CAUSE Joins Broad Coalition Filing “Millionaires’ Tax” to Fund Education, Senior Services, Public Safety

The Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), as part of a broad coalition of educators, unions and community groups announced this week that on Monday, December 5th, it filed a ballot initiative to restore critical funding to schools and universities, essential services for seniors, and public safety, and to start rebuilding the state’s crumbling roads and bridges. It asks the wealthiest Californians—people who earn over a million dollars per year—to help pay to rebuild the state. The “California Funding Restoration Act” would increase personal income taxes only on those who make $1 million or more annually to restore funding to services that make California communities stronger and safer, and ensure seniors receive the care they deserve.

“As a teacher and parent, I have seen the terrible impact of state budget cuts on our schools through teacher layoffs and larger class sizes,” says Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers. “It is time for the wealthiest Californians to pay their fair share to restore funding for education and essential services.”

The coalition tested various approaches in opinion research with likely voters. No other type of proposal came close to the strength of voter opinion in favor of the idea that the richest Californians should pay their fair share to restore funding for schools and services. Pollster Ben Tulchin notes that “Extensive recent public and private polling show that California voters strongly support a progressive approach of raising taxes on the rich to fund education and other essential services that have been cut in recent years.”

The coalition estimates that the initiative, under discussion by Restoring California since last March, will restore $6 billion in funds for K-12, higher education, social services, public safety, and roads. It would help people like Jazmin Casa, an East Los Angeles Community College student, who says, “I lost my job caring for seniors because of the state budget cuts. Now, I’m fighting to keep my home.” Jazmin is an active member of California Calls, a statewide alliance of organizations that has identified 325,000 voters in support of this type of reform.

Rick Jacobs, chair and founder of the 750,000 strong Courage Campaign says, “This is the only initiative proposal that would restore funding devastated by the recession, and rehire thousands of teachers, senior care providers and public safety personnel, without affecting the wallets of working families and the middle class. It addresses the heart of the problem: that total income share to the state’s richest 1% has doubled over the last twenty years, while their tax rates have fallen and the 99% have fallen farther behind.”

Marcos Vargas, CAUSE Executive Director adds, “This initiative answers the cries that are being trumpeted by the 99% here in the Central Coast and statewide. The catalyst for the Occupy Movement comes from somewhere real. Today we are at the critical point in California, where you are either for continued cuts to our schools and other essential social programs, or you are for some meaningful way to raise revenue.”

CAUSE is a regional Central Coast social justice organization with offices in the Cities of Ventura and Oxnard. As a regional anchor organization with the statewide coalition, California Calls, since early 2010 CAUSE has implemented a Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties Civic Engagement Project with the goal of developing a base of over 27,000 pro-tax reform voters. Utilizing a twenty-station predictive dialing system and a team of over 200 paid and volunteer phone bank operators and precinct walkers, in 2010/11CAUSE had conversations with over 50,000 new and occasional voters in the two-county region regarding issues of state tax and fiscal reform, as well as other local and regional policy issues.

Other California Funding Restoration Act Coalition organizations include

ORGANIZATIONS/ COUNTY

• California Federation of Teachers, Statewide
• Courage Campaign, statewide
• California Calls, statewide
• Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, statewide
• California Partnership, statewide
• Inner City Struggle, Los Angeles
• Equality Alliance, San Diego
• Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Los Angeles
• Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education, Los Angeles
• Dolores Huerta Foundation, Kern
• Knotts Family and Parenting Institute, San Bernardino
• Communities for a New California, statewide
• Oakland Rising, Alameda
• Causa Justa/ Just Cause, Alameda
• The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Alameda
• Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Alameda
• CAUSE, Ventura and Santa Barbara
• Working Partnerships USA, Santa Clara
• Poder Popular, Riverside
• Warehouse Workers United, Riverside
• Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement, San Bernardino
• Mobilize the Immigrant Vote, statewide
• University of California Student Association, statewide

CAUSE Community and Labor Coalition Organize for Job Creation Through County Local Hire Provisions

In response to the high unemployment rate facing communities of color in Ventura County, a Coalition of Labor and Community organizations have led a campaign to create hundreds of new jobs in the region through the adoption of county local hire provisions for publicly funded construction projects in their jurisdictions. This summer, the coalition, which includes CAUSE, LULAC, Plumbers and Steamfitters – Local 484, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers – Local 952, the Black American Political Association of California - Ventura County Chapter, and the Multicultural Collaborative, successfully convinced the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to adopt a local hire provision for the upcoming $250 million development project to renovate the Ventura County Hospital. This project, the largest county funded construction project in over a decade, is estimated to create 300 local jobs beginning in 2012. Efforts are also underway to bring about local hire provisions for projects funded by local cities and school districts.

Act Now! Email the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and let them know you support their decision to adopt local hire provisions for county construction jobs.

