League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino Counties, CA November 4, 2008 Election
	Joseph M. "Joe" Lyons Answers Questions Candidate for State Senator; District 29

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 Legislature and the Governor must work to quickly eliminate the deficit through existing revenue-generating mechanisms that will equitably distribute the burden of repayment, and establish a stable and sustainable revenue stream that minimizes the impact on the average worker, their families, and our senior citizens, while providing a fiscally responsible level of funding to provide high quality public programs and services that the people of California expect and deserve.

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

In both cases an unwavering commitment to the spirit of Proposition 98, the Classroom Instructional Improvement and Accountability Act, would help guarantee adequate and stable funding of K-14 public education. Funding sufficiency and consistency is required to protect the continuity of the educational process between levels and provide the materials and resources required by teachers and students to be successful. This is particularly critical as California undergoes an economic restructuring that will require a technically educated and trained workforce that will rely heavily on the Community College System, which to be successful will need to integrate its programs with a preparatory K-12 curriculum.

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

Because of its size and environmental diversity, there is no single approach to address California's water needs. However for these reasons, there are numerous economically viable solutions that can be applied to meet the specific needs of the various environmentally distinct areas throughout the State. In addition to the to the implementation of conservation programs and the control of growth and water usage in low rainfall areas, the reclamation and storage of sewer and storm runoff and residential capture of cloths and dish washer waste water for landscape usage would significantly reduce the amount of "new" water needed by communities that import water. While Southern California coastal and near coastal water needs could be met by desalinization of seawater. In order for any of these approaches to be successful, elected officials must promote the acute need for water usage management and support the improvement of existing methods and development of new technologies to meet the future water usage needs of California.

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

As a State and as a Nation we must refocus the debate from providing health insurance to the uninsured to providing every American with access to high quality comprehensive healthcare. Access to health care should no longer be viewed as a privilege, but as a human right that reasonably derives from the investment of the taxpayers in some of the best publicly funded medical schools in the World, a number of which are located on University of California campuses throughout our State. Therefore the Legislature should vote to return the California Universal Healthcare Act, SB 840, to Governor Schwarzenegger for signing and immediate implementation.

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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 04:39
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