League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara County, CA March 2, 2004 Election
	Matt T. Kokkonen Answers Questions Candidate for Member of the State Assembly; District 33; Republican Party

Read the answers from all candidates.

Questions & Answers

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

Sen. Tom McClintock has pointed out that a 13% reduction in state spending over the next eighteen months would balance the budget. We need to move in this direction, not in the direction of raising taxes. We should eliminate unnecessary or duplicative state agencies, contract services out to the private sector, reform our workers' compensation system, re-negotiate bloated labor contracts with state employees, and consider suspending Prop. 98.

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

Our priority should be that our children are properly educated in the basics of reading, writing, mathematics, science, and history. We need to demand accountability from the public schools, not simply give them additional monies if they fail to educate and train our kids for the work force. Public schools should be required to compete for students. This would encourage them to do a better job and become more efficient. I support charter schools and vouchers.

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

First of all, we need to secure our borders so that we are not dealing with millions of illegal immigrants who place a tremendous burden on infrastructure and public services. We must insist that the federal government stop this invasion of lawbreakers into our state.

Specifically, in regard to water, we need to support new projects like dams and reservoirs which will increase our long-term storage capacity. Due to irresponsible fiscal policies at the state level, California's infrastructure needs ( water, power, roads ) have not been funded sufficiently in recent years

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

My background in the insurance business gives me great insight into these issues and I believe this background will serve me well in the Assembly.

Addressing the issue of illegal immigration would be a first step in dealing with our state's health care crisis. The need to provide services to illegals takes away time and money which should be devoted to treating American citizens. In addition, I support the increased use of tax credits to permit those without health insurance to buy an affordable "no-frills" policy to cover their catastrophic needs. We need to move away from "gold-plated" insurance policies which drive up the cost of health care and we should give more power to health care consumers -- in the form of medical savings accounts -- to make these decisions themselves which would result in huge savings to the public.