Every Vote Every Time: We are the Change

Over the last twelve months CAUSE had conversations with over 40,000 new and infrequent voters in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. In these conversations CAUSE phone bankers engaged voters in discussions about the California budget crisis, it's orgins and it's devastating impact on working families, seniors, students and communities color, through cuts in essential public services. In the process, voters were encourage to take a stand for budget reform by voting. Facilitated by our rapid-dial phone bank system, our phone bank operators and neighborhood door-knocking teams will continue year-round to engage voters in communities throughout the region in important conversations about reforming the California budget process to protect services and create jobs. Join CAUSE's Civic Engagment Project in our mission to to raise voter participation by providing the policy information people need to make informed voting choices to protect their communities. CAUSE and our many community and labor partners are now focusing moblizing volunteers to participate in phone banking and precinct walking around the City of Ventura council elections, and in preparation of the upcoming 2012 national, state and local elections. 

To get involved and help "Get Out the Vote" in the November 2011 and 2012 elections, click here .

Check out a short video of our work and vision for just regional and global community!

CAUSE is a regional non-profit social justice organization. Our mission it is to build grassroots power to realize social, economic and environmental justice for the people of the California Central Coast Region through policy research, leadership development, community organizing, and grassroots advocacy. Established in 2001, CAUSE has become an important regional force for positive social change in the Central Coast of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties around such issues as living wage jobs, healthcare reform, public transportation, environmental justice, women’s economic justice and creating a green economy. Working with over 260 sister organizations throughout the region, state and country, CAUSE has involved in our policy campaigns over 800 community, labor, faith and environmental leaders, and directly engaged over 18,000 individuals in local, regional, state and national public policy campaigns.

CAUSE is working to grow the green economy by:

• creating quality green jobs that pay a living wage and provide benefits while improving the energy efficiency of our homes and businesses,
• Finding paths to ending our dependence on non-renewable energy sources that will ease the pollution burdens on low income communities and communities of color,
• Building a sustainable transportation system with safe, convenient, reliable and affordable public transit.

Million’s of federal “stimulus” or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) dollars are flowing to the region of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. These dollars can either create quality jobs or poverty jobs. These dollars can either lift working communities out of poverty, or once again leave them behind. Beginning with Stimulus/ARRA dollars, CAUSE is advocating for quality green jobs and investing in low-wage working communities.

Federal Stimulus or ARRA dollars are meant to:

1. preserve and create jobs to promote economic recovery;
2. invest in economic efficiency through technological advances in science and health
3. stabilize state and local government budgets
4. help those most impacted by the recession
5. invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure with long-term economic benefits

Read CAUSE's position on the use of stimulus dollars for an economic recovery torward a just and sustainable green national economy: "Community has say in spending stimulus dollars ," VC Star Editorial, June 14, 2009. 

Take Action!

1. Join CAUSE in requesting the County of Ventura, Cities, Workforce Investment Board, Community Action of VC and the Ventura County Transportation Commission to adopt the:

“Green Jobs Pledge ”and the “Principles of Infrastructure Equity."

2. Join CAUSE in seeking the adoption of county and city building retrofiting ordinances requiring the county and cities comply with AB 32 by retrofiting government buildings for energy efficiency.

3. Join CAUSE's effort to adopt local Project Labor Agreements in ARRA funded projects, thereby ensuring local hiring is a priority, especially the hiring of people in specific underserved populations, including women and low-wage workers with the least protection during the recession  

4. Ask your City to set goals for the percentage of quality jobs that are “pathways out of poverty”

5. Ask your City that hiring take place at the local level.

6. Join President Obama in demanding transparency and accountability at the local level for the hundreds of millions of dollars coming locally. The White House will be tracking the money at the national level through  a new website: www.recovery.org. Bring transparency to the local level. Ask your city to get input from the public on how millions of dollars will be spent.

The Green Economy has arrived to the California Central Coast! Read More.

The green economy is already here and we need to make sure our California Central Coast region is ready to embrace it. In this spirit CAUSE is proud to share with you our new Green Collar Jobs in the Green Economy Policy Brief . In the next several years, our commitment to the green economy will be vital to:

• Reducing our energy consumption and creating living wage jobs that improve the energy efficiency of our homes and businesses,
• Finding paths to ending our dependence on non-renewable energy sources that will ease the pollution burdens on low income communities and communities of color,
• Creating local green businesses,
• Reinforcing our commitment to recycling and reducing waste, and
• Building a sustainable transportation system with safe, convenient, reliable and affordable public transit.

As part of broader vision for the creation of a just and green sustainable regional economy, CAUSE's campaign for transit equity seeks to expand public transportation service, access and  affordability through research, coalition building, policy advocacy and community organizing.

