First Tuesdays

The recession and its aftermath continue to ravage many nonprofits with a trifecta of troubles: reduced giving from individuals, government funding cuts, and increased demand for services. Mix in bruised foundation and corporate philanthropy, unemployment rates stuck over 9 percent, rising poverty levels, the desperate status of most state budgets, and the politics of the federal deficit and you have an environment choking the nonprofit sector.

This forum will explore the extent of limited food access in the United States, the health implications of living far from affordable nutritious food, innovative ways to provide healthier food choices, the divide between nutrition education and dietary habits, and more.

About 40 percent of all wage and salary workers age 25–59 are in jobs that don’t offer retirement plans. This forum explores ways to help low-income workers boost their retirement savings, including expanding their access to employer-sponsored defined benefit and defined contribution plans and instituting automatic individual retirement accounts.

Nearly 20 million tax filers—many of whom count themselves among the working poor—are expected to use a refund anticipation loan (RAL) or refund anticipation check (RAC) this tax season, racking up more than $1.5 billion in short-term credit fees. Some will turn to these devices because they need money fast to pay bills, especially just after the holidays; others need part of the expected tax refund to pay for tax preparation.

Everybody has something to say about economics and a lot of it is outdated, out of bounds, even outrageous. To help those making economic decisions all of us, really five outstanding scholars and scribes will distill the essence of their field in less time than it takes to watch Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. They’ll cover what you need to know now from the theories that explain economic fundamentals to the taxes that fuel government programs, from the hum and hiccups of the American economic engine to the bottom line on how government uses your dollars.

Vincent Gray takes the helm in the District of Columbia January 2 as its sixth mayor. The District's unique role as a state and a city means he will have to contend with both the challenges facing many big-city mayors – such as citizen concerns about crime and public safety, and a tumultuous housing market in which many hard-pressed families face foreclosure - and the big fiscal and policy issues of health care and budget balancing that confront new governors. And unlike any other city, county, or state leader, the District's chief executive must deal with the additional layer of congressional oversight and veto.

Panelists who have participated in these debt reduction efforts will discuss the tax changes their groups have proposed and the role of tax reform in shrinking deficits. They will address such questions as: Why do we need to raise additional revenues instead of relying simply on spending restraint? Why is the current federal tax system inadequate to the task of raising additional revenues? How should tax changes be structured to reduce the debt without harming the economy? To what extent should new taxes, such as a value-added tax or a tax on carbon-based fuels, be part of the solution?

On November 2, 37 states will hold gubernatorial and legislative elections, with two dozen or more new governors expected when the day is done. Beleaguered state budgets, high unemployment, and a slow economic recovery are posing difficulties coast to coast, so what's in store for these new executives and what can they expect to accomplish in the aftermath of the Great Recession? Panelists will discuss the expenditure-revenue gap facing states, the dreary employment situation, job creation strategies, and their budgetary implications.

Last year, 14 million children (1 in 5 children in the United States) lived in a family that used emergency food assistance through Feeding America, the nation's largest network of emergency food providers. Hispanic and black children received help at rates about triple that of white children, reflecting greater poverty rates for minorities.Hispanic Heritage Month offers a fitting opportunity to examine the economic status of Hispanic children. This forum will examine economic need among Hispanic families, the role of private food assistance in supplementing the government's nutrition safety net, and ways to increase income and reduce food insecurity during this recession and beyond.

An estimated 3.3 million young men and women will leave high school in June with - or without - a diploma. The speed with which they secure steady employment or a seat in another classroom differs markedly by race. Black high school graduates, for instance, will take 20 percent longer than their white counterparts to land a job lasting six or more months, according to forthcoming research from the Urban Institute.

Imagine a high school that spends $328 per student for math courses and $1,348 per cheerleader for cheerleading activities. Or a school where the average per-student cost of offering ceramics was $1,608; cosmetology, $1,997; and such core subjects as science, $739. These schools are not anomalies. Marguerite Roza and colleagues at the Center on Reinventing Public Education regularly found a much greater per-pupil investment in sports and electives than in core subjects. They also found -- in Austin, Baltimore, Dallas, Denver, Cincinnati, Houston, Seattle, and many other cities -- that teacher salaries average $1,000 to $5,000 higher in schools with fewer poor students than in the highest-poverty schools in the same district.

The nation's loss of over 6.4 million jobs between 2007 and late 2009 coincided with a 12 percent drop in home values and a dramatic increase in foreclosures. But the recession's pain has not been uniformly distributed. Why are some metro areas in the grip of "double trouble"—big declines in house prices coupled with severe job losses—while others are coming through the downturn relatively unscathed, with flat house prices and much smaller job losses (or even small employment gains)? This forum will dig beneath the data—found on MetroTrends, a new Urban Institute resource about conditions in the nation's metropolitan regions—and discuss what the public and private sectors should (or shouldn't) do to lift population centers out of their doldrums.

The numbers are, simply put, mind numbing. The federal deficit will total $6.7 trillion this decade under current law, the Congressional Budget Office projects. The figure will nearly double to $12.7 trillion if the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are not allowed to sunset as scheduled in 2011 and Congress, once again, "patches" the alternative minimum tax.

Much of the contentious immigration debate has revolved around the country’s estimated 12 million unauthorized immigrants. Largely invisible have been the 5.5 million children with unauthorized parents. Almost three-quarters of these children are U.S.-born citizens.

As the recession sends more and more people into the ranks of the impoverished and vulnerable, the public is left to ponder the inadequate support available when hard times hit and why help comes from a patchwork of programs instead of from an integrated system. Panelists will discuss the oftentimes incongruous values, attitudes, and philosophies that drive the intricate U.S. safety net and the difficulties in providing effective services to people with complex needs.

While economic opportunity and upward mobility form the core of the American dream, we know too well that many Americans don’t move up the income ladder, and recent trends in wages warn of serious obstacles ahead. Urban Institute research, supported by Pew’s Economic Mobility Project, also shows that most government spending doesn’t advance a mobility agenda.

Community organizations, local governments, foundations, businesses, and social service providers rely on residential stability in their efforts to alleviate the plight of impoverished families in hard-pressed neighborhoods. While trading up to a better neighborhood may improve an individual family’s circumstances, frequent churning of residents may have negative effects for communities. A forthcoming examination of evidence from the Making Connections initiative, a decade-long effort sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to improve neighborhoods in 10 cities, will be the starting point for a debate about the intersection of poverty, neighborhood quality, and economic advancement.

The Congressional Budget Office's most recent long-term budget outlook declared that "current policies are unsustainable." Translation, according to tax scholar Len Burman: if we don’t change course, we're doomed. America will celebrate its tricentennial with IOUs 6.5 times its total economic output if current policies continue, CBO says, and that is under implausibly optimistic assumptions about the economy.

Health reform - the "let’s do lunch" of public policy - is on everyone's lips in Washington. But like many long-postponed, obligatory meals, who is going to pick up the check? Capping the tax exclusion of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) - an idea loved and loathed by politicians from both parties - is on the table to pay for subsidies for the uninsured and to moderate companies’ incentives to offer high-end coverage.

Local governments sit at the confluence of formal and informal governance systems in Pakistan. Law and order, service delivery, and citizen interaction with the state take place in villages, towns, and cities, where families, tribes, political parties, religious organizations, and government officials share dominion. In 2001, then-President Pervez Musharraf called for the creation of local governments better attuned to citizen preferences and adept at providing improved services. Today, this autonomy initiative is up for grabs as Pakistan’s provinces reconsider the role of local government and the nation readies for fall elections.