Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 53

PLATFORM HIGHLIGHTS

Reverse the income shift from poor to rich.
- Double the minimum wage and index it to the cost of living.
- Make the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes.
- Enact a split-roll property tax so that corporations pay for the actual value of their holdings. No property tax for primary homes under 3,000 sq. ft.
- Replace regressive sales taxes with progressive local income taxes that are deductible from federal taxes (This will give Californians a net tax cut of $5 billion a year).
- Institute a California basic income to end poverty and homelessness.
- Provide jobs at a living wage to all those who request one.

Protect the coastal environment.
- Make the coast a place to visit, not a transportation corridor by discouraging through traffic within the coastal area and by subsidizing shuttles and trolleys in the coastal areas
- Expand the coastal zone to include all of the 53rd Assembly District.
- Block new developments in the coastal zone that harm the environment or contribute to increased traffic.
- Build a light rail system to and from the coastal area that provides easy mobility for residents and visitors.
-End fossil fuel dependence by stimulating electric vehicle production and shifting to mass transit.
- Require solar power on all new construction.
- Introduce legislation for California to comply with the Koyto Treaty.
- Significantly reduce LAX flights over the next 10 years by replacing intra-state flights with a California bullet train network and by moving many remaining international and U.S. flights to Palmdale (with bullet train connections) and other regional airports.
- Curb flights at Santa Monica and other area airports.
- Stop Playa Vista Phase Two.

Health Care
- Legislate SB 921 - Single-payer health care, which will provide ALL Californians with quality health care without a net increase in taxes.
- Make the state an "owner of last resort" to prevent hospital closings by private corporations.
- Increase funding for county hospitals.
- Enforce strong patient to nursing care ratios in all hospitals.

Housing
- Repeal the bi-partisan Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing (anti-rent control) Act which allows rents to be raised without limit when an apartment becomes vacant.
- Establish the right to housing upon demand. Require 50 percent low and very low income units in all new construction in the coastal zone.
- Provide tax credits for home owners who sell their residence to persons of a racial group that is under-represented in their census track. End segregation once and for all.

Education
- Make California public school teachers the best paid in the nation. This is an investment in the next generation.
- Begin foreign language education in grade one. Support bilingual and multi-cultural education.
- Free quality public education from Head Start to post-graduate. There is no such thing as "too much education."

California State Budget
- Oppose the Schwarzenegger $15 billion bond boondoggle that will put Californians in hock paying the interest for years.
- Raise taxes on those most able to pay, the wealthy and the corporations. No cuts in education or social services.
- End the imbalance between what Californians pay the federal government and what it receives back. Converting from sales tax to income tax will cut this imbalance by half ($27 billion a year). Investigate how to get more services from the feds.
- Support Prop. 56 to cut the percentage needed in the legislature to pass a budget.

Privacy and Due Process
- Repeal the Patriot Act and other violations of our constitutional rights.- Increase penalties for misuse of personal information by government, corporations and telemarketers.

Peace
- Introduce a resolution in the Assembly for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, and for an end to unilateralism in U.S. policy.
- Remove all weapons of mass destruction from California. End nuclear development. Decommission nuclear power plants.
- Create a state Department of Peace to promote non-military employment, study non-violence, racial understanding and toleration of ethnic diversity.
- Provide employment and/or income, at no cut in pay for all workers displaced from military-related employment.

Crime and Punishment
- Allow police to concentrate on violent crimes by decriminalizing "crimes without victims."
- Repeal the "Three Strike" law.
- Separate first time offenders in prison from "hardened criminals."
- Focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. Provide as much education as prisoners request.
- Crack down on corporate crime, hate crimes and crimes against the environment.
- End private prisons.

Campaign Reform
- Restore democracy by getting big money out of elections. Impose strict contribution limits.
- Public funding of elections. Require media using the public's airways to give free time to candidates.
- Adopt instant runoff for majority rule, and proportional representation to protect the interests of miniorites.

Other issues
- Allow undocumented workers to obtain California Drivers Licenses and auto insurance.
- Support a woman's right to choose, without government interference
- Create a democratically elected agency to produce, distribute and sell California's energy. Promote democratically-run municipal power authorities.
- Establish an independent special prosecutor to investigate sexual harassment complaints against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Equal treatment for Gay couples, including the right to marriage.
- Reparations for descendants of slaves.
- Abolish the death penalty.
- Defend Medical Marijuana Law.
- Put California on record to repeal NAFTA, and other anti-labor, anti- environmental free trade agreements.