California Asset Building Program

Archives: California Asset Building Program Policy Papers

Tarnish on the Golden State

  • By
  • Leif Wellington Haase,
  • New America Foundation
  • and Mark Rukavina, Jacquelyn Kercheval
September 27, 2011

Tarnish on the Golden State, a new report issued by the New America Foundation, exposes how medical debt can lead to ill health and financial insecurity for individuals and families. Tens of millions of American families struggle to pay health insurance premiums and medical bills. In 2010, 44 million working aged American adults had medical debt or medical bills they were paying off over time. In California, over two million people had medical debt prior to the recession and the problem has likely become worse since then.

Programs:

Making (and Breaking) the Health-Wealth Connection

  • By
  • Leif Wellington Haase,
  • New America Foundation
April 27, 2011

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), if implemented as passed, will improve the financial security of Californians, and in particular that of low and middle-income Californians. While reducing the strain of medical bills and health insurance costs on family budgets is a major aim of the legislation, it also offers tools to individuals and communities as they attempt to reduce the “upstream” cost of poor health.

The ACA bridges the health-wealth connection in four major ways:

Programs:

Building Better Bank Ons

  • By
  • Anne Stuhldreher,
  • New America Foundation
  • and Leigh Phillips, Office of Financial Empowerment, City of San Francisco
February 24, 2011

Executive Summary

In 2005 San Francisco city leaders were surprised by new research that estimated that one in five San Francisco adults—and half of the city’s Blacks and Latinos—did not have bank accounts. These primarily working poor city residents faced a big disadvantage because they lacked this basic financial tool. In fact, many unbanked San Francisco residents reported paying 2 to 5 percent of their income just to cash their paychecks.

Programs:

2011 California Asset Building Legislative Agenda

  • By
  • Olivia Calderon,
  • New America Foundation
February 21, 2011

In the 2011 California legislative session, the California Asset Building Program is advancing the following state policy initiatives (See printer-friendly downloadable agenda at right under Related Files):

Programs:

Forging a New Vision for California Working Families

  • By
  • Olivia Calderon,
  • New America Foundation
April 26, 2010

California prides itself on being the land of opportunity. It is a place where people from across the nation and around the world have joined together, generation after generation, to achieve their dreams and create the promise of continued opportunity for future generations. This legacy was built on hard work, ownership,entrepreneurship, and a great deal of sacrifice.

Programs:

Left on the Table

  • By Antonio Avalos and Sean Alley
March 9, 2010

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is one of the federal government’s largest resources for working low-income Americans. It is widely regarded as the nation’s most effective and efficient anti-poverty program and has been expanded by a series of Democratic and Republican presidents. Hundreds of thousands of Californians, however, fail to claim EITC refunds, which range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. The families and individuals who miss out are not the only losers when these refunds go unclaimed. Local economies never benefit from this money.

Programs:

Banking Development Districts

  • By
  • Olivia Calderon,
  • New America Foundation
May 21, 2009

To promote local economic development, California policymakers should create Banking Development Districts, a proven way to connect lower-income unbanked Californians with the financial products and services they need to enter the financial mainstream and begin to build savings and assets. It is modeled after New York State's successful Banking Development District program.

For the full text of the issue brief, please see the PDF attached below.

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California Employee Savings Program Bill Summary

  • By
  • Olivia Calderon,
  • New America Foundation
May 15, 2009

The California Employee Savings Program creates a voluntary, universal, portable retirement account for California workers who do not have access to a workplace retirement savings plan. It would give six million California workers and their families an opportunity to have their own workplace retirement savings plans to supplement their basic Social Security benefits. The California Employee Savings Program would also give hundreds of thousands of California small businesses an easy, low-cost, voluntary way to offer a retirement savings plan to their employees.

Programs:

CA Workforce Mobility and Savings Initiative Bill Summary

  • By
  • Olivia Calderon,
  • New America Foundation
May 15, 2009

The CA Workforce Mobility and Savings Initiative, reforms the asset limit in the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, to encourage low-income families to build the savings they need to permanently exit welfare. The measure repeals the $2,000 asset limit in CalWORKs for current recipients and raises it for new applicants from $2,000 to $7,000 while also eliminating the $4,650 vehicle limit.

Programs:

Asset Building in California

  • By
  • Olivia Calderon,
  • New America Foundation
May 6, 2009

Overview

The current economic downturn, triggered in part by excessive household debt and deflating housing prices, underscores the central role asset ownership plays in the economic security of California families and the broader economy.  Yet, half of all Americans currently have few or no assets, in part due to policies that encourage savings and wealth accumulation that benefit the upper half of earners.  The purpose of New America's Asset Building Program, is to significantly broaden savings and assets ownership in America, thereby providing all Americans with both the means

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