Two NC residents named to budget panel

Two North County residents were among those appointed to a bipartisan commission to study ways to reform the state budget process, the Governor’s Office announced today.

Gerald Parsky of Rancho Santa Fe was selected by Gov. Arnold

Schwarzenegger to be the chairman of the Commission on the 21st Century

Economy.

Parsky, 66, is the chairman of the private investment firm Aurora Capital Group. The Republican has previously served as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Treasury Department and on the University of California Board of Regents.

Ruben Barrales of Del Mar is the president and chief executive officer of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Barrales, 46, was previously President Bush’s liaison to state and local elected officials and served on two earlier commissions on state government. He’s also a Republican.

Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders picked 10 other people to sit on the commission.

“Our outdated revenue system contributes to our feast-or-famine budget cycles year after year,” Schwarzenegger said. “It is time for California to have a revenue system that reflects the needs of our state, and I am confident that the people we have appointed will recommend constructive ways to restructure and modernize our tax system.”

The governor created the commission by an executive order signed last month.