California Moderate Party 2014

Think Long Smart to Delay Reforms, Must Earn Trust with Voters

@Roughani — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:54:11 +0000

Yesterday, the Think Long Committee for California released a statement regarding their intent to postpone the filing of their reform proposals until 2014. This was a smart move not only because it provides more time for public deliberation and further policy refinement, but because it also gives appropriate deference to Gov. Brown who should have the opportunity to be tested as a leader.

Think Long’s move brings the Governor one step closer to a scenario in which he does not have to compete with other tax proposals. Given the complex governance structure California has in place and Brown’s efforts to incrementally empower local governments, it’s only fair that voters be allowed to consider his ideas on their merits instead of being distracted by alternative measures.

Following Think Long’s decision, Gov. Brown issued this statement:

“Think Long is doing very ... Read More »

Can Financing Reforms Reduce Costs While Improving Health Care Quality?

@Roughani — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:53:55 +0000

With expenditures totaling $2.5 trillion, or $7,500 per person, the United States consumes more health care than any other country in the world. The magnitude of U.S. health spending makes the health sector’s productivity an issue of great importance. Are our health dollars delivering reasonable value, or are there ways to obtain better outcomes at lower cost?

Comparisons with other countries raise concerns about the cost-effectiveness of U.S. health care. While other countries spend far less, outcomes in the United States are not obviously better. Detailed analyses find U.S. care delivery to be excellent in some areas, such as care for individuals with cancer, and lagging in others, such as the management of care for diabetics. While it is difficult to rank national health outcomes in a compelling, comprehensive manner, few would read the evidence as placing the United States unambiguously ... Read More »

Structure and Funding of Career Technical Education in the California Community College

@Roughani — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 02:00:57 +0000

The national college completion agenda is in full swing but the role of community colleges in that agenda is underappreciated. With a large share of projected job openings requiring college education of less than a bachelor’s degree and offering family-supporting wages, the nation’s community colleges can make a huge contribution toward a competitive national workforce. Community colleges offer a broad array of career-oriented certificates and associate degrees through what is generally called “career technical education” or CTE. Policymakers across the country are hoping to rely heavily on community college CTE programs to recharge their economies. To fulfill this hope, community colleges must tailor their offerings to address labor market needs and must design programs to be accessible and valuable to students with different levels of preparation and at different stages of their careers. Recent high school graduates, under-employed and unemployed ... Read More »

Regional Results : Promising Practices from the California Stewardship Network

@Roughani — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:01:26 +0000

California’s regions are a wellspring of promising practices that are transforming local economies and communities across the State. This report provides a window into 10 specific practices from 10 diverse regions, a sampling of innovations emerging from California’s grassroots. The purpose of this compendium is to encourage and educate other practitioners across the State about how to move forward with new approaches to regional problem-solving. It is also intended to provide state leaders with insights into the importance of regional, bottoms-up innovation to the future of California.

The regional organizations featured in this report are members of the California Stewardship Network. With support from the Morgan Family Foundation, the Network was founded in 2008 and regularly brings together regional innovators to share promising practices and work together to encourage state actions that support regional progress (www.castewardship.org). Each promising practice profile in ... Read More »

2012 Teaser [VIDEO]

@Roughani — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 06:37:32 +0000

Share this video with your friends on Facebook.

ProPublica Report Assumes You Can Take the Politics Out of Redistricting

@Roughani — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:00:54 +0000

Redistricting is perhaps one of the dryest topics in politics, but at the same time the once-a-decade act of redrawing district boundaries to account for population shifts has major implications for party representation in state legislatures and in Congress.

Reform groups like California Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, and California Forward worked years to take this responsibility out of the hands of lawmakers and assign the task to an independent citizens commission because of the inherent conflict of interest – representatives were literally choosing their voters instead of allowing voters to choose their representatives.

The Citizens Redistricting Commission completed its work earlier this year, but new investigative reporting by ProPublica reveals a coordinated attempt by Democrats to influence the public process to their benefit. The headline speaks for itself: How Democrats Fooled California’s Redistricting Commission.

It’s understandable that good government-types’ ... Read More »

Americans Elect: The Case for Ambivalence

@Roughani — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:22:52 +0000

In my early days as a college student and emerging political reformer, I learned a lesson right away that continues to ring true to this day. Without getting into specifics, I witnessed the seemingly incomprehensible: reform groups with nearly identical goals choosing not to work together because of minor differences regarding the best path forward. It should go without saying that we’re stronger when we work together than when we work separately. So the lesson for me has always been to figure out how to unify efforts that share a common purpose.

Enter Americans Elect. The group wants to use an open online nomination process for a bipartisan presidential ticket in 2012 and potentially execute the most disruptive political innovation of the 21st Century. By gaining ballot access in all 50 states, the group will empower Americans to, ... Read More »

Sen. Feinstein Responds to CA Moderate Party Founder

@Roughani — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 08:41:03 +0000

You know you’re getting somewhere when you write a blog about a United States Senator and her staff sends you an email the following day. Okay, a bit of an exagerration. Regular readers of this blog, however, will remember our last post highlighting a video clip of Sen. Dianne Feinstein making the case for more centrism in our politics. Well it just so happens that earlier this week No Labels issued call to action to promote their Make Congress Work! campaign that consisted of email blasts to members of Congress. In my district, I sent an email to U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Thus far, Feinstein is the only official to have responded. Given the sentiment she expressed in the video clip, ... Read More »

A Special Message from U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein [VIDEO]

@Roughani — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:35:55 +0000

via YouTube > Public Policy Institute of California

Wise words from California’s senior U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein:

If you elect people that want to solve problems and want to work to the middle of the political spectrum, you can get something done – because most of America is in the center of the political spectrum. If you elect people who are outliers – who are on the far right or the far left – who will pound the table and will not compromise you will not get anything done. And that’s what I believe is characterizing the gridlock in Washington. People will not compromise.

How Moderates Should Frame the Tax Debate

@Roughani — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 07:28:29 +0000

In case you haven’t heard the news, there are myriad tax proposals floating around with at least one or more likely to appear on next November’s ballot for voter approval. According to the Los Angeles Times:

In the latest proposed fix for California’s fiscal crisis, Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to announce a multibillion-dollar tax initiative in the coming days, asking voters to raise levies on upper-income earners and increase the state’s sales tax by half a cent.

The levies would expire at the end of 2016, said sources with direct knowledge of the plan. The governor’s office has been fine-tuning the tax measure for weeks with its labor allies. It hopes to file language with the attorney general’s office as early as Friday so it can start gathering the signatures needed to place the measure on the November 2012 ballot.

The ... Read More »