How much should California spend on programs and where should revenue come from?
That's the question posed to some 30 people taking the Next 10 Budget Challenge at Travis Credit Union on Thursday evening. Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Solano, invited constituents to the interactive workshop, but anyone can try it online. Next 10 just updated the budget challenge, available at www.budgetchallenge.org.
Participants on Thursday clicked in their votes with handheld devices to answer various questions about how California should spend money on kindergarten through 12th-grade education, how to pay off the state's deficit, whether the state should restart programs that were cut during the deficit and if taxes should be raised.
The answers were mixed, but in the end, the group managed to figure out a way to have a virtual surplus.
"You've made many changes, but you've come up with a reserve," said Sarah Henry, program coordinator of Next 10.
Those changes included increasing per-student spending for kindergarten through 12th grade and spending more for the University of California and California State University systems to freeze tuition rates, while saving money when it comes to criminal justice. The majority of the group voted to eliminate the death penalty and enact compassionate releases for older, nonviolent criminals.
The majority of the group also agreed to save money by increasing the public employees' share for retirement benefits.
The group did face a challenge, though: Needing a two-thirds vote, it was difficult to increase taxes in the virtual program. The majority did agree, though, to raise the vehicle licensing fee and to create new taxes, such as one on sugary drinks.
Monica Brown, an eighth-grade teacher at Green Valley Middle School and a Solano Community College trustee, said she's "eternally grateful" to voters for passing Proposition 30, the sales tax that provided more money for schools. She also was pleased to see that education is important to the group that gathered Thursday night.
Yet Brown said she was surprised the group couldn't agree on how to generate revenue.
"We have different areas where we want that money to go, but it's harder to find where that captial is coming from," she said, adding that while she doesn't have a problem paying more taxes, it was clear Thursday night that other people do.
Henry explained that Next 10's exercise was designed as an educational tool to help people better understand policy changes at the state; the data collected isn't used for anything else. "People come in with a focus on one area that's important to them, but they get to see how that one piece is part of a much bigger thing," she said.
Frazier pointed to a way that Solano County could have been generating revenue during the recession by voting for a sales tax to pay for transportation improvements and road repairs. Although a majority of voters favored an increase, a two-thirds voter-approval threshold is required by the state Constitution. As a result, Solano County remains the only Bay Area county without a local transportation tax.
"I hope that comes back to Solano County," Frazier said.
Frazier, who was elected two years ago, also told the group that he was "lucky."
"I'm lucky I didn't have to make those devastating cuts," he said of the severe budget cuts that occurred before he was elected. "I'm lucky because voters passed Prop. 30."