Overview | Agenda | Workshop Descriptions | Participants | Logistics | Resources

Workshops

Six PSN-facilitated workshops will make up the backbone of the retreat, including sessions on:

• State Strategies for Achieving National Health Care
• State Economic Growth Strategies
• Building for the Future: Broadband and Technology Investments
• The Progressive Approach to State Immigration Reform
• Election Reform and The Progressive Movement
• Challenging Privatization Ideology: Contractor Accountability and Defending the Public Sector

We have made the resources distributed at each workshop available online at our Resources page.

Video of each of PSN's issue-specific workshops are available on a limited basis.  For a DVD of the workshops, please submit a request at http://progressivestates.org/retreat/requestmaterials.

Plenaries

Organized by PSN and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), four plenary sessions offer analysis and thought-provoking discussion on timely issues, including:

• The US Economy in the Context of a New Administration, Part 1: Where are we going?
• Progressive State Tax Policy - So You Want to Be More Like Sweden
• The US Economy in the Context of a New Administration, Part 2: Where should (and can) we be going?
• Closing Plenary Session: Critical Issues in State Policy: State Economic Development, Privatization, and Regulation

 

Workshop Descriptions

State Strategies for Achieving National Health Care

Tuesday, December 9th 9:00am-10:50am, Skyview 6 

With the cost of health care a top domestic concern for voters, states and progressive legislative leaders will play a strategic role in moving health care reform at all levels of government in 2009. During the health care strategy session, PSN will bring together legislators and health care experts to map a strategy for moving legislation in the states that advances key policies as well as the progressive health care reform agenda for state and federal reform. By moving key legislation across states, progressive legislators can create a national dialogue around health care reform. During the strategy session, emphasis will be placed on the interchange between state and federal reform, particularly around insurance regulations, prescription drug costs and industry marketing, and priorities for health care for all.

Facilitated by: Adam Thompson, Health Care Policy Specialist, Progressive States Network

Invited Speakers:
Sen. Karen Keiser, Washington Senate
Sen. Jack Hatch, Iowa Senate
Sherry Prowda, Communications Director, Herndon Alliance
Yali Bair, Vice President, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California
Celia Wcislo, Vice President, 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East

 

State Economic Growth Strategies

Tuesday, December 9th 9:00am-10:50am, Skyview 4

As many states confront fiscal crises and job losses for their residents, it becomes even more critical for progressives to develop a proactive, economic growth strategy. This strategy session will highlight the range of policies states are pursuing both to create the long-term building blocks for economic growth and to deal with the shorter-term challenges of dealing with recessions and job dislocations, from investing in workforce development and infrastructure to mobilizing local capital for job creation to maximizing unique regional assets to strengthening business-community growth coalitions.

Facilitated by: Nathan Newman, Policy Director, Progressive States Network

Invited Speakers:
Dean Baker, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Phineas Baxandall, Federal Tax & Budget Policy Analyst, U.S. PIRG
Elena Foshay, Research Associate, Apollo Alliance
Amy Hanauer, Executive Director, Policy Matters Ohio
Greg LeRoy, Executive Director, Good Jobs First

 

Building for the Future: Broadband and Technology Investments

Tuesday, December 9th 5:00pm-6:30pm, Skyview 2 

In the years to come, deployment of affordable and fast broadband will play a major role in progressive agenda. Today, ethnic, economic and geographic disparities in access to affordable broadband threatens states economic prowess. Wide-spread adoption of affordable high-speed Internet can be a key tool to rejuvenate lagging economies and sustaining state commerce. Additionally, if invested in, broadband and advanced technologies can be an integral component to increasing the efficiency and availability of health care, through telehealth initiatives, implementing environmental friendly and energy conservation policies and expanding opportunities for low-income and traditionally disenfranchised populations.

Facilitated by: Julie Schwartz, Broadband & Economic Development Policy Specialist, Progressive States Network

Invited Speakers:
Marvin Ammori, General Counsel, Free Press
Beth McConnell, Director, Media and Democracy Coalition
Kenneth Peres, Economist, Communication Workers of America

 

The Progressive Approach to State Immigration Reform

Tuesday, December 9th 5:00pm-6:30pm, Skyview 3  

America’s antiquated laws and broken immigration system, along with the federal government’s refusal to take responsibility for the enforcement or repair of these laws, have left states to deal with the thorny issues of whether and how to assist immigrant residents. Join a roundtable discussion led by state legislative leaders and policy advocates to find out how to defeat anti-immigrant policies and support pragmatic, humane legislation that benefits all Americans, native and immigrant alike. Discussion will center around best practices and framing for four key policy solutions: wage enforcement, community policing, new Americans and integration, and how states can recoup federal tax monies paid by immigrants.

