League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Inyo, Kern, San Bernardino, Tulare Counties, CA November 4, 2008 Election
	Desmond Farrelly Answers Questions Candidate for Member of the State Assembly; District 34

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

Questions & Answers

1. What does California need to do to address the current budget crisis?

The State of California is the Most Over-Taxed, Business Unfriendly State in the entire Nation, I can no longer tolerate the Energy Price Gouging and the Raids on the Wallets of our Hard Working families here in Tulare County and the 34th AD.I want to keep the Talent, Businesses and Jobs here in Tulare County and the entire 34th District and work to bring new job creation by putting Our District back to work. We Californians are currently faced with an approximated Budget Deficit of over $20 Billion Dollars. We need to Cut the Pay of the California State Legislature. We Need to Cut the Fat across the board in Sacramento, and wasteful spending of the Sacramento Bureaucrats. We need to do some serious belt tightening, and reign in the wild and reckless free spending that those Sacramento Bureaucrats have gotten away with for too long. I am tired of seeing Sacramento Bureaucrats perform Self-Service at the expense of We the taxpayers who pay their salary. We need to implement Common sense Accountability and Transparency across the board. Let me state for the record, As Your Assemblyman, I will step up to the plate and pour half my annual salary back into the communities of the 34th Assembly District. Currently, California State Assembly Members make well over $100,000 Dollars a Year, on the usual 4-day work week. Do you know anyone that makes that kind of money on so little work? I don't.

2. What should the state's priorities be for K-12 education? For the Community College System?

As an Educator and a Teacher, I know first hand what it is like working in the trenches, trying to help young people realize that they too, have a future. But, we must keep our promise to give them the best education and the required resources that they need to accomplish this.I want to bring High-Technology jobs to Tulare County and the 34th District, utilizing vocational training and college graduates from our own region. Too many of our Tulare County college graduates leave the area in order to find jobs out of State and out of Tulare County. We need to keep the best and the brightest Right Here rather than losing them, as they leave to find work out of the area. We need to make our future a bright one, create new jobs and secure our family's future. Working together, we can bring change to Sacramento and create a prosperous rich future for our families and all the people of Tulare County and the 34th District. We need to provide better funding for Law Enforcement, we have a tremendous Gang problem in the 34th District and we have to put a stop to the danger that it poses to our families and to our communities. Better Gang Prevention Education by assisting at-risk youth with additional resources,in our schools and County and City level programs. Let's make sure we give Our Children the Education that they deserve. We need to be able to provide funding to Senior Citizens at the City and County levels, as well as to the Disabled. We need to ensure that we take care and provide needed services to all the residents of This District.

3. What measures would you support to address California's water needs?

We need to ensure that Our Valley has a reliable steady supply of Irrigation water for All our Valley Farmers. We need to ensure we have reliable sources of clean drinking water for our Families and our Children. Better Transportation by supporting upgrades to Highway 99 and especially the High-Speed-Rail to Tulare County, and the rest of the 34th District. Invest in cost effective and reliable transportation infrastructure, for Trucking and Train shipment for moving our goods more efficiently to markets here and outside of California. Protect our Economy and Future by Securing our Energy Resources; Bring in New companies and new ideas for an exciting industry, that will invest in Green Technology, reliable and renewable sources of Energy, Biodiesel manufacturing, Solar and Ethanol generation facilities and Wind Power, Let's work together to make California an Energy Exporter instead of an energy importer.I am going to fight on your side to increase water storage capacity for all of California. I am in favor of building Desalinization plants for use by water hungry metropolitan areas like the Los Angeles,San Diego and San Francisco Bay areas.

4. What should the Legislature be doing to address the needs of Californians without health insurance?

I voted for and supported SB 840, and I am firmly a supporter of Single Payer Healthcare programs, also known as Universal Health Care.The quality of healthcare being provided to the citizens of the State of California has fallen victim to the greedy insurance companies and the HMO's, people have become dehumanized by these organizations, and adequate healthcare and benefits are being wrongfully denied to those people that rightly deserve the very best care we can provide to our citizens and taxpayers of this state.

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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: September 1, 2008 12:00
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