focused on how state agencies (Caltrans) and local governments (cities and counties) could use new funding streams to repair local roads and state highways. With existing revenues (exhibit A: the gas tax) failing to keep pace with transportation […]
The Coming Revenue Debate Must Look Beyond Politics
With more than a dozen major tax measures moving through the Legislature or toward the November 2016 ballot, California’s perennial debate about taxes is set to begin anew—with millions of dollars in political campaigns preparing to shape how the state will raise billions of dollars in revenue, and provide public services, for years to come. […]
CA Fwd Offers Policy Framework For Special Legislative Session On Road Funding
While state leaders agreed on a $167 billion budget this week, Gov. Brown also called a special legislative session to solve a funding challenge the last three governors have struggled to address: a $59 billion backlog in state road and highways maintenance. CA Fwd highlighted this shortfall as one of the state’s biggest fiscal issues […]
CA Fwd Report Highlights Revenue Options For Investments In Education And Infrastructure
As the recovery lifts California out of a decade of financial crises, the state’s inherent economic strengths and lingering fiscal weaknesses are being revealed. Jobs are coming back, bringing a new wave of tax revenues with them. But in twenty counties—mostly inland—double-digit unemployment and a scarcity of skilled workers still cloud the horizon. State leaders, […]
CA Fwd Report: Financing California’s Future Means Thinking Beyond Prop 30
After more than a decade of red ink, California is finally celebrating—and being celebrated for—leaving its rocky fiscal past behind. With voter confidence rising, state leaders are turning at last to the state’s daunting retiree health obligations. With the operating budget in balance, lawmakers are slowly increasing spending, while using billions of dollars in temporary […]
CA Economic Summit Roadmap — Increased Opportunity for All
In the weeks following the release of the California Economic Summit’s Roadmap to Shared Prosperity, the Summit’s co-chairs are outlining how they plan to use this new 5-year strategy for advancing a sustainable growth agenda across the state’s diverse regional economies. Antonia Hernández, president and chief executive officer of the California Community Foundation, believes the […]
Three Ways To Ensure California’s Prosperity Emerge From CA Economic Summit’s Capitol Day
Three big themes emerged from Tuesday’s California Economic Summit Capitol Day, where more than 250 civic leaders representing the state’s diverse regional economies met with lawmakers and state officials to discuss how to build on the success of the Summit’s statewide prosperity strategy. This action plan, shaped by participants in last November’s Summit, outlines how regional […]
Summit Releases How-To Guide On Proposed New Infrastructure Financing Tools
Long before water pipes began bursting in Los Angeles and dams started cracking in the Sierra foothills, the California Economic Summit has been exploring ways the state can make needed investments in California’s aging infrastructure. With less than a month remaining in this year’s legislative session, the Summit sent a letter to the Governor and […]