Facilitated by: Caroline Fan, Immigration & Workers’ Rights Policy Specialist, Progressive States Network

Invited Speakers:
Sen. Joe Bolkcom, Iowa State Senate
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona House of Representatives
Lynn Tramonte, Deputy Director, America’s Voice
Maria Robalino, Assistant to the Director of Immigration Reform, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

 

Challenging Privatization Ideology: Contractor Accountability and Defending the Public Sector

Wednesday, December 10th 8:40am-10:30am, Skyview 3  

Privatization is more than an approach to delivering public services; for many on the Right is has been part of an ideological agenda for undermining trust in the public sector and rewarding corporate allies in a system that undermines democratic accountability. This session will explore the roots of privatization, outline the privatization agenda of the current right wing, and outline policies that can strengthen transparency in the delivery of public services, protect taxpayers and promote contracting rules to raise wage standards and support environmental and other policy goals.

Facilitated by: Katherine McFate, Program Officer, Ford Foundation

Invited Speakers:
Phineas Baxandall, Federal Tax & Budget Policy Analyst, U.S. PIRG
Patrick Bresette, Associate Program Director, Demos Center for the Public Sector
Greg LeRoy, Executive Director, Good Jobs First
Mark Murphy, Fiscal Policy Analyst for American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
Corinne Wilson, Research and Policy Analyst, Center on Policy Initiatives

Election Reform and the Progressive Movement: Why Securing the Franchise is an Essential Aspect of Securing a Progressive Majority and How to Do It

Wednesday, December 10th 8:40am-10:30am, Skyview 4

Focusing on the inadequacy of our current election systems to provide for full participation, this session will highlight the roll of electoral reforms as a structural prerequisite for achieving the broader progressive agenda. Experts on election policy will outline opportunities for, and threats to, expanded participation. The session will conclude with a discussion of how to identify and craft remedies for the particular weaknesses in the election practices of individual states.

Facilitated by: Christian Smith-Socaris, Election Reform Policy Specialist, Progressive States Network

Invited Speakers:
Steven Carbo, Senior Program Director, Democracy Program, Demos
Rob Richie, Executive Director, FairVote
Renée Paradis, Counsel, Democracy Program, Brennan Center for Justice

 

Plenary Descriptions

Opening Plenary Session: The US Economy in the Context of a New Administration, Part 1: Where are we going?

Monday, December 8th 7:10pm-8:40pm, Skyview 6

What does the election mean for the progressive movement and the economy? This analysis of the economic and political landscape, and labor’s role at the federal level, may command a transformative era in US history. A warm welcome to Las Vegas by D. Taylor Gerry Hudson, a veteran leader of the Culinary Workers Union—the largest union in Nevada and the fastest growing local in the nation—will welcome attendees to Las Vegas. Together with Gerry Hudson, an Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union, and EPI’s own Jared Bernstein, they will reveal how its labor story could be a model for the progressive movement nationwide.

Speakers:
D. Taylor, Secretary-Treasurer, Culinary Workers Union, UNITE HERE Local 226
Gerry Hudson, Executive Vice President, Service Employees International Union
Jared Bernstein, Director, Living Standards Program, Economic Policy Institute

 

Breakfast Plenary Session: Progressive State Tax Policy: So You Want to Be More Like Sweden

Tuesday, December 9th 8:00am-8:50pm, Skyview 5

Exposing tax loopholes for corporations and the wealthy at the state level, New York Times reporter and author David Cay Johnston teaches us how to "speak American" about a more just state tax system.

Speaker:
David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

 

Plenary Session: The US Economy in the Context of a New Administration, Part 2: Where should (and can) we be going?

Tuesday, December 9th 3:45am-4:45pm, Skyview 6

For almost 30 years, progressives have witnessed and fought the effects of conservatives bent on dismantling government. With the current political upheaval, what will it take to restore government’s status—held long ago—as effective? Is now finally the time to achieve real, lasting change? Explore the opportunities for progress and the political realities at the national, state, and local levels.

Speakers:
Andrea Batista Schlesinger, Executive Director, Drum Major Institute for Public Policy
Thomas Frank, author; editor: The Baffler, Harper's; columnist: The Wall Street Journal

 

Closing Session: Critical Issues in State Policy: State Economic Development, Privatization, and Regulation

Wednesday, December 10th 1:30pm-2:30pm, Skyview 6

Nationwide, states have implemented economic development policy that benefits wealthy corporations, but neglects the needs of low- to moderate-income people. Eric Griego describes the inner workings of a state economic development agency and provides a blueprint for achieving policy that benefits working families. Likewise, Texas State Representative Garnet Coleman describes the pitfalls of privatization and the battle to maintain public services in his home state as a model.

Speakers:
Rep. Garnet Coleman,Texas House of Representatives; Co-Chair, Progressive States Network
Sen. Eric Griego, Executive Director, New Mexico Voices for Children; Senator-Elect, New Mexico Senate