If elected, I will work to enact the following policies to help fix the state.
Fix the state pension and salary system and ensure it is there for future generations:
- Support legislation to enable local municipalities more flexibility in addressing their pension liabilities.
- Work to curb "double dipping" and "triple dipping"- where pensionees receive more than one pension at a time and earn more in retirement than they did working.
- Help curb "spiking" salaries in the last year of service to raise pension payouts, change the calculation rules so that pensions are calculated based on the last three or five years of service, like almost every other state.
- Increase oversight and review of "industrial retirement" and "disability retirement" pensions and increase criminal penalties for defrauding the system.
- Rein in out of control overtime charges by capping overtime at 24 hours per week (64 hours total)--in line with charging rules for government contractors.
Roll back the regulatory malaise that is driving jobs from our state:
- Open the `blue book', California's punitive environmental rulebook, and work to eliminate laws that don't make any sense or have no utility.
- Return California labor laws on overtime and other benefits back to national standards.
- Work to repeal job killer environmental legislation like AB 32 (the California Global Warming Solutions Act).
- Work to consolidate or eliminate numerous state departments to cut the budget and reduce overlapping regulatory jurisdictions.
- Work to repeal some of the hundreds of unfunded mandates from the state that are costing local cities hundreds of millions to comply with. Work for to put in place a moratorium on new unfunded mandates.
- Work to repeal the hundreds of new frivolous laws that the legislature has passed in the last 10 years which cost millions to enforce.
Eliminate the "one size fits all" model for education in this state:
- Return the power away from Sacramento and back to locally elected school boards to decide how to best spend money in your community. In the process, reduce state administrative spending and send the savings back into the classroom.
- Champion charter schools, Teach For America and other grassroots programs to improve school performance.
- Transform English as a second language (ESL) education from a crutch to a transition path. Amend the California Education Code to ensure that students are taught science and math in English, by teachers who are qualified to teach the subjects.
- Work to reduce excessive standardized testing which is eating valuable class time. Reduce box checking and circle bubbling to give back instruction time to teachers. Work towards a simpler set of metrics: exit exam scores and graduation rates.
Cut taxes, then keep them low by changing the way Sacramento spends your money:
- Work to eliminate the state personal income tax. Finance it dollar-for-dollar with reduced spending.
- Exempt manufacturing and capital equipment from sales tax- like 47 other states do + to encourage job creation.
- Pin next year's budget to this year's revenue, slowing government spending growth dramatically and eliminating the justification to keep raising taxes.
Get the water flowing again and keeping it flowing:
- Establish a California water bank system like adjacent states of Nevada and Arizona to help accumulate water during wet years. Open water banking industry to private competition.
- Deregulate and centralize water credits market- eliminate "use it or lose it" provisions- to better enable private entities to lease/loan water credits to meet demand in particular areas.
- Sponsor construction of desalination plants to meet growing urban demand
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