THE BOTTOM LINE
NOVEMBER 10, 2026
AMY EVERITT
It's Time to Raise the Baseline
I’ll never forget a woman I met in East Los Angeles. When I asked what challenges her family faces, she said: “Health. Mentally. Economically. Even children. Education. Socially. Everything. All at once. Everything.”
For more than a decade, Golden State Opportunity has heard versions of that answer in community rooms from San Diego to San Mateo. People work, raise children, care for parents, and do everything they can to get ahead. Still, there’s never enough breathing room.
The rent goes up. The check engine light comes on. A medical bill lands. One setback becomes a crisis because nothing is left to fall back on.
When people reach for help, the system too often puts it out of reach. Applications take hours. Waitlists take years. A small raise can mean losing the support that made working possible.
That’s not a work ethic problem. It’s a policy failure.
The baseline is too low. And we’re here to raise it.
Today, Golden State Opportunity becomes Baseline.
A baseline is the economic dignity floor everyone should be able to count on: a safe home, food on the table, care when you’re sick, and enough left over to plan–and dream– for tomorrow. The security to handle an emergency. The freedom to change jobs, go back to school, or imagine something more for your children.
That should be the starting point for life in California.
What Our Work Has Taught Us
For years, we’ve worked alongside trusted community organizations to help Californians file their taxes for free and claim the tax credits they’ve earned.
We’ve seen what money in someone’s pocket can mean: rent paid, debt reduced, a car repaired. A better night’s sleep without wondering how to cover the next bill.
We’ve also seen how much effort it takes to get that money. Confusing rules. Unfamiliar forms. Fear of making a mistake. People missing out on support because no one told them it existed—or helped them get it.
Our community partners build the trust that makes that help possible. Together, we’ve learned that financial security starts with listening to people, showing up where they are, and delivering something that makes a difference in their lives.
That work will continue. We will keep helping families claim the CalEITC and other credits they’ve earned. We will keep investing in community partnerships and putting money in people’s pockets.
And we will use what we’ve learned to challenge the policies that keep those pockets empty.
A Bigger Commitment
Helping people navigate a broken system gives us a responsibility to change it.
Raising the baseline means measuring what life actually costs and challenging eligibility rules that deny help to families who cannot pay their bills. It means making support easier to access and getting money to people before a setback becomes a crisis.
It also means challenging the choices that subsidize extraordinary wealth while treating financial security for working families as unaffordable.
Baseline will bring together three essential parts of that work: putting money in people’s pockets, building community power, and leveraging that power to create transformative policy change.
Each makes the others stronger. The experiences people share while getting tax help can reveal where a policy fails. Community organizations can turn those experiences into shared demands. And people organizing together can win changes that reach far beyond a single tax return or a single family.
The Californians living these challenges every day must help shape the solutions—and have the power to hold decision-makers accountable for delivering them.
What You Can Expect From Baseline
We will name the problems plainly. We will bring community experience into the rooms where decisions are made. We will push leaders in Sacramento and Washington to match their promises with action.
And we will judge progress by what changes in people’s lives. Can a family cover the basics? Can they weather an emergency? Can they build savings and make plans beyond the next paycheck?
Those are the results that matter.
Our new name is a commitment to a higher starting point for everyone—and to the work it will take to get there.
Californians are doing their part. It’s time our policies did theirs.
It’s time to raise the baseline.
Next Steps
Join the movement to raise the Baseline. Follow our new social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and Youtube