Press Releases

• May 7, 2007. Online Tool Gives Californians a Voice in the State Budget Battle: Next Ten's "California Budget Challenge" Sunshines Back Room Political Process.
• May 7, 2007. Innovative Online Game Engages CA Students in State Budget Process.
• October 20, 2006. "Focus on Infrastructure" at NextTen.org: New Non-Partisan Source Gives Voters the Nuts and Bolts On Infrastructure Needs, Ballot Issues.
• May 15, 2006. The $100 Billion Question: Next Ten Challenges All Californians to Take the "California Budget Challenge."
• April 5, 2005. New Nonpartisan Group Challenges 10,000 Californians to Create Their Own State Budget by May 5.

 

Press Coverage

Read up on the press coverage Next Ten has received since its launch.

If Oakland community leaders wrote the state budget, California would have more money for education, universal health care, fewer people in prison and higher taxes for the rich, corporations and commercial property owners. So say the results of a May 29 town hall meeting, in which 125 students, civic leaders, elected officials, teachers and community members gathered at the Oakland Museum and used an online tool to set their own spending priorities. Read more…
 

It is tempting to assert that adult Californians are, generally speaking, morons. Granted, that assertion, if it were to be made in this space, would come from an adult Californian who clearly has more than a casual relationship with moronity. But geez, people, you're not even trying. At least it looks that way from the results of the latest survey by the folks over at the Public Policy Institute of California. Read more…
 

SAN FRANCISCO - California’s budget is just a click away. And the billions are yours to spend. Noel Perry is determined to return California’s budget to the people. Read more…
 

Ten years ago Gov. Pete Wilson's blue-ribbon Constitutional Revision Commission proposed a long list of ideas to reform California government. Most were promptly forgotten. Read more…
 

Like many others in California, high school senior Lacey Padgett thought it is a good idea to tax the rich to balance the state's budget. Read more…
 

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - If it was up to North Hollywood High's AP Government students to draft the state budget, they'd increase education spending by $2.5 billion, keep college tuition at current levels, retain the "three strikes" law and add $2.60 a pack to the cigarette tax. They'd also leave the state with a $2 billion deficit. Read more…
 

Sitting in a classroom at North Hollywood High School on Monday, senior Lacey Padgett thought taxing the rich to balance California's budget sounded like a fine idea.

But then former Republican state Senate leader Jim Brulte pointed out that celebrities including Tiger Woods and Serena and Venus Williams have relocated to Florida, where state income taxes are nonexistent. Padgett said the comment gave her pause.

"He almost made me change my mind," said the smiling 18-year-old, as she swept back her blond hair.

The learning moment came during a tutorial to North Hollywood High's Advanced Placement government class presented by Next Ten, a Palo Alto-based nonprofit, whose mission is to illuminate Californians on the complexities of the state budgeting process. Read more…
 

No todos los días se puede contar en una clase sobre presupuesto de una secundaria pública con figuras de la talla del ex gobernador de California Gray Davis para abordar el caso hipotético -pero muy cercano a la realidad- de un impuesto vehicular, o del ex senador estatal republicano Jim Brulte para explicar que la idea de gravar a los ricos del estado termina por ahuyentarlos. Read more…
 

Want to take a crack at balancing the California state budget, which has been bleeding red ink since the 1999-2000 budget? Check out the California Budget Challenge online at Next Ten, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group working to improve California over the next 10 years: www.nextten.org. The Challenge is a Web-based tool that lets you, the citizens of California, modify spending and taxing parameters for the state budget for fiscal 2006-07, which begins on July 1. The calculations are based on the numbers from the Governor's Budget Summary 2006-07. Read more…
 

Noel Perry is not into torture. He doesn't believe in the pop quiz as a way to embarrass busy Californians regarding their paltry knowledge of state spending.

"Did you know that only 11 percent of Californians knew that education was the No. 1 budget item?" he told me Friday during a phone interview he gave from his Bay Area office.

No, though I never met him, Perry seems to have loftier goals. The Bay Area venture capitalist wants to educate Californians so they can participate in civic discussions, maybe even vote with a better set of facts at their disposal. That's why he created the California Budget Quiz and the California Budget Challenge and put both on his Web site, www.nextten.org. Read more…
 

So far more than 10,000 Californians have 'taken the Challenge' to get more engaged. The most surprising and gratifying result for me so far is the large number of teachers who are using the Challenge in schools all over the state. We are most interested in getting feedback from teachers on how to make the Challenge most useful in the classroom. Read more…
 

The California Budget Challenge, the first endeavor of Noel Perry's Next Ten project, is an online, interactive, educational tool that allows those who log on at nextten.org to create their own state budget, setting spending and revenue-generating priorities for the next 10 years.

"We call ourselves Next Ten because we aren't here for the quick fix," says an introductory statement on the Website. "We have our sights set on joining with others to improve the state over the next 10 years, and the 10 years after that."