CAUSE Transit Equity 2020 Vision Goals

• Decrease in Ventura County's total 2010 daily vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by 10% by 2020
• Increase transit use from the current less than 1% of all trips to 5% of all trips
• Increase the total percentage of housing and jobs that are located within a quarter mile of a transit stop where transit runs from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. to 25% (my guess is that this percentage is low, maybe 10%)
• Any new development that would create over 100 jobs must be in a transit accessible area
• 10,000 units of affordable housing built within a quarter mile of a transit stop
• 500 new miles of bike lanes and bike racks in every commercial center and on every block of commercial districts
• Three car-free districts/neighborhoods that encourage public transit use, biking, and walking

CAUSE Transit Equity Strategy Goals

• To build a coalition of Ventura County organizations to increase transit use, service, and affordability,  and promote bike, transit and pedestrian friendly communities (land use changes) as a way to combat climate change
• To develop a base of community leaders to develop and lead CAUSE's transit equity work, with a focus on South Oxnard and Santa Paula.
• To secure more transit operating funds for buses to keep fares affordable while increasing ridership and service. The core of this goal is the securing of funding for future transportation projects in the region through such means as a proposed county half cent sales tax in 2012.  

Identified Regional Transit Equity Issues:

• Ensuring transportation stimulus spending has local hire provisions. Working with state and federal partners to make 10% of transit capital stimulus funding available for operating funds.
• Finding sources of funding for bus operations including through sales tax and other transportation funding mechanisms. Provide an equity lens and advocacy strategy.
• Safe routes to school and complete streets.
• Finding strategies to avoid bus fare hikes and service cuts.
• Increasing participation in the unmet transit needs process.
• Working with cities to ensure housing and jobs are located in transit, bike, and pedestrian friendly areas.

Actions Currently in the works:

• Organizational sign-on letter to VCTC and meeting with the Commissioners as follow up. This letter asks to work with VCTC on a Ride Transit Free Day, A Safe Routes to School Day, to adopt meaningful performance measures to evaluate transportation projects and plans, apply an equity lens to stimulus funding, a sales tax measure that has principles of equity, and making VCTC more accountable and accessible.
• Working with the residents of Villa Victoria and CEDC on traffic, pedestrian safety, bus access improvements near this farmworker housing.
• Trying to stop fare increases or making sure they are fair
• Advocating for 10% of Federal Stimulus capital funds for transit can be used for operations
• Working with partners at a state and federal level to provide more opportunities to fund public transit including increasing gas taxes, vehicle registration fees, and other funding mechanisms like congestion pricing and VMT fees. This will include working on Federal Reauthorization of a national transportation bill this year.

State and National Transit Policy

Decisions made at the state and federal level greatly affect our local and regional transportation system. CAUSE works with TRANSFORM in a statewide coalition to restore state transit operating funds recently eliminated and continues to look for alternative sources to fund transit operations. Nationally, CAUSE works with the Transportation Equity Network and the Labor Community Strategy Center to ensure the reauthorization of the federal transportation bill in 2009 addresses transit equity and supports better public transit for the Central Coast.

CAUSE, in collaboration with VC COOL, PUEBLO and the Santa-Barbara based Coalition for Sustainable Transportation (COAST) have formed the Alliance for Sustainable and Equitable Regional Transportation (ASERT), a collaborative effort to organize a regional Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties transit equity alliance of community, environmental, labor, business and faith-based organizations. Among its recent accomplishments, on January 31 ASERT hosted the region's first Transportation Action Forum "Moving the Central Coast Forward," where over 250 community members and elected officials were energized to work on improving transportation in the region, especially public transit, biking and walking improvements.

Get Involved!

For more information on CAUSE's transit equity efforts contact Cameron Yee at (805) 658-0810, or at  cameron@coastalalliance.com.

The Halaco Superfund Site is located near a community with a high concentration of low wage working families, children and youth and people of color. Read more about Environmental Justice in our inaugural The CAUSE Policy Brief: Halaco Superfund Site and Environmental Justice.

Read about CAUSE’s growing environmental justice movement in the Ventura County Star http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/oct/13/rally-focuses-on-immigration-environment/
 

World-renowned environmental advocate, Dr. Jane Goodall was invited by CAUSE to speak to local high school youth and to visit the Halaco Superfund Site as part of CAUSE’s efforts to advance environmental justice in the Central Coast. True to her message, Dr. Goodall took the time to visit the South Oxnard Halaco superfund site and offered her support to the leaders of South Oxnard in their campaign to clean up the site.

CAUSE was recently funded by The California Endowment to partner with the USC Program on Environmental and Regional and Equity to study the environmental justice concerns of the Halaco superfund site.  For more information on the community driven effort to clean-up Halaco, contact Beatriz Garcia at beatriz@coastalalliance.com.