League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Sacramento County, CA March 2, 2004 Election
	Leslie J. Cochren Answers Questions Candidate for Member of the State Assembly; District 9; Democratic Party

Read the answers from all candidates.

Questions & Answers

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

There are four ways out of our budget crisis: controlling fraud and abuse, cutting spending, raising taxes and deferring some cuts through borrowing. In order to solve our problem we must apply all four approaches. In terms of fraudulent use of taxpayer dollars we need to create legislation that incorporates fiscal and administrative controls to close loopholes. We also need to create laws that have built in penalties for fraud and abuse. I am a firm believer that any state programs that can document waste and has not developed an intervening strategy to reduce the fraud and waste should have funding cut based on a reasonable formula. However, cutting programs and raising taxes require that we look at certain tradeoffs and consequences. Increasing taxes and fees may solve only a certain portion of our problem, borrowing is another factor in our equation. We must ensure that we do not borrow to such extent that those who wish to perpetrate fraud and abuse "mug" us and our children out of our future.

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

The first priority is greater fiscal flexibility for school leaders. I believe that school districts need a significant new fiscal flexibility to use categorical funds to better meet local needs. For this reason I support the block grant approach that would allow a district that currently receives funding from one program to be able to redirect the funds to a different program that satisfies a higher priority for the district.

We need to continue to work on the "real cost of education" model for community colleges This also involves developing a stable, substantial, and ongoing funding mechanism to address the equipment needed to ensure the currency and excellence of community college educational programs.

I support the redefining of the community college share of the Proposition 98 guarantee and its implementation. I am in favor of using student fee increases to augment, not supplant, the state and community college budgets.

I would like to secure a guaranteed property tax back fill for community colleges.

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

I do not favor deregulating water primarily because water is so important to our lives that we must be certain the profits and fraudulent practices do not over shadow the public safety. I do support the use of long term agreements in the purchase of water for example, the long term agreement purchases from Imperial Valley to augment California's effort to reduce the use of Colorado River water to 4.4 million acre-feet per year. This agreement helps California to live within its water allocation.

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

I am in favor of SB 2(Burton). I believe that employers who do not provide coverage create a burden on good employers. Employers should have a choice to either provide health insurance to their workers or pay a fee to a state purchasing pool to provide coverage for workers and their families.

Another important step to providing affordable health insurance coverage is to eliminate administrative waste which amounts to about $14 billion per year in California. When also need to make pharmaceutical companies more accountable for the high cost of perscription drugs by providing access to financial data and government oversight. One of my top priorities when I am elected in the Assembly will be to use California's purchasing power to win discounts on the price of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. I support the creation of pharmaceutical reimportation center located in cities and counties which would allow residents to purchase prescriptions drugs from Canada through the use of Internet technology.