SOLUTIONS

SOLUTIONS

CRIME AND THE PUBLIC SAFETY

Many of the most serious crimes, particularly murder, have spiked. Retail theft, violent crimes, and home invasions dominate the news and put our families in danger.


One of the primary functions of government is public safety. The rights of criminals shouldn’t come before those of the victims.



I opposed Proposition 47 and 57, and I was an early supporter of Proposition 20 to reverse their worst provisions. It is well known that organized theft rings are exploiting the high threshold for triggering a felony. Proposition 57 is accelerating the release of convicted felons with serious violent histories because of legal technicalities in the definition of a “violent” crime. Under the law today, rape of an unconscious woman is not a “violent crime.” California dismantled its Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement a decade ago, simply abandoning its key leadership role in containing organized trafficking operations. Local law enforcement needs that support. We need to keep our communities safe and hold criminals accountable for their actions. You have every right to feel safe in your community and when you are home.


ECONOMY

California experienced a net loss of 2.6 million people to other states over the past decade. Since the pandemic, nearly 40,000 businesses have closed.


The truth is, The State of California has a $42 billion “surplus” because you pay the highest gas taxes and some of the highest personal income taxes. In spite of this, our schools rank near the bottom, we have the highest poverty rate, some of the worst roads, and a terrible business climate. We don’t have a funding issue; we have a leadership crisis.


We need to repeal the gas tax and roll back excessive regulations that have increased the cost of every sector of living, from energy to housing. It’s time we stop implementing bad policies that make it nearly impossible for anyone to afford the Californian dream.


We need to keep Californians and businesses here. Too many have given up on California simply because they can’t afford to live here. I will continue to support small businesses, as they are the backbone of California communities. The Legislature treats businesses like they are the enemy. We must simplify permitting and regulations so entrepreneurs’ dreams aren’t buried in paperwork and regulations.

HOMELESSNESS

After spending billions of dollars, California’s homelessness crisis is only getting worse. California makes up 29% of the homeless in the entire country while only being 12% of the nation’s total population.


Unfortunately, too many politicians believe that throwing more money at the problem will solve it. It won’t. It hasn’t. It has only made it worse. Without addressing mental health issues, addiction, and rising housing costs, we aren’t fostering healthy communities.


We need to do an audit to determine what programs are working and which ones are not, and strengthen our rehabilitation and mental health services. Since the 1970s, California has put ever-stricter regulations on housing development — in the name of the environment and safety, but also often explicitly on a local level “to preserve housing values.” The result is a housing shortage that has been growing worse for a generation. We don’t need higher taxes and more regulations. We’ve raised taxes to fund affordable housing, through SB 2 and the cap-and-trade program, and it’s being put to use to build rent-capped units at grossly inflated costs thanks to systems designed with everything in mind except efficiency.


We need to streamline state programs for vulnerable populations, deregulate to encourage housing development, and start treating housing as a critical human need and not an impact that needs years of CEQA review before approval. In addition, new methods to finance infrastructure that reduce the heavy local reliance on development impact fees to fund municipal services are vital.

CLIMATE

During the 2020 fire season, an estimated 4.3 million acres burned, the most since record-keeping began. These forest fires emit more carbon emissions than all the cars on the road for an entire year. Sadly, those emissions are not included by the state in their scoping plan.


Climate change is not the primary cause of California’s recent super fires. Misguided efforts have prohibited environmental health.


Climate change must be addressed holistically. I believe Sacramento can do better. The Legislature voted down my bill (SB 495) that sought to smartly update California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 to require the California Air Resources Board to count emissions from wildfires into its pollution scoping plan. We have to address massive wildfires that are now causing carbon emissions comparable to the state’s vehicle emissions, not to mention their other harms. Climate is one factor, but even more important is our decision to ignore forest fuels while pretending that leaving forests unmanaged is good for the environment. We must get on a sustainable path.

GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE, WASTE AND FRAUD

The state paid roughly $20 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims during the pandemic. Your tax dollars are being wasted by politicians and no one is held responsible. Their policies don’t match with the realities and needs of Californians.


California has no plan to recoup those funds.


We need to provide greater oversight and accounting of distributed funds. Have clawbacks written into state contracts for underperforming entities. California’s state government is trying to solve so many problems at once that it often does the basic jobs of government badly and expensively. We need to focus on fundamentals – public safety, infrastructure – and ensure Californians are getting good value for their tax dollars.

ENERGY

California consumers pay electricity rates that are 60 percent higher than the national average.


Offsetting costs to consumers with ever-increasing bills for an unstable power grid is unacceptable.


We need to pause the regulators’ demands to reinvent the power supply based on an arbitrary schedule. Californians’ deserve reliable and affordable electricity. I will appoint a Public Utilities Commission that gets back to basics — safe, affordable, and reliable power. It is 2022 and we live in the richest country in the world. And yet our high power bills buy us brownouts on hot summer days and catastrophic wildfires sparked by an antiquated, failing power grid. Californians should not be in the dark or on the hook for experimental and unreliable energy sources. The state must move responsibly, and not at the expense of safety and jobs. To have balance we need to make sure there is other generation — natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind and solar.

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