Mr. Perry says he started toying with the idea of creating an educational program addressing issues facing California about two years ago. Troubled by the lack of focus on the future on the part of both lawmakers and citizens, Mr. Perry says he concluded that the California Dream was in peril. Read more…
 

A balanced budget for California is just a few mouse clicks away in a new Internet-based game designed to let ordinary citizens see the financial alternatives and political tradeoffs faced every day by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature. The California Budget Challenge at www.nextten.org is the brainchild of F. Noel Perry, a Menlo Park venture capitalist who hopes the computer game will get people thinking about the state's future. "I hope to engage and educate Californians about improving the state's economy and quality of life," Perry said. "I'm concerned that there doesn't seem to be a lot of concern about the future of California in the long term or even the next 10 years." Read more…
 

There are some jobs that anyone on the street can do better than the people who, apparently through some cosmic joke, actually get to do them. Baseball umpire, for instance. Everyone in the stands would be better at it. Just ask them. Or legislator. Just what is it with those people in Sacramento that they can't produce a balanced budget on time? We can't offer any help on calling balls and strikes, but if you're itching to demonstrate budgeting prowess, your opportunity is at hand: the "California Budget Challenge" on the Internet at www.nextten.org/challenge. Read more…
 

I solved the state budget crisis. It was heart-wrenching and required some tough choices, but I did it. I managed to whittle away a $12.2 billion deficit. Of course, I did it from the comfort of my office, with no voters hounding me, no protests outside my window, no campaign contributors demanding preferential treatment and no lobbyists trying to bribe me. Oh, and I did it without having to worry about whether I'd get re-elected. Without all those shackles, it's almost easy. And you can do it, too. Through the magic of computers and the Internet, a nonpartisan organization called Next Ten has created a fascinating program that lets you figure out how to solve the state budget crisis. Try it yourself at www.nextten.org. It takes only about 30 minutes to complete, and it's quite enlightening. Read more…
 

WHITTIER -- Students in a government class at Whittier College held the state's purse strings Tuesday but found that they had no better answers for dealing with California's budget deficit than the governor or Legislature… Students in Caroline Helman's California politics class at Whittier College were among the first to experience the agony of deciding where to spend and where to cut. Attacking a subject closest to them and at $31.6 billion, the biggest part of the state budget the students voiced diverse opinions on K-12 education and higher education. "Increasing spending doesn't necessarily mean increasing the quality,' she said, pointing out that the education budget is increased annually by Proposition 98. "But if you stay with it as is, below the average per student of other states, what would that do to the state's future in attracting new industry?' countered fellow student Peter Hinton… Read more…
 

It can't be easy to design an interactive process that allows average citizens to customize a state budget that reflects their priorities without either boring them stiff or dumbing down the process to the point where it is simple-minded and meaningless. It took me about 20 minutes to complete the exercise… However long it takes, there's a value in going through the exercise. If nothing else, it drives home the hard facts that many Californians don't seem to want to understand: Balancing the state budget over the long term requires either taking an ax to funding for education and healthcare or significantly jacking up taxes… By the way, if you do balance the budget when you take the challenge, remember that in real life there's one more substantial hurdle: You've got to get two-thirds of the Legislature to agree with all your choices. Read more… (registration required)
 

Could you balance California's budget? Well, here's your chance. Next Ten, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization, has launched the California Budget Challenge, an interactive online site that lets users create a 10-year budget for California. We talk about the need for people to understand the underpinnings of the state budget and whether a well-informed and engaged public could break the budget gridlock… Listen to the show…
 

Next Ten, founded and bankrolled by venture capitalist Noel Perry, has created the most realistic budget model I've seen. Backed by expert advice from economist Stephen Levy, the California Budget Challenge is fun, demanding and educational all at the same time. The challenge is simplified to make it workable. But it's still complex enough to give the user a sense of the scope of the problem and the choices Californians face. The bottom line: Under current policies, deficits will continue for as far as the eye can see, and by 2014 - 10 years out - the shortfall will be $12 billion in today's dollars…. Read more… (registration required)
 

If you think Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature have it easy balancing California's budget, try doing it yourself. Think of "California Budget Challenge," the new Internet puzzle funded by Bay Area venture capitalist F. Noel Perry, as state budgeting for dummies. It's simple, explains the issues facing the state's finances clearly and outlines the pros and cons of controversial choices. It's almost fun. The site, www.nextten.org, is set to launch the budget game today. It uses charts, graphs and clearly written bullet-point paragraphs to lay out California's fiscal woes -- the state faces a $9 billion gap between revenue and expenses now, and future budgets appear no better. Perry's group is called Next Ten because he wants policy-makers to look to the long haul. Read more…
 

Californians fed up with Sacramento's budget-balancing paralysis can take matters into their own hands starting today. Sort of.A nonpartisan organization called Next-Ten, named for its goal to plan for the state's next 10 years, is unveiling the online California Budget Challenge. It allows anyone with a computer and an Internet connection to submit plans for how the state should spend money on education, prisons, health care and other priorities for the decade. Californians can tinker with the numbers at the same time Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is putting together his updated budget proposal, to be released next month. "We hope that they will develop an appreciation for how difficult it isto balance the state's budget," said Noel Perry. Read more… (registration required)
 

For those of you who think you could do a better job than the elected officials at mapping out the state's broad budget priorities, here's your chance. A new organization called Next Ten today unveils its "California Budget Challenge"… The group, which bills itself as independent and non-partisan, says the game gives individuals a chance to think about the state's fiscal priorities on a macro scale over the next 10 years. Read more…
 

Television Interview with Noel Perry and Scott McGrew, KNTV, Channel 11 NBC (link to video clip not available at this time)