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The California Interfaith Coalition

 

Invites you to attend our annual

 

Legislative Issues Briefing

 

Opening Our Hands to the Poor and Needy:

Budget Justice in California

ÒSince there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ÔOpen your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.ÕÓ    (Deuteronomy 15:11)

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

8:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m.

 

St. JohnÕs Lutheran Church, Social Hall

1701 L Street (17th and L streets)

Sacramento CA  95814

 

 

Sponsored by:

California Interfaith Coalition:

California Catholic Conference;

California Council of Churches, California Church IMPACT;

Friends Committee on Legislation

JERICHO

Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California

Lutheran Office of Public Policy

Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry

 

Participating Groups

United Methodist Women

Council on American-Islamic Relations

 

 

 

Legislative Issues Briefing Day

General Information

 

Date:              Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Time:              8:00 am to 3:00 p.m.

 

The Legislative Issues Briefing will be held in the Social Hall at St. JohnÕs Lutheran Church, 17th and L Streets, Sacramento, CA 95814.

 

Registration:  Complete the registration form and return with your payment for the Issues Briefing to California Council of Churches, 4044 Pasadena Ave., Sacramento, CA 95821.  You may register online at www.calchurches.org. Early-bird registration must be postmarked by May 6 . For more information, please call (916) 488-7300 x.3  Everyone is welcome.

 

We are lowering the fee to $15 to encourage more participation.  We are streamlining our lunch and providing limited bottled water.  To help conserve resources, please bring you own water bottle that may be refilled from pitchers at the LIB event.  Share rides when you can. 

 

Tuesday Meetings with Legislators:  Afternoon visits to legislators will be coordinated by the California Interfaith Coalition.  The purpose of the legislative visits will be to advocate for issues linked to the issue briefings. Meetings will be focused on contacts with the heads of key committees and legislative leadership.  Appointments will be arranged and all visits assigned.  All meetings will begin at either 1:00 or 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 13 and will end by 2:00 p.m.  When you arrive at, your assigned legislator, the time of the visit, and Capitol room number will be provided to you.  Since members of the Senate and Assembly leadership will not necessarily be your particular legislator, every effort will be made to link you to your representatives and those critical to the budget process.  If you desire to meet with your own legislator individually, please do so outside of the time set for the Legislative Issues Briefing meetings.

 

Parking: There is limited parking around St. JohnÕs for the Issues Briefing.  Some public parking lots are available within 1-2 blocks of the church and costs between $6 and $15 for the day.  Car pools and the use of public transportation is encouraged. Parking is available at the corner of 16th and L. , between 17th and 18th on L and at other garages and lots or on the street near St. JohnÕs Church.

 

Invite a friend:  Congregations and judicatories are encouraged to underwrite one or more delegates to the Legislative Issues Briefing Day. Please send us the names for official registration in advance of May 13 so we may order lunches.

 

 

 

What is Happening with CaliforniaÕs Budget?

 

Every year after the ÔboomÕ of the late 1990s, California has been afflicted with a shortfall of income relative to the very real needs of our stateÕs poor and needy.  Because of Proposition 13, our state Legislature no longer can easily restore tax rates or create new sources of revenue.  We can cut taxes – but then it takes a 2/3 vote to restore those rates, a vote we cannot guarantee.  Rates were cut during the good times, and now we are operating with insufficient income to fulfill the programs that keep Ôthe least among all of youÕ from utter deprivation. We now operate with tax rates that go back to the mid part of the last century.  Californians have not had a tax increase since 1991 – and that restored rates set in the 1930s.  We have had several cuts for upper-income earners and for the Vehicle License Fee that allows us to drive at those same, very low rates set in decades past.  Taxes that were once ÔnormalÕ rates are now artifacts of a time and place that is long gone.  And we cannot restore them to fulfill current needs.

 

Why are social programs so vulnerable to shortfalls and therefore cuts?  Due to other constitutional initiatives and federal requirements established over the past decades, about 80 percent of the budget is locked in place.  It is programs for the poor, for children, for the sick and infirm that are not protected, that are always the targets of budget cuts. 

 

We have said often that annual budgets are really moral documents.  They reflect our societyÕs values.  If saving taxes for those who are affluent is our only goal, then what have we become as a people?   It is not extreme to say that we balance our annual budget on the backs of the poor; each year we have held back cost-of-living increases, foster child protections, medical care, child care allowances, and many other programs.  What is less obvious is that each of these cuts can and does fall on the same family, the same child, the same person. 

 

This year our call is to make wise cuts (the Department of Corrections has a declining population but expanding budget) but first and foremost, we now must restore revenues.  We must close tax loopholes that let some people not pay the taxes the rest of us do.  We must look for new, up-to-date sources of revenue. 

 

California cannot become a state that cares for nothing and no one but those who have already been blessed with good incomes and social stability.  We are the voices that speak for those who cannot be here to speak for themselves. 

 

ÒSpeak up for those who cannot speak for the rights of al the destitute.Ó (Pr.  31:8)     This is our mission.  Lift your voice to open our hands for budget justice!

