California budget crisis

California has a state budget deficit of $24.3 billion as it closes out fiscal year 2008-2009, and major ramifications are inevitable, as new taxes are definitely not on the table.

Proposals to close the gap include cutting the school year by a week, closing 220 state parks, eliminating safety-net programs such as welfare-to-work and Healthy Families health insurance for children, furloughing state workers and reducing funding for higher education. Politicians also are discussing realignment of some of California’s governmental structure – from the city and county levels on up.

Below is a list of a few of the UC Berkeley faculty members available to address these and other issues. Check frequently for updates.

ECONOMY

Alan Auerbach
Professor of economics and of law, director of the Burch Center for Tax Policy & Public Finance
Office: (510) 643-0711
E-mail: auerbach@econ.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Public policy and public finance. Auerbach's research focuses on corporate taxation, population aging and fiscal imbalances, and the effects of tax cuts during the George W. Bush presidency. He served as deputy chief of staff of the U.S. Joint Committee on Taxation in the early '90s.

Auerbach says he doesn't expect Washington's stimulus aid for California won't alleviate California's big budget problems. And even if the rocky financial situation leads to reform of the state's budget process, Auerbach says that won't help in the short run. "It's hard to see how the budget can be balanced using spending cuts alone, given the size of the gap," he warns.

John Ellwood
Professor of public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy
Phone: (510) 642-4512
E-mail: jellwood@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Financial management, public-sector budgeting and the politics of the budgetary process. Trained as a political scientist, Ellwood has served as a consultant for various state and U.S. government agencies and was on the board of the California Budget Project. He also was the research director of the Public Policy Institute of the California Budget Project, served on the management staff of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), was on the staff of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee and was special assistant to former CBO director Alice K. Rivlin. Ellwood co-authored "The Revenue Burden in California Since Proposition 13" (1998) with Michael A. Shires and Mary Sprague.

David Gamage
Assistant professor of law
Phone: (510) 643-6116
E-mail: dgamage@law.berkeley.edu
Law school media relations contact: Susan Gluss,
(510) 642-6936 or sgluss@law.berkeley.edu

Expertise: Taxation and public finance law. Gamage's research focuses on: state and local tax policy in the United States, and how state tax systems should respond to fiscal volatility and related budget crises; using economic theory to develop tax policy; tax laws and budgetary policy at the state and federal levels, as well as the political economy of hidden taxes.

Gamage participated in a June 10, 2009 panel discussion about the budget crisis facing the city of Oakland, Calif. on KQED Radio's "Forum" program. He also has testified on the state budget crisis before California's Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation (along with UC Berkeley economist Alan Auerbach) and has given several talks in Sacramento about state budgeting issues.

Kenneth Rosen
Professor of real estate and urban economics at the Haas School of Business
Phone: (510) 643-8274
E-mail: krosen@haas.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Economics of the housing and commercial real estate markets

Richard Walker
Professor of economic geography
Phone: (510) 642-3901
E-mail: walker@berkeley.edu        
Media Relations contact: Robert Sanders, (510) 643-6998 or rsanders@berkeley.edu

Expertise: California's economy, geography and history up to the latest boom and bust cycle.

Walker's 2004 book on the state's agricultural system, "The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California," recounts the state's transformation into the nation's leading agrarian production complex, its "bread basket."

Walker also is an authority on the economic, political and environmental roots of a San Francisco Bay Area network of almost 900,000 acres in publicly owned open space, an area larger than Yosemite National Park. He tells the story of this land preservation in his 2007 book, "The Country in the City: The Greening of the San Francisco Bay Area."

(Note: Walker will be away June 19-July 4 and for a week in mid-July.)

EDUCATION

John A. Douglass
Senior research fellow
UC Berkeley's Center for Studies of Higher Education
Office: (510) 643-9211
E-mail: douglass@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Douglass is an expert on the California Master Plan for Higher Education. His research focuses on the role of universities in economic development, science policy as a component of national and multinational economic policy, the evolving role of mass higher education in society, and the influence of globalization.

