public policy

But Kent Smetters, the faculty director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model and a University of Pennsylvania Wharton School professor of business, economics and public policy, told Salon that these unauthorized funds don't inherently amount to wasteful or excess spending either.

A survey conducted in mid-October by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California pinpointed the economy, including jobs and the cost of living, as the most pressing issue for state residents.

Central Valley residents were also the least likely to see hope on the more distant California horizon, with under 1 in 3 saying they thought the state was headed in the right direction, according to the Public Policy Institute’s survey.

“On the climate front, warming temperatures have put water storage capacity of the Sierra Nevada mountains in long-term decline,” said Adrian Covert, the Bay Area Council’s senior vice president of public policy.

Lurie received a bachelor’s degree in political science at Duke University and a master’s in public policy at UC Berkeley.