League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Los Angeles, Ventura County, CA November 6, 2012 Election
	Todd Zink Answers Questions Candidate for State Senator; District 27

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

Questions & Answers

1. How will you prioritize the budget choices the Legislature must make to align the state’s income and spending?

There is no doubt that a difficult recession will disturb the Legislature's ability to align a balanced budget. But it is time to stop disguising the real issues that have overwhelmed California with deficit and start fixing the problem. Our Legislature is in lockstep with various special interest groups, and acts at the expense of the very people whom they were elected to represent. We trust our elected officials to spend our tax revenues wisely on our behalf. Instead Californians' hard earned dollars are being squandered away by the frivolous, wasteful spending of our legislature.

California taxes us more than most states, and yet we have so little to show for it. Californians would not mind paying high taxes if the Legislature ensured our priorities with the lowest crime rate, the lowest unemployment, a business climate attracting cutting edge companies and jobs, and a top rate K-12 education system securing our children's future. Instead, the Legislature is releasing criminals on our streets because of careless decisions, and California has the third highest unemployment numbers in the country; because the Legislature does not think about the consequences of over burdensome regulations that kill jobs and strangle business. The Legislature's decisions have also resulted in a secondary educational system that ranks near the bottom of the nation next to Mississippi. The Legislature has inflicted this pain on us. No more excuses.

California is much better than this. We cannot rest on the success of our past. We must look toward the future. The Legislature needs to take care of our priorities to shore up the pillars of good government for all Californians. This means improving the business climate to create much needed jobs through balanced polices, securing our peace of mind by never jeopardizing our public safety, and restoring California's promise with a school system that provides local control and removes bad teachers in order to retain good teachers.

2. What types of changes or reforms, if any, do you think are important to make our state government function more effectively?

1. Improving the business climate with balanced, pragmatic polices to attract and retain jobs for California. The Legislature needs to stop taking businesses for granted, and start recruiting business back to California in a nonpartisan way to create much-needed jobs. Paychecks do not have party names on them. A strong economy improves many elements in our society. We need balanced environmental policies that retain open spaces and blue oceans, but do not destroy the business climate that we rely on in our daily lives. This is vital to our economy. Businesses that are doing well provide jobs and partner with local residents to address problems to make their communities better.

2. Securing our public safety through incremental changes to our criminal justice system that will ensure criminals are not released prematurely on our streets. The Legislature chose to kick the can down the road by shifting the burden of incarceration from the state prisons to the overcrowded county jails resulting in criminals back out on our streets. Instead alternative steps can be taken by reviewing when we send probation violators back to prison, how we implement third strike offenders with less than serious offenses, and by improving rehabilitation in our state prison system to decrease recidivism. This makes more sense than the Legislature's misguided realignment program that puts our safety in jeopardy.

3. Restoring California's promise by making sure our educational system is successful and efficient. It's our moral obligation to secure our and our children's future. Our State Legislators over the last 25 years have neglected our schools taking it from an international icon to one of the worst in the nation. Our Legislature needs to restore local control to our schools, and ensure that 53% of our budget is mandated to go to education, which will reach the students and bypass the layers of bureaucracy and pensions for bad teachers. Parental discretion should be favored over unsustainable union mandates. We need to explore ways to provide the best instruction via the Internet, and revitalize high tech vocational training to provide opportunities for all of our children no matter where they live. Furthermore, our college system that is subsidized by California residents is catering to out of state students in order to shore up their budgets. This violates their mandate to serve the middle class children of California first. We must fix our educational system. No more excuses.

4. Restoring Local Control to Our Communities. The Legislature has created enormous state government programs through regulatory agencies that monitor almost every aspect of our lives. Less state government and more local community control that is closer to the people, will ensure money is spent more wisely and more efficiently. Municipalities find the state government to be more of a hindrance than a benefit. Let's change this.

3. Fees for public higher education have gone up dramatically and funding has been cut. Is this a priority concern, and if so, what measures would you propose to address it?

There is never an excuse to damage education at any level. As a state, we need to make funding public education a top priority. Higher education will always come at a price, but the first question we need to address is why the cost of education is rapidly growing. While wage and cost inflation are generally offset by productivity growth, this isn't the case in our public education institutions. It is time to start investigating how we can take advantage of the technological advances of our era in order to offset costs and help students' needs. Our priority must be our students, and finding the best way to educate them efficiently. Once we determine how to control our costs while enhancing the actual education provided, we can properly budget the funds necessary to address educational needs. We all agree that education needs to be funded properly, but I am offering solutions to actually fix the problem rather than simply acknowledging them.

By becoming more efficient in education through technology, we also prepare California's students to enter and succeed in California's business climate. It comes full circle; creating first-class educational opportunities also attracts first-class businesses to our state, helping revive our state's economy and providing more opportunity to support our schools.

4. What other major issues do you think the Legislature must address? What are your own priorities?

Plans and results speak louder than words. I believe with our wealth of resources, we can bring back the promise of California by prioritizing results over partisan bickering. We must make results a priority.

We must create job opportunities by planning 10 to 20 years ahead for infrastructure that makes our businesses and households more efficient, creates incentives, and does not obstruct the growth of our businesses. We must reform how we educate our children, streamlining the process for removing ineffective teachers, and taking politics and special interests out of our education system. Additionally, as a Deputy District Attorney in the San Fernando Valley and a former Marine who served our country in Iraq and Afghanistan, I lay emphasis on the need for strengthened public safety. I have an inside perspective of the criminal element in our society, and I am deeply troubled by the band aid law legislature passed for realignment, exposing our families to convicted felons who have been let out to roam our streets. I come from professions that are result driven. I will bring that philosophy to Sacramento.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. References to opponents are not permitted.

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

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: August 11, 2012 21:10
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