 "The proposed funding cuts to California's higher education system are just the latest in a long-term pattern of state disinvestment that is disassembling a once vibrant network. It is a bit like death from a thousand cuts, with a few very large slashes at the end," says Douglass. The cuts could not come at a worst time, he says, expressing concern that they "portend an accelerated devolution of California's higher education system, and a worrisome future for the state."

The funding cuts will mean reductions for next fall's entering classes at the University of California and the California State University systems, and a surge in applications to under-funded community colleges, says Douglass. And he says a proposal to phase out the Cal Grant program for lower-income students would hurt educational attainment rates and socioeconomic mobility.

Bruce Fuller
Professor of education and co-director of the research institute Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE)
Phone: (510) 643-5362 (office) or (415) 595-4320 (cell)
E-mail: b_fuller@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: K-12 educational policy, school finance funding and government's role in universal preschool. Fuller has worked as an education specialist for the California Legislature and as education adviser to former California Gov. Jerry Brown. He also was a sociologist at the World Bank. He is author of "Standardized Childhood: The Political and Cultural Struggle over Early Education" (2007). He frequently contributes commentary to media outlets.

Norton Grubb
David Pierpont Gardner Professor in Higher Education and faculty coordinator of the Principal Leadership Institute at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Education
Phone: (510) 642-3488
E-mail: wngrubb@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: The role of schooling in labor markets, reforms in high schools and community colleges, teacher quality, interactions among education and training programs, and social policy toward children and youth. Grubb is the author of "The Education Gospel: The Economic Power of Schooling" (2005), and "Honored but Invisible: An Inside Look at Teaching in Community Colleges" (1999).

According to Grubb, governors, voters and tax-limiting initiatives share the blame for the deterioration of California's K-12 schools over the last 30 years.

"The good news is that understanding what resources do matter, and which ones are relatively costless (yet priceless), means we could continue to improve schools despite California's abysmally low funding levels …" Grubb said in a May 20 commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Goodwin Liu
Assistant professor of law and co-director of the UC Berkeley School of Law's Warren Institute for Race, Ethnicity and Diversity
Phone: (510) 642-7509
E-mail: gliu@law.berkeley.edu
Law school media relations contact:  Susan Gluss, 510-642-6936 or sgluss@law.berkeley.edu

Expertise: K-12 education policy, Constitutional law, civil rights and the Supreme Court. He served in the U.S. Department of Education during the Clinton administration and has written extensively on federal education policy. Liu advises that as the state's public schools grapple with the short-term goal of balancing their books in California's current budget crisis, "state policymakers must turn their attention to the long-term goal of funding our schools in a way that avoids the destabilizing boom-and-bust cycles we've seen in recent years.  California needs a new school finance system; the inequities and incoherence of our current system are all too familiar.  Because there is little appetite for reform in a good budget year, now is the right time to consider a fundamental overhaul."

Deborah McKoy
Director and founder of the Center for Cities & Schools at UC Berkeley's Institute for Urban and Regional Development
Phone: (510) 642-1628
E-mail: debmckoy@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Educational reform, community development and public policy

David N. Plank
Education researcher with the Graduate School of Education, executive director of the Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) research institute
Phone: (510) 642-4953
E-mail: dnplank@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Education policy analysis and evaluation. Plank has conducted research and taught courses on education finance and policy.

Jeff Vincent
Deputy director and co-founder of the Center for Cities & Schools at UC Berkeley's Institute for Urban and Regional Development
Phone: (510) 642-1628
E-mail: jvincent@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Land use and school facility planning, community development and public schools