 

 

 

Opening Our Hands for the Poor and Needy

 

Agenda for the Day, May 13, 2008

 

 

8-9:00

Registration and coffee, St. JohnÕs Lutheran Social Hall

 

9-9:15

Welcome and Opening Worship – Rev. Lindi Ramsden

 

9:15-10:00

Keynote Address:  Lenny Goldberg

 

10-10:15

Break

10:15-11:30

Budget Impacts:

CalWORKs: impact to those getting off welfare - Mike Herald

Medi-Cal: impact to those receiving health coverage - Lisa Folberg

Foster Care: impact to children, long-term impact on prison population – Ed Howard

 

 

11:30-noon

Ned Dolejsi on ÒHow to LobbyÓ

Noon-12:45

Lunch, groups gather by visits

12:45-1:00

Walk, ride to Capitol

 

1:00

First Legislative Visit

 

1:30

Second Legislative Visit

 

2:30-3:00

Debriefing, reflection, closing prayers St. JohnÕs Lutheran Church

 

 

 

 

 

Legislative Issues Briefing Speakers

 

Lenny Goldberg - Lenny Goldberg is Executive Director of the California Tax Reform Association and owner of Lenny Goldberg and Associates, a public interest consulting and lobbying firm in Sacramento. He has been involved with major tax legislation in California for the past 20 years, on behalf of fair taxation and a healthy public sector, and has directed and worked on a number of statewide tax initiative campaigns.  He was a member of the California Commission on Tax Policy in the New Economy, is on the advisory committee of the Franchise Tax Board, is on the board of Citizens for Tax Justice in Washington, D.C., and writes a weekly tax report for State Tax Notes.  He has been a leading advocate for reform of Proposition 13.  His other clients include The Utility Reform Network (TURN), the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and Rural Community Assistance Corporation.   He has taught at UC Berkeley, California State University San Francisco, and USC Sacramento.  He has degrees in economics from Williams College and the University of California, Berkeley.

 

 

Mike Herald - Mike Herald, who joined the Center in December, 2003, has been an advocate for the poor and for affordable housing for more than 20 years. As the former executive director of Housing California, Mike championed such issues as affordable housing, homelessness, community reinvestment and adequate public benefits and services for the poor. In February, 2002, Mike was appointed by Governor Davis as Deputy Director for External Affairs and Innovations at the state Department of Housing and Community Development. His official duties included interagency liaison, public speaking, and federal advocacy. He co-authored reports by Governor Davis' Interagency Task Force on Homelessness, played an active role in creating the state's Olmstead plan and staffed HCD's Farm Labor Housing Assistance Plan. In 2003 he served as HCD's Acting Deputy Director for Legislation before joining Western Center. Mike is a lawyer and a native Californian who graduated from UC Santa Barbara.

 

 

Lisa Folberg – Ms. Folberg is an Associate Director of Government Relations at the California Medical Association where she focuses on health system financing, the state budget, Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, and taxation issues.  She previously worked for the state Legislative AnalystÕs Office providing analyses on health and social services budget issues.  She has also worked for Congressman Pete Stark and at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, DC.  She spend time volunteering in health clinics and spent a year in Colombia, South America providing a health program for at-risk youth.  She holds a MasterÕs in public policy from Georgetown University.

 

 

Ed Howard – Mr. Howard is Senior Counsel for the ChildrenÕs Advocacy Institute affiliated with UC San Diego School of Law. He spent several years as Special Counsel and Chief Policy Advisor to a State Senator and was Chief Consultant of two standing California legislative committees. Howard is a recognized expert in regulatory and administrative law stemming from his ten-plus years of experience litigating against or appearing before a myriad of administrative agencies in high-profile matters, including the State Board of Education, the California Insurance Commissioner, the Public Utilities Commission, and the California Coastal Commission. He received his B.A. from The George Washington UniversityÕs political science program in Washington, D.C. and received his J.D. from Loyola Law School. He is a member of the State Bar of California and  is admitted to practice law before the Ninth Circuit and United States Supreme Courts.

 

 

 

2008   LIB REGISTRATION FORM

Please register me for the May 13, 2008 Legislative Issues Briefing Day!

 

Name________________________________________________________________________

 

Address_______________________________________________________________________

 

City/State/ZIP__________________________________________________________________

 

Telephone________________________e-mail________________________________________

 

Congregation/Denomination______________________________________________________

 

_______  I will join targeted legislator visits, 1 and 1:30 p.m., May 13, 2008

 

Your Assemblymember:____________________________________________________

 

Your State Senator________________________________________________________

 

LIB registration fee includes lunch and all conference materials..

 

Please check what applies:

 

_____  $15 early bird LIB registration (postmarked by May 6, 2008

 

_____  $25 LIB registration (postmarked after May 6 or received at door May 13, 2008)

 

_____  Need vegetarian lunch, please

 

 

Please check form of payment:

_____  Check enclosed.  Make check payable to:  California Council of Churches

 

_____  Credit card:  ___VISA  ___Master Card  ___Discover

 

Credit Card Number: ____________________________________________________________

 

Name on Card__________________________________________Exp.date________________

 

Phone number________________________________  Security code (3 digits on back)_______

 

Signature_____________________________________________________________________

 

Email (if available)_____________________________________________________________

 

 

Mail form and check payment to:

California Council of Churches

4044 Pasadena Avenue, Sacramento CA 95821

You may FAX credit card payments to:  916.488.7310

For more information call  916.488.7300 x.3 or go to www.calchurches.org