UC Center Sacramento’s second annual public policy competition has a winner: UC Berkeley’s Karen Chapple for her inquiry titled “Optimizing California’s Tax System to Reduce Fiscal Barriers to Climate Change Goals.”

A professor of city and regional planning, and faculty chair of the Center for Community Innovation, Chapple is scheduled to present the lecture part of the Bacon Public Lectureship and White Paper Competition in February.

UC Davis administers UC Center Sacramento, which runs programs for students from all around the UC system.

The center established the Bacon Public Lectureship and White Paper Competition to stimulate creative, evidence-based thinking around pressing problems of public policy. The competition is open to all UC faculty and researchers.

As this year’s winner — chosen by a panel of policy experts — Chapple is not only asked to deliver a lecture, but she receives research support and the opportunity to meet with Capitol staff familiar with various aspects of her research.

UC Center Sacramento announced three honorable mentions:

• Cynthia Lin, associate professor, agricultural and resource economics, UC Davis — “The Economics of Groundwater Management”
• Darien Shanske, professor of law, UC Davis; and David Gamage, assistant professor of law, UC Berkeley — Joint presentation, “Improving California’s Tax System Through Increasing the Diversity and Complementary of Its Revenue Streams”
• Kirk Stark, professor of law, UCLA — “Is There a Role for Regional Taxation and Regional Tax Base Sharing in California's Fiscal Future?”

UC Davis Professor Richard Kravitz, director of UC Center Sacramento, said the Bacon Public Lectureship and White Paper Competition is another way UC delivers on its promise of discovering and sharing knowledge to advance the public good.

A broad range of stakeholders is expected at UC Center Sacramento on Feb. 24 to hear Chapple’s lecture, and the center will distribute her research broadly.

Through the competition, Kravitz said, “world-class UC faculty (come) to the Capitol to address critical policy questions raised by legislative staff and other government officials.”

In the inaugural Bacon Public Lecture last February, Michael A. Gottfried, an assistant professor in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at UC Santa Barbara, addressed the topic, “Improving School Readiness: Formal versus Informal Pre-Kindergarten and Children in Immigrant Families.”

“With the selection of Professor Karen Chapple of UC Berkeley as this year’s Bacon lecturer, the series continues the standard of excellence established in 2015 by Dr. Gottfried,” Kravitz said.

A UC Davis alumni couple, Kevin and Kim Bacon, provides support for the competition. Kevin is a 1972 graduate (bachelor's degree in political science), and Kim Peoples Bacon earned a teaching credential in 1979.

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