HEALTH CARE

William Dow
Associate professor of health economics in the School of Public Health's Division of Health Policy and Management; chair of the Health Services and Policy Analysis graduate group; and associate director of the Berkeley Population Center
Phone: (510) 643-5439
E-mail: wdow@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 or scyang@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Dow's background is in health economics, both domestic and international, particularly as it relates to health insurance. He has worked with both Democratic and Republican groups on health sector reform proposals at the federal, state and local levels. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and previously served as senior economist for health at the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Helen Ann Halpin
Professor of health policy, director of the Center for Health and Public Policy Studies and vice chair of the California Health Benefits Review Program
Phone: (510) 643-1675 or (510) 642-2862
E-mail: helenhs@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 or scyang@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Halpin can discuss the impact of budget cuts on access to health insurance and state health programs. She has expertise in health insurance policy, including health insurance benefit design, health care reform, access to care, consumer experiences in managed care, and disease prevention and health promotion. Halpin has been quoted extensively in the media on issues related to national health care reform, particularly about Medicare and Medicaid. She is also a member of the Barack Obama campaign's health care policy committee and is an unpaid advisor to the Obama campaign.

Stephen Shortell
Dean of the School of Public Health and professor of health policy and management
Phone: (510) 643-5346
E-mail: shortell@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 or scyang@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Shortell can discuss the impact of budget cuts on the delivery of healthcare services, including community services. In February 2008 he was appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger to a four-year term on California's Public Health Advisory Committee, charged with providing expert advice and making recommendations on the development of public health policies and programs. Shortell has done extensive research on institutional incentives for improving quality of care and health outcomes, particularly when related to the management of patients with chronic illnesses.

HISTORY

Gray Brechin 
Founder and project scholar of California's Living New Deal Project
E-mail: gbrechin@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: The New Deal's impact on California.

Brechin is co-author of "Farewell, Promised Land: Waking from the California Dream," a photographic essay about California's deteriorating environment and public sector published by UC Press in 1999. He is a visiting scholar in UC Berkeley Department of Geography. California's Living New Deal Project is a collaborative effort between UC Berkeley's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Library and the California Historical Society that is documenting the lasting contributions made by the New Deal's public works agencies in California during the Great Depression.

INFRASTRUCTURE

David Dowall
Professor of city and regional planning
Phone: (510) 642-2233
E-mail: dowall@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Infrastructure planning and finance, comparative urban development policy. Dowall has conducted research on domestic and international land management, housing policy, economic development strategy and infrastructure planning and finance.

PARKS

Richard Walker (see above, under Economy)

Jennifer Wolch
Dean of the College of Environmental Design and William W. Wurster Professor of City and Regional Planning (effective July 1)
Phone: (510) 642-0831
E-mail: wolch@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Access to urban parks; homelessness and human services planning; urban design, physical activity and health, sustainable urbanism.

Wolch's research looks at issues that could be negatively affected by California's financial woes, including and city or county ability to keep their parks open to the public. She is investigating how aspects of urban design, such as park access and neighborhood connectivity, influence rates of physical activity and obesity. Wolch also is exploring how neglected elements of urban form, such as alleys and vacant lots, can be redesigned for environmental, social and economic benefits.

POLITICS

Gerald Lubenow
Managing editor of the Institute of Governmental Studies' (IGS) California Journal of Politics and Policy
Phone: (510) 381-1000 (cell)
E-mail: jlubenow@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: The politics surrounding the state's financial crisis.

In its recent inaugural issue, The California Journal of Politics and Policy includes pieces by leading experts about what debt loads say about California's financial health, "Proposition 13 Fever" and why redistricting will or will not save the state's budget problems.

The journal is a joint project between IGS and the Berkeley Electronic Press.  It offers peer-reviewed research and commentary on state and local government, electoral politics, and policy formation and implementation in California, and in connection with national and international developments. It is online at www.bepress.com/cjpp.

SOCIAL PROGRAMS AND POLICY

Gray Brechin (see above, under History)

Jane Mauldon
Associate professor of public policy
Office: (510) 642-3475
E-mail: jmauldon@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu

Expertise: Family and child policy, health, poverty, social welfare policy, race and gender, and demographics. Mauldon has evaluated the teen-parent component of California's welfare reforms.

Jennifer Wolch (see above, under Parks)

TAX POLICY

Alan Auerbach (see above, under Economy)

David Gamage (see above, under Economy)