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LWV League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Los Angeles County, CA November 2, 2004 Election
Smart Voter Political Philosophy for James R. Smith

Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 53

[photo]
This information is provided by the candidate

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.

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The League of Women Voters does not support or oppose any candidate or political party.
Created from information supplied by the candidate: May 4, 2004 16:01
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