This is an archive of a past election. See http://www.smartvoter.org/ca/state/ for current information. |
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Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Member of the State Assembly; District 51 | |||||
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The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund and asked of all candidates for this office.
See below for questions on
Budget,
Government reform,
Higher education,
Major issues
Click on a name for candidate information. See also more information about this contest.
Answer from Luis Lopez:
Answer from Jimmy Gomez:
Answer from Luis Lopez:
2) We must adopt a long-term approach to budgeting. And we must honor and sustain our investment in people's advancement, through education, healthcare, job training, and basic infrastructure, as well as parks, recreation, and environmental preservation. Unless these essential functions are on a strong budget footing, we put our present at risk and our future education and economic opportunity, our job and tax base, and our shared quality of life in peril. By focusing on and making the difficult decisions to strengthen our pathways of advancement, we can restore the California dream.
3) We must overcome the barriers to new revenue in our state. And we must recalibrate some taxes to ensure they are fair to working and middle class families and sufficient for our state to function. When two dozen other states assess a tax on oil removed from their soil, there is no excuse for our state not to do so on the corporations that extract our common resource. With homeowners now bearing the greater burden of our property taxes, instead of commercial holders, we need to revisit the gaps in reassessment of commercial property to restore integrity and generate uncollected revenue. And the very wealthiest Californians, making more than $1 million annually and who have prospered greatly in our state, can afford to pay slightly more in taxes and must be asked to do so. All together, the additional revenues gained through these means will help put our state and the pathways of advancement for people here on a sound footing, going forward. We have made progress in adopting, with the insistence of state voters, budgeting based on majority votes in the legislature. We need to extend that to revenue and tax policy so that there is honesty and accountability in the process. I will be a voice of fairness, discipline, and independence in overcoming the barriers to implementing these commonsense reforms. Answer from Jimmy Gomez:
You need to able to reach across the aisle and compromise when necessary.
Answer from Jimmy Gomez:
We need to invest in our educational system. I will restore funding to our schools, lower tuition rates at community colleges, and fight to fulfill the promise of
California's education system to our students. Answer from Luis Lopez:
Answer from Luis Lopez:
2) I am proud to have the endorsement of former state supreme court justice Carlos Moreno, a native of our 51st District and a resident who, throughout his career, has been an independent and conscientious voice for fairness for workers, for students, for immigrant families, and for equal access to services and opportunities in our state. But leaders of his caliber do not and cannot exist in a vacuum. I am deeply concerned about the continuing toll of budget cuts on our state courts, on the children and families who depend on them for justice, and on the people who follow in the footsteps of retired Justice Moreno through public service in the administration of justice. Our state court system is in critical need of rescue from the neglect of its systems, delay of cases, and discharge of staff, trends that fuel cynicism and corruption. I will shine a light on this problem and be a champion for the return to good health of our state's court system.
3) We also need to renew our state focus and strategic engagement with the arts and the creative economy. Artists' incomes and the pathways toward jobs and opportunities in creative professional took severe hits during the economic downtown of the past 4 years. Northeast Los Angeles and East L.A. are historic engines of creativity in all areas of the arts and arts education. I will be a champion for the arts, for arts education in and outside our public schools and campuses, for incentives to include artists in economic development, and for access to the creative professions for people in my district. Answer from Jimmy Gomez:
Jobs: I'm already fighting for good jobs in the
health care industry, but we need to invest in our
community colleges, infrastructure projects, and
other programs that prepare workers and create
good jobs you can raise a family on.
Schools: Education is the pathway to a better life for our children, but students can't succeed if schools fail. I will make sure our schools have the funding, support, and resources they need to prepare our students to succeed in college or the workplace.
I know how education can make a difference because it did for me.
The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page. |