CA Event: How Do/Should We Tax?

California has a tax system largely fixed in place during the Great Depression, in an industrial economy-setting unconcerned with environmental sustainability. Two questions about this tax system are posed here: First, can California find ways to raise the revenue it needs in the 21st century that are a better fit with our high-tech, service-based economy than is the current system? Second, can California's tax/fee structure be used to meet the state's greenhouse gas emissions under its AB 32 guidelines?

On Feb. 27, 2008, the New America Foundation and the University of California Center in Sacramento hosted a half-day conference with experts discussing these pressing questions. An MP3 audio recording of the full event, as well as presentation materials and conference articles released at this event, are available below.

Agenda

• 8:30 a.m. Registration
  
  
• 9:00 a.m.

  Opening Session: The Implications of the New California Economy for State Revenue Policy

  Mark Paul
  Senior Scholar, New America Foundation
  Introduction: Tax Reform for California’s New Economy
  
  Steve Sheffrin
  Dean of Social Sciences, UC Davis
  State Tax Policy In the New Economy
  
  
• 9:45 a.m.

  Panel I: Using Carbon/Environmental Taxation to Meet AB 32 Global-Warming Goals

  Christopher Knittel
  Associate Professor of Economics, UC Davis
  The ABCs of Taxes and Caps
  
  W. Michael Hanemann
  Chancellor's Professor, Dept. of Agricultural and Resource Economics
  UC Berkeley
  Environmental Taxes
  
  
• 10:30 a.m. Coffee Break
  
  
• 10:45 a.m.

  Panel II: Business, Consumers, Innovation and Taxes in the New California Economy

  Annette Nellen
  Professor of Accounting and Finance, College of Business, San Jose State University
  and Irvine Fellow, New America Foundation
  1. Moving California’s Tax System Into the 21st Century
  2. Sales and Use Tax Weakness & Possible Remedies: The Tax Base Is Too Narrow
  
  Jim Hawley
  Vice President and General Counsel, TechNet, Palo Alto
  
  Alan Auerbach
  Robert D. Burch Professor of Economics and Law
  and Director, Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy & Public Finance, UC Berkeley
  
  Lenny Goldberg
  Executive Director, California Tax Reform Association
  Commercial Property Assessment in California: the Reverse of Good Economics
  
  
• 12:15 p.m. Lunch and Open Discussion
  Moderator:
  Leif Wellington Haase, Director, New America in California, New America Foundation