Renovate existing facilities before building new ones at public expense.
In my recent trips to Sacramento to lobby, I have found our representatives too open to raising taxes. While we have a budget shortfall, I believe that they have not exhausted all the available resources for raising money yet. As I look around the 39th Assembly District, I see many unused facilities left to become an eye-sore by their owners. While respecting their property rights, I think they could be motivated into making their vacant buildings into profitable ventures, which could be taxed, therefore adding to revenues coming into the state. The reason I am offering this proposal is that when I mentioned these unused facilities to our representatives, they did not seem to know that they existed! I wonder how many more there are throughout California!
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