Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 53

PLATFORM HIGHLIGHTS

Defeat the Schwarzenegger Big-business agenda

• No on Prop. 73
• No on Prop. 74
• No on Prop. 75
• No on Prop. 76
• No on Prop. 77
• No on Prop. 78

-Make the coast a place to visit, not a transportation corridor by discouraging through traffic within the coastal area and by subsidizing shuttles and trolleys in the coastal areas.
-Expand the coastal zone to include all of the 53rd Assembly District.
-Block new developments in the coastal zone that harm the environment or contribute to increased traffic.
-Build a light rail system to and from the coastal area that provides easy mobility for residents and visitors.
-End fossil fuel dependence by stimulating electric vehicle production and shifting to mass transit.
-Replace zero-emissions electric cars destroyed by the auto makers with low-cost efficient electric cars built by the state of California
-Require solar power on all new construction.
-Introduce legislation for California to comply with the Kyoto Treaty.
-Convert Santa Monica Airport to low-income housing, parks and parking.
-Oppose offshore oil drilling, logging of old growth forests, destruction of wetlands.
-Stop Playa Vista Phase Two.
-Save the West Bluffs.
-Protect Native Native American burial areas and sacred sites.

Roll Back LAX

-Immediately re-route cargo planes to area airports.
-Significantly reduce LAX flights during the next 5 - 10 years by replacing intra-state flights with a California bullet train network.
-Add bullet trains to Palmdale and other regional airports to reduce international and U.S. flights.
-Use excess LAX land to construct a "Central Park" for Los Angeles and to build affordable housing near the coast.
-Protect LAX workers with full income while seeking employment, and retaining programs.

Health Care

-Legislate SB 840 - Single-payer health care, which will provide ALL Californians with quality health care without a net increase in taxes.
-Make the state an "owner of last resort" to prevent hospital closings by private corporations. Increase funding for county hospitals.
-Enforce strong patient to nursing care ratios in all hospitals.

Housing

-Repeal the bi-partisan Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing (anti-rent control) Act which allows rents to be raised without limit when an apartment becomes vacant.
-Repeal the Ellis Act that allows big landlords to take rental housing off the market
-Roll back rents to 1996 levels
-Establish the right to housing upon demand. Require 50 percent low and very low income units in all new construction in the coastal zone. The coast should not be a playground, or place to live, just for the rich.
-Expand Section 8 housing, end waiting lists
-Establish low-interest loans and tax credits for cooperative housing
-Provide tax credits for home owners who sell their residence to persons of a racial group that is underrepresented in their census tract. End segregation once and for all.

Education

-Make California public schools the best in the nation. Increase funding and reduce class size across the board.
-Make California public school teachers the best paid in the nation. This is an investment in the next generation.
-Begin foreign language education in grade one. Support bilingual and multi-cultural education.
-Free quality public education from Head Start to post-graduate. There is no such thing as "too much education."
-Convert the Los Angeles Air Force Base to a California State University campus specializing in peace and environmental studies. Build affordable housing on the campus.

California State Budget

-Oppose the Schwarzenegger Big-Business propositions.
-Raise taxes on those most able to pay, the wealthy and the corporations.
-End the imbalance between what Californians pay the federal governement and what it receives back. Converting from sales tax to income tax will cut this imbalance by half ($27 billion a year). Investigate how to get more services from the feds.
-Cut the percentage needed in the legislature to pass a budget.

Reduce the income gap between rich and poor.

- Double the minimum wage and index it to the cost of living.
- Make the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes.
-Enact a split-roll property tax so that corporations pay for the actual value of their holdings. No property tax for primary homes under 3,000 sq. ft.
-Replace regressive sales taxes with progressive local income taxes that are deductible from federal taxes (This will give Californians a net tax cut of $5 billion a year).
-Institute a California basic income to end poverty and homelessness
-Provide jobs at a living wage to all those who request one.

Privacy and Due Process

-Repeal the Patriot Act and other "homeland security" violations of our constitutional rights.
-Increase penalties for misuse of personal information by government, corporations and telemarketers.
-No attacks on immigrants.
-Stiff penalties for hate crimes.
-Allow undocumented workers to obtain California Drivers Licenses and auto insurance.
-Equal treatment for Gay couples, including the right to marriage.

Peace

-Introduce a resolution in the Assembly for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, and for an end to unilateralism in U.S. policy.
-Remove all weapons of mass destruction from California. Map to Weapons of Mass Destruction in the L.A. area
-End nuclear development. Decommission nuclear power plants.
-Create a state Department of Peace and Social Justice to promote transition to non-military employment, study of non-violence, racial understanding and toleration of ethnic diversity
-Provide employment and/or income, at no cut in pay for all workers displaced from military-related employment.

Labor

-Create jobs by immediately reducing the workweek to 35 hours.
-Prevent government from raiding workers' pension funds.
-Legislate right to bargain collectively for independent contractors and free-lancers.
-Expand funding for Cal/OSHA.
-Double the minimum wage and index it to the cost of living.
-Legislate a minimum of four weeks vacation per year for all workers
-Unemployment Insurance for strikers out more than 30 days.

Crime and Punishment

-Allow police to concentrate on violent crimes by decriminalizing "crimes without victims."
-Repeal the "Three Strike" law.
-Separate first time offenders in prison from "hardened criminals."
-Outlaw cruel and inhuman punishment as practiced at Pelican Bay and other prisons
-Focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. Provide as much education as prisoners request.
-Crack down on corporate crime, hate crimes and crimes against the environment.
-Eliminate "private" prisons.

Campaign Reform

-Restore democracy by getting big money out of elections. Impose strict contribution limits.
-Public funding of elections. Require media using the public's airways to give free time to candidates.
-Adopt instant runoff for majority rule and proportional representation to protect the interests of miniorites.

Other issues

-Support a woman's right to choose, without government interferance
-Equal pay for work of equal value regardless of gender
-Create a democratically elected agency to produce, distribute and sell California's energy
-Establish an independent special prosecutor to investigate sexual harassment complaints against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
-Defend the Medical Marijuana Law
-Reparations for descendents of slaves.
-Abolish the death penalty.
-Put California on record to repeal NAFTA, and all other anti-labor, anti-environmental free trade agreements.