Public Policy Institute

Former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta and his wife, Sylvia, are forming a new public policy institute at Cal State Monterey Bay. The Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit educational organization with the goal of inspiring young people to lives of public service.

Public support for Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to solve the budget crisis with a June election is eroding as other officials warn that delaying such a move until late fall, as the governor is considering, could trigger a cash crisis and a fresh round of state-issued IOUs. A new survey from the independent Public Policy Institute of California shows that 46% of likely California voters back Brown's call for a five-year extension on some sales, income and vehicle taxes to help balance the state's books.

Maybe it's time for Arnold to park the moving van. The migration of companies and jobs out of California during most of the 1990s -- which corporations said highlighted the state's anti-business environment -- prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to drive a moving van down the Las Vegas Strip last year, offering to help California employers "come back home." A new study by a nonpartisan group to be released today suggests that the effect of the exodus on the state's economy was overblown.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor who promoted himself as a reformer, made a mockery of reform on his way out the Capitol door. The Republican governor who flamboyantly vowed to "blow up the boxes" and couldn't figure out how to do it, wound up filling boxes with political cronies ? and, even more outrageously, some of their spouses. The movie star who repeatedly said he ran for office to "give back" to the public for his life of fantastic success ? in keeping with the teachings of his Kennedy family in-laws ?

Billionaire William R. Hewlett, one of the wealthiest men in America, will donate $70 million to create a public policy institute to study California issues, it was announced Thursday. The nonpartisan foundation will be known as the Public Policy Institute of California and will be immediately propelled by Hewlett's endowment into the front line of think tanks studying the state and its policies.

Re "Study Sees Lack of Educated Workers to Meet State Needs," June 2: The study by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that our future economy needs more college-educated workers by 2025 or we face a weaker economy. In light of this projected shortfall and the growth in the 18- to 24-year-old population, California needs to ensure that community colleges and universities have the capacity to serve all of these students. According to the California Postsecondary Education Commission, as many as 1.8 million qualified students could be turned away from California's community colleges and universities in the next 10 years unless we take action now. In order to close this education gap, the state will need to invest more in higher education, the institutions will need to be more efficient, and we need a long-term tuition and financial aid policy.

"Age Before Duty" (June 8) provided a thoughtful and balanced look at the retirement of four veteran state legislators due to term limits. However, it reflected one piece of conventional wisdom -- that term limits have caused California's Legislature to "look more like California." This deserves a closer look. Although it is undeniably true that today's Legislature includes more women, Latinos and Asian Americans (though fewer African Americans) than the body did in 1990 when our term limits initiative passed, these changes may also be the result of demographic shifts, two rounds of redistricting and the increasing electoral viability of female candidates.

The private foundation that built the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near here is abandoning its plans to develop a public policy think tank in favor of sponsoring more event-oriented programs with popular appeal. Officials said the recent appointment of historian and biographer Richard Norton Smith as the new director of the Reagan Center for Public Affairs represents a shift from the initial goals of the center to tackle tough public policy issues. "It's a change of focus," said John J.

BY TRADITIONAL political standards, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should be on the ropes. His job approval ratings hover in the low 40s, historically a harbinger of defeat for incumbents seeking reelection. He has retreated from his advocacy of state government reforms since voters rejected four of them in a 2005 special election. He is seeking reelection in a dismal year for Republicans.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's decisive win in the gubernatorial recall election may encourage the White House to more seriously contest California in next year's presidential election, but the state likely will remain a difficult challenge for President Bush to win, senior Republican political operatives say. The victory "improves the calculus on California," said one top GOP strategist familiar with thinking in the White House.

In a bleak assessment of their tarnished state, Californians say their government is untrustworthy, wastes money and performs for the benefit of the few and not for the bulk of the state's residents, a new poll has found. The survey by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank, found that negative assessments of state government and its officials contrasted with far more positive views of the federal government and its leaders. Overall, it suggested a populace beaten down by an endless cycle of budget disasters, now further complicated by a national recession, an implosion of housing prices and persistent unemployment.

California voters are enthusiastic about President Obama's plans for steering the country out of recession, but their faith in state government's ability to manage its finances and fix California's problems has tumbled, according to a new poll. The survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found that three in four Californians think the state is going in the wrong direction, a record high number. The budget problems have dragged the approval rating for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to 40% -- the level it reached after his politically disastrous special election in 2005.

L.A. NOW California voters are mad and they're going to vent their frustrations on Nov. 4, Election Day. That's the gist of a report released by the Public Policy Institute of California, which found only 23% of Californians say that they trust the federal government to do what is right always or most of the time. "They are fed up with government that they cannot trust and leaders who do not lead," said Mark Baldassare, president of the institute. "But contrary to the conventional wisdom that disgruntled voters stay home on Election Day, Californians have been registering and voting in record numbers."

Democratic gubernatorial challenger Phil Angelides swept through two Los Angeles neighborhoods Wednesday urging supporters to look at the broad themes of the fall campaign -- and shrugged off a new poll that shows his candidacy foundering less than a week before the vote. "A poll's a poll," Angelides told reporters during a visit to the St.

BY TRADITIONAL political standards, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should be on the ropes. His job approval ratings hover in the low 40s, historically a harbinger of defeat for incumbents seeking reelection. He has retreated from his advocacy of state government reforms since voters rejected four of them in a 2005 special election. He is seeking reelection in a dismal year for Republicans.

Maybe it's time for Arnold to park the moving van. The migration of companies and jobs out of California during most of the 1990s -- which corporations said highlighted the state's anti-business environment -- prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to drive a moving van down the Las Vegas Strip last year, offering to help California employers "come back home." A new study by a nonpartisan group to be released today suggests that the effect of the exodus on the state's economy was overblown.

California voters are enthusiastic about President Obama's plans for steering the country out of recession, but their faith in state government's ability to manage its finances and fix California's problems has tumbled, according to a new poll. The survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found that three in four Californians think the state is going in the wrong direction, a record high number. The budget problems have dragged the approval rating for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to 40% -- the level it reached after his politically disastrous special election in 2005.

Don't expect to see happy photos of President Bush with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when the president visits Los Angeles tonight for a Republican fundraiser. The governor doesn't plan to go near the president. He's upset. Schwarzenegger is miffed because Bush is dipping into the California money pot less than three weeks before the governor's special election.

Don't expect to see happy photos of President Bush with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when the president visits Los Angeles tonight for a Republican fundraiser. The governor doesn't plan to go near the president. He's upset. Schwarzenegger is miffed because Bush is dipping into the California money pot less than three weeks before the governor's special election.

Re "Study Sees Lack of Educated Workers to Meet State Needs," June 2: The study by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that our future economy needs more college-educated workers by 2025 or we face a weaker economy. In light of this projected shortfall and the growth in the 18- to 24-year-old population, California needs to ensure that community colleges and universities have the capacity to serve all of these students. According to the California Postsecondary Education Commission, as many as 1.8 million qualified students could be turned away from California's community colleges and universities in the next 10 years unless we take action now. In order to close this education gap, the state will need to invest more in higher education, the institutions will need to be more efficient, and we need a long-term tuition and financial aid policy.