Two Big Ideas for Reform in California

With California's fiscal woes mounting, and the government in Sacramento seemingly frozen in place, a constitutional convention has been proposed as a way to fix the Golden State's deeply entrenched structural problems.  But as more people have begun considering this option, several important questions have arisen about some of the details of the Convention, specifically:  1) how would the delegates to the Convention be chosen; 2) how would a Convention of delegates chosen by random selection function, and how would the delegates be educated;

San Jose uses a two-round runoff system to elect its mayor and city council, with the first election in June and a runoff election in November if no candidate wins a majority of votes in June. Voter turnout in the June general election is about half that of the November election, with turnout disproportionately lower among traditionally disenfranchised communities.  With most elections being decided in a low turnout June election, a small and unrepresentative segment of the community is having an oversized effect

To promote local economic development, California policymakers should create Banking Development Districts, a proven way to connect lower-income unbanked Californians with the financial products and services they need to enter the financial mainstream and begin to build savings and assets. It is modeled after New York State's successful Banking Development District program.

For the full text of the issue brief, please see the PDF attached below.

The California Employee Savings Program creates a voluntary, universal, portable retirement account for California workers who do not have access to a workplace retirement savings plan. It would give six million California workers and their families an opportunity to have their own workplace retirement savings plans to supplement their basic Social Security benefits. The California Employee Savings Program would also give hundreds of thousands of California small businesses an easy, low-cost, voluntary way to offer a retirement savings plan to their

The CA Workforce Mobility and Savings Initiative, reforms the asset limit in the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, to encourage low-income families to build the savings they need to permanently exit welfare. The measure repeals the $2,000 asset limit in CalWORKs for current recipients and raises it for new applicants from $2,000 to $7,000 while also eliminating the $4,650 vehicle limit. By reforming the asset limit, this measure restores the stated goal of the CalWORKs program by assisting families in achieving