Special Presentation: Governing California -- The State of Our Disarray

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

California faces another $21 billion budget deficit over the next 18 months, coming just a few months after the state solved a $26 billion deficit. Surveys by the Public Policy Institute of California and others show trust in government at record low levels -- and there's a sense that we need fundamental reform or change in the state. On December 4, 2009, we brought together eight people who've been thinking about these issues for an informal conversation at the KQED studios in San Francisco. Guests: Bob Hertzberg, co-chair of California Forward and a former Democratic speaker of the Assembly representing Los Angeles; Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California; Jewelle Taylor Gibbs, professor in UC Berkeley's School of Social Welfare; Jim Brulte, former Republican state senator who represented the Inland Empire; Joel Fox, president of the Small Business Action Committee and editor of the conservative website "Fox and Hounds Daily"; Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California; Matt Regan, vice president of government relations for the Bay Area Council; Sandra Hernandez, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation.

• More: Download audio of the full discussion - Part I
• More: Download audio of the full discussion - Part II