Mark Paul

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he wants more than a balanced budget this year. He wants budget reform too.

For a state that has already laced itself into straitjackets of spending mandates and formulas, Schwarzenegger proposes new constitutional chains: a combined rainy-day fund and spending limit, to be added on top of the rainy-day fund and spending limit that voters have already approved separately. His implicit message: The Legislature and I have chosen badly, so please restrict our ability to choose again.

As… more

Once a land of savers, America is now the home of the thriftless. Americans' personal saving rate, in steady decline over the last quarter of century, finally plunged into negative territory this year. No surprise there. In modern America the struggle between debt and saving is a rigged contest. It's never been easier to borrow -- credit cards, subprime home mortgages, home equity loans, payday loans. But when it comes to saving, about half of American workers, including more than… more

Voting just three days before the 30th anniversary of the passage of Proposition 13, the landmark Jarvis-Gann initiative that cut property taxes and triggered a tax revolt across the country, voters in the primary election approved dozens of tax increases in local communities around the state.

By my count from semi-official election results available the day after the election, they passed 26 of 32 proposals to issue school and community college bonds; each of these measures, which raise local property taxes… more

...“The goal of tax reform should be twofold,” Mark Paul of the New America Foundation, a cheerleader for tax reform, has written. “One is to generate a more reliable revenue stream. The other is to make the tax code more reflective of California’s changing economy, which in turn could stimulate more growth...” LINK

Sacramento, California -- The New America Foundation today commended California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and new Assembly Speaker Karen Bass for their proposals to create a tax reform commission to look at modernizing California's tax system. 

"California's tax system, much of its created in the 1930s, hasn't kept up with the transformation of state's economy," said Senior Scholar Mark Paul, who is also the deputy director of New America's California program. "By making tax reform a priority, the governor and the speaker… more

Sacramento Bee | Plan to Open Up CalPERS Reflects Worry About Inadequate Saving for Retirement 

Investing for retirement is the financial equivalent of eating your vegetables: It's good for you, but sometimes downright distasteful.

Now a proposal making its way through the California Legislature has people talking about whether the state can make putting aside retirement money more palatable.

The plan would let private businesses and workers funnel direct payroll deposits into a retirement investment account. The California Public Employees' Retirement… more

Politicians don't like to talk about taxes except to brag about cutting them. But with California's widening budget deficit threatening deep cuts in education and other public services, it's difficult to avoid discussions about raising taxes.

Unfortunately, what's likely to be lost in the upcoming partisan melee over whether new taxes are needed to close the $16-billion gap is an equally important tax issue -- California's aging and often unfair tax system needs to be overhauled.

The goal of tax… more

Sacramento Bee | California Assembly Panel Passes State-run IRA Proposal

A proposal to open California's retirement system to private sector workers prompted questions Wednesday about government competing with investment firms and the pension system's ability to handle the unique program.

"We just don't know if it's going to work yet," Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore, said of the proposal to have the California Public Employees' Retirement System offer IRA accounts to workers whose employers don't offer retirement savings… more

Today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Member Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) unveiled a proposal to give California workers access to a low-cost, professionally managed retirement account.

“We applaud Governor Schwarzenegger and Assembly Member De Leon’s bipartisan leadership” said Olivia Calderon, California Legislative Director of New America’s Asset Building Program. “Too many hardworking Californians don’t have access to a work based retirement savings plan. This is an incredible opportunity for California to show the rest of the nation… more

When you set out to fix something, it first pays to figure out what's broken and why. That's advice that state officials would do well to heed as they try to close a $14.5-billion budget shortfall. But unfortunately, the budget debate in Sacramento has served mostly to shroud the reasons for the problem in three myths.

Myth No. 1: The Deficit Comes from Autopilot Spending.

In his State of the State address last month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that "while revenues are… more