Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 9; Democratic Party

State Budget

Kevin knows the state budget is key to the success of state government and the quality of life for Californians. For too long, Californians have paid the price for boom and bust budgeting where tax breaks for the wealthy and well connected get locked in during the good times and investments in education, health care, and our communities suffer permanent cutbacks during the tough budget times.

Kevin spent years working on the State Budget, overseeing education funding as an Assembly Committee Consultant. Further, while serving on City Council, he oversaw 6 budgets in row that were balanced, on-time, and set aside prudent reserves. He knows what works well, and what needs improving.

Kevin will improve the state budget with the following:

Responsible Budgeting with a Rainy Day Fund.

• Currently there is no incentive or real requirement for California to set aside funds during the boom times so that the budget can survive economic downturns. As a result, one-time revenues are allocated to permanent tax giveaways to the wealthy and unsustainable spending increases. No budget can survive such short-term thinking.

• Kevin knows that no budget can survive such short-term thinking, and will instead craft a real rainy day fund that will set aside boom revenues that will alleviate the need for massive budget cuts and tax increases during tough budget years.

• The California Tax Code is littered with sweetheart tax deals that are great for narrow special interests but have no broad public benefits + despite the promises made when each tax break was enacted.

• Kevin will conduct a top to bottom review of all tax loopholes to fight special interests to close the breaks that have little or no public interest and instead provide tax relief to the rest of us or make investments in our schools or other critical needs.

• State Government has been run by Republican Governors for 22 of the past 27 years. And while the Legislature has done its job passing budgets and considering thousands of bills each year, not enough has been done to review the work of state government and to hold Republican Administrations accountable for the job it does.

• Kevin will expand the role of the Legislature from reviewing and crafting the annual budget, to a year-around process to review the Administration's implementation of the budget and will hold Administration officials accountable immediately for failing to meet the budget requirements.

As a product of public schools and now the father of two young girls, Kevin knows the strength of California's future is tied to improving California schools now. From pre-school through higher education, every student deserves the highest quality of education.

Kevin's commitment to a quality P-16 system is evident in his professional work which has focused on expanding education investments. Working as the Higher Education Consultant for the Assembly Budget Committee, Kevin was instrumental in expanding access to college including helping craft the landmark Cal Grant scholarship program. Currently, the legislative advocate for Preschool California, Kevin champions expanding access to quality preschool programs for all California children.

His plan for improving education in California is as follows:

Full Funding for Schools.

• Proposition 98 was passed by the voters to establish minimum funding for schools. Instead, it has been treated as a ceiling. What's worse is that Proposition 98's complicated requirements have been manipulated and exploited which has enabled drastic underfunding of our schools.

• Kevin will not only be faithful to the letter of the Proposition 98 law, he will be faithful to the spirit and intent of Proposition 98 and fully fund the schools and not allow our students to be shortchanged.

• We have strong data that shows how critical preschool is to a child's future academic success. But not every child has access to quality preschool opportunities, which leaves such children significantly disadvantaged. Kevin will champion expanded access to quality early education programs and give every child a fair shot at success.

• Every child that works hard deserves to achieve the dream of higher education, should have access to high quality colleges and universities. Unfortunately, budget cuts have led to fewer higher education slots and skyrocketing student fees. This has cheated hard working students and harmed California's future.

• Kevin will rollback the cuts to higher education, eliminate recent fee increases, and expand the Cal Grant program so that California's promise of high quality higher education can once again be met.

• While every student should be prepared for higher education upon completion of high school, not every student will choose higher education. For those students not going onto college, they need to receive career technical education in high school so they can immediately enter the workforce or continue their career training.

• Kevin will ensure all California high school students have access to Career Technical Education curriculum, this will provide more well-rounded high school educational opportunities to all students, and especially to those who do not go on to college.