| State of California (Butte, Lassen, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sierra, Yuba Counties) | November 2, 2004 Election |
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Issues Facing Third Assembly DistrictBy Robert "Bob" BurkCandidate for Member of the State Assembly; District 3 |
This information is provided by the candidate | |
The most important issues facing the Third Assembly District and what I plan to do to address the issues.The Third Assembly District is such a large and diverse area that I cannot claim to have all the answers for the whole district. But I do know there are two issues that affect everyone in the district. Those two issues are economic growth and land usage. While it may not seem economic growth and land usage are interrelated, I see that both are critical issues for this district and both need to be considered. First, regarding economic growth an area such as Butte County; this area has many valuable resources such as a major university, natural resources, a reasonably strong economy - yet Butte County has had an unemployment rate of 8% or above for most of 2004 beginning with a rate of 9.3% in January. There are many reasons why businesses should be a part of this area with a well educated workforce, I propose we need to attract more high-tech businesses to this area that can produce sustainable, long-term employment opportunities and produce economic growth for this area. This can be accomplished by keeping the tax rates and government regulations at the lowest rates possible and by "selling" the attributes of this area to businesses. But no matter what we do, this growth and expansion must be balanced with smart land usage - especially in terms of our valuable agricultural land. I do not want to loose sight of the resources that made this area what it is today by suggesting we pave over thousands of acres of valuable farmland. Yet the owners of this land deserve to participate in the economic growth that will occur and not be artificially frozen out by government over-regulation that makes their land not useful for anything but farming. Through private, non-profit organizations like the Nevada County Land Trust, valuable agricultural resources can be protected while landowners can receive the benefit of economic growth through conservation and agricultural easements. This is a voluntary, non-coercive, way to protect the valuable natural resources that we have, and not have the government come in and, forgive the term, mess everything up! I will do everything I can in my first term to make sure this happens. |
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ca/state Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 21, 2004 10:06
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