League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Riverside, San Diego County, CA November 4, 2008 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Member of the State Assembly; District 66

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of California and asked of all candidates for this office.     See below for questions on Budget Crisis, Education, Water, Health Insurance Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. What does California need to do to address the current budget crisis? Answer from Kevin D. Jeffries: State spending has increased by roughly $40 billion over the last four years. The rapid growth of state programs and spending must be contained. A strong state spending cap needs to be imposed that will impose a maximum limit in future spending to a strict formula based on actual income, inflation and population growth. A rainy day fund requirement also needs to be imposed that will set aside surplus revenues for future economic downturns and to pay down debt. Those who advocate reducing the two-thirds legislative vote requirement are only seeking an easy way to increase taxes without your consent. 2. What should the state's priorities be for K-12 education? For the Community College System? Answer from Kevin D. Jeffries: Our top goal is simple! Prepare our students to enter the workforce with the skills needed for our future economy and job opportunities. It is also important to keep our classrooms properly funded. We need however to return control of our classrooms to our teachers (not unions) and return control of our schools to the principals. It's time to reform the education system by reducung state regulations (reported to be over three feet thick), eliminate unfunded mandates and wasteful overhead spending. 3. What measures would you support to address California's water needs? Answer from Kevin D. Jeffries: I have a background of nearly 16 years serving on local water district boards. Significant water rate increases have done nothing to improve our statewide water suplly system. With our continued population growth and statewide drought conditions, we need to continue with reasonable conservation efforts and new or expanded water storage and deliverly systems. We also need to reverse or amend recent court imposed water supply restrictions that have put extreme environmental protection efforts above the needs of people and/or farmers. 4. What should the Legislature be doing to address the needs of Californians without health insurance? Answer from Kevin D. Jeffries: The legislature has imposed significant restrictions on free-market efforts to offer low-priced health coverage. Numerous legislative proposals to improve access to low cost health care services and coverage have been stopped by misguided legislators seeking to impose a DMV managed style of state run healthcare. Healthcare needs to be affordable and easy to access for eveyone who wants it. More regulations (such as a DMV style government run healthcare system) and limited choices will not improve access or control costs. Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.