League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Los Angeles County, CA March 5, 2013 Election
	Sam Kbushyan Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Los Angeles; District 13

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What do you think is the single most important issue facing the City of Los Angeles today? As Council Member, what would you do to deal with it?

The biggest issue facing the City is the current state of the economy and its effect on the budget. To ensure future budgets are balanced without drastic service cuts, we need to expand Los Angeles' tax base by encouraging business development. If elected, I would work with my colleagues, city staff and local business leaders to attract the next generation of manufacturing industries to Los Angeles.

2. The City Administrative Officer has estimated a $200M budget shortfall for 2013-2014 increasing to $300M in 2015-2016. What steps do you propose to deal with this problem, and how much do you estimate each step would reduce the shortfall?

The city has a spending and revenue problem. The Council in the past few years has been able to curb spending through one time gimmicks and some structural reforms, but more needs to be done, especially on the revenue side. We desperately need to spur job creation by working with civic leaders to identify and attract new manufacturing opportunities to the City.

3. Do you support the ballot measure to increase the sales tax in the city?

No

4. What role do you feel the City of Los Angeles has to play in addressing climate change? Please explain in terms of what you as a city councilmember would have the power to do.

As the 2nd largest city in the US, Los Angeles should lead by example. We should incentivize and actively market the City to renewable energy manufacturers. I would like Los Angeles to be the manufacturing leader of the components that can be used across the country to produce alternative energy. Additionally, if the recently introduced "feed in tariff" program, which allows customers with solar panels to sell back their excess energy production to the DWP, is successful and cost effective to ratepayers, I would support expanding it.

5. How would you prioritize your local constituency versus the City as a whole when acting as a Council Member?

If elected, I will always start by prioritizing the needs of my constituents in CD 13 first, but I will also factor in the impact of my decisions on the City as a whole. If in the instance an issue will have a greater negative impact on the City while only providing a marginal benefit for the district, then I will take that into consideration.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League. 

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: January 14, 2013 07:34
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