California State AssemblyCandidate for District 75

      Reducing the high cost of regulations, taxes and fees on development will go a long way to encourage more housing development at all levels.  Development and impact fees range from $50k to $150k per unit.  CEQA is a major cost of housing as many lawsuits, some anonymous and duplicative, cause delays and waste money.  Updating CEQA’s lawsuit rules while continuing to meet environmental objectives will encourage higher infill density and transit-oriented development.         Serving on the Assembly Local Government committee, with 14 years experience on the Escondido city council, we slashed development fees to among the lowest in the county.  The majority in the state legislature so readily exempt CEQA regulations for professional football or basketball stadiums yet oppose streamlining regulations for housing or water infrastructure.  This doesn't make sense.        In California, total fees can amount to anywhere from 6% to 18% and higher of the median price of a new home depending on location. There is no standardized system to estimate development fees causing unpredictability which can delay or block projects altogether.   There is a wide variation of type and amount of fees between cities. For example, one city may require new development to pay a park impact fee of $350 per single family home, while another's fee is $55,000 per single family home.      We must reduce the high costs to develop housing, including development and impact fees and the regulatory loopholes that add costs to the final price of a home.

 

A reliable, sustainable, affordable water supply is critical to our arid, agricultural region.  As a member of the Rural Caucus in the State Assembly, I work to bring awareness of our region's issues to the forefront.  I have authored several bills to streamline regulations like CEQA to build reclaimed water pipelines through existing urbanized channels to farmland (Toilet to Tree program), to encourage increasing water storage by 25% in existing reservoirs and funding for water storage and desalinization plants.  Our families, businesses and farms need a reliable, affordable water supply.      I have authored two bills to bring reclaimed, recycled water to farms to bring usable irrigation water to groves and crops, create a sustainable supply of water, reduce the amount of water currently being sent to the ocean through the outfall from the reclaimation plant and open up capacity in the plant to clean more rainwater runoff that now goes into the ocean polluting it.  Incentivizing the use of reclaimed water will help the environment and create a sustainable water supply.       My bill to allow existing water reservoirs to increase capacity by 25% if needing to replace their outdated dam system will also bring more potable water to our region and save ratepayers money.

       I support policies that ensure every student has access to a safe and healthy school, and ensure their education is designed to successfully prepare them for college, career tech or trade school. We need to work harder to provide and expand access to high quality education programs for historically disadvantaged students, by helping them 'break barriers" to learn job ready skills.  That is why I joint-authored AB 1111 to support career tech education for students with disabilities, previous incarceration, living in poverty or veterans and successfully received a $15 million budget to support it.        I serve on the State's Blue Ribbon Commitee for Early Childhood Education and am working on expanding opportunities for low income families to access quality education, pre-school and child care.  Early education can reap benefits throughout the student's life leading to a lifetime of learning and success in careers and beyond.         Local decisions best serve students, so reducing unfunded new state-mandated activities and simplifying existing programmatic duplicative reporting requirements is important, including alignment between state and federal reporting requirements. We need art, music and physical education in our schools
     Our students deserve the highest quality educators in their classroom, yet we have a teacher shortage.  We can protect Title II funding, extend the teacher probationary period from two to three years and expand teacher credential reciprocity with other states.       California needs to actively seek to secure qualified teachers in critical shortage areas like bilingual, special education, and STEM classes.  As a member of the Select Committee on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, we need special education reforms for accountability, local control, and funding for the growing number and increased severity of students identified with special needs. I have supported increased access to early intervention and protect the rights of students with disabilities at the national and state level.