League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
San Bernardino County, CA June 3, 2014 Election
	Scott Markovich Answers Questions Candidate for Member of the State Assembly; District 33

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. How would you prioritize the fiscal choices the Legislature must make to align the state’s income and spending?

The main purpose of government is to provide necessary infrastructure so that its citizens can live their lives. However, the government of the State of California grew in size, made pension promises and borrowed billions of dollars during the economic boom before 2008. It was not sustainable.

The State of California was rescued through temporary tax measures approved by the voters on November 6, 2012, obligations and deficits still loom. Now, it is time for the legislators and the governor to balance the budget and negotiate with the state employees' unions to reach sustainable salaries and benefits to match the actuarials.

At the same time we are reducing our expenses, we need to rapidly examine California's business regulations and taxes to retain and attract business to our state. The recent relocation of 3,000 jobs from California to Texas by Toyota is a wake up call.

We have to be smart about reforming state taxes in order to motivate what is best for the state economy. Tax reductions to businesses will encourage business growth that will multiply the tax dollars equaling more money in the public sector.

California government needs to provide infrastructure that is sustainable through our tax dollars, bond financing or community crowd funding. Markovich believes both Democrats and Republicans can agree on this.

We need to structure our government in such a way to allow for the ups and downs of the economy that is why it is so important to have our government be as efficient as possible.

The State of California currently has 381 different agencies providing services to California residents. I think we need to look at this.

With new technology today, we can better track employee productivity and improve morale based on rewarding productive employees.

Residents of California have a vested interest in their government. If government employees are efficient, accountable and have incentive to do so, then the residents of California benefit. But, if government employees are inefficient, they pay for it. If government employees do something wrong, they pay for it. I represent the best interests of the people. We need to have systems to prevent fraud, waste and abuse to where we catch it early before it is too costly.

One of the biggest priorities of the state is our water system, the delta and its related infrastructure. I recognize that this project needs the support of the voters to be accomplished. Our state legislature and governor need to share the importance of this project with all Californians. The delta is California's lifeline.

Another big priority is the drought and how we manage our water. California has historically gone through feast or famine with regard to our water so we need to manage it through distribution, development and conservation. But in the meantime, communities are at risk of running out of water, our agricultural community is being irreparably harmed and we are facing a very dangerous fire season.

Our education system is failing in that we were the tenth lowest state in our score issued by Education Week in January 2014 and we spend the lowest on education among 50 states. That is unacceptable and has to change. I strongly believe more money needs to go into the classroom and teachers and less money in programs, frameworks and testing.

We need to find a way to make the path to higher education and/or technical training more attractive, accessible and affordable. The decisions made after a student leaves high school impact their future success. We all benefit from an increase in productive citizens.

The health and welfare of California residents is important and with the implementation of The Affordable Care Act we are on our way with the healthcare aspect. During hard economic times, it is imperative that we provide a safety net for families while providing pathways to jobs. We need to make doing business in California competitive with other states.

Our state highways are a very important infrastructure that we maintain and provide to California residents. Our energy grid is in need of upgrades and its security is at risk. We need our police, firemen, our court system and the prison system.

The truth is we are being forced to make cuts to the budget and doing that is never easy, additionally it has to be done soon, thoughtfully and carefully. The future of California rides on a wise and thoughtful legislature and educated voters. I like to think about if this bill is passed, what will it mean in the real world and make my decision accordingly.

2. Given our current drought condition, concern for water rights and usage is an important issue. What solutions would you support to address our water problems?

I think it is the role of the state legislature to gather historical data on snowpack and rain, know how that snowpack and rain was distributed to stakeholders, how much went into the rivers and out to the sea, look at how we can capture more of the water during the periods when we have a lot of rain to store for those years when we don't have much rain, we need to even this out by capturing water, both though conservation, wiser use of our water and using recycled water.

The state needs to facilitate its water companies to put policies and infrastructure in place to encourage smarter use of water, offer programs for water saving devices, penalize high water use and reward drought tolerant landscaping. I know a lot of water is wasted running the water to get the right temperature there has to be a way to control water temperature for more efficient use.

We need to know who owns the water in California, how was the water right developed, what is its use and how much water do they receive. I know it would be a very sticky legal issue if the state were to suggest any redistribution of water rights, however, water is something we need to survive, access to it is a very basic right. This issue of water storage and fair water distribution would require the state government to find a solution. The state can provide something of great value to the stakeholders and that is the infrastructure to store and distribute the water in exchange there may need to be concessions made by the stakeholders to make the distribution of water more equitable.

With regard to the Delta Smelt, we need to find a balance between protecting it and the needs of humans and agriculture. Both are important. In drought years, I think the sustainability of the agriculture economy becomes more important even though we need to balance that out some to keep the fish alive as a species. It's a balance between a species and the environment and the agricultural economy. It was the lack of water that caused the two needs to conflict. We propose to balance out the water supply.

3. California high school students rank lower than many states in student performance. What do you see as the ongoing role of the Legislature in addressing this problem?

I think the legislators actually hindered it in that a centralized form of education doesn't work. The standardized testing we have put in place has actually hurt education putting too much pressure on the students and teachers. We need to provide the funding and allow local school districts the freedom to education their children not tell them how to do it. We need to put an emphasis on directing more funding into the classroom with the teacher and students.

I think Common Core may have been a good idea but is being poorly implemented as it is being mandated by the state yet the state is not providing any financial support.

4. What other major issues do you think the Legislature must address? What are your own priorities?

Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure, water, energy and highways.

Water is our lifeblood and clearly a big problem for California, it is time we solved it. I think we get enough rain in the wet years to sustain us over the dry years, if we capture more and use it wisely.

Our grid is at risk of failure and/or threat of attack. This is a very serious issue; we all depend on electricity to function. In September of 2011, the largest power outage occurred in California and left 7 million people without power. San Diego was brought to a standstill, as people could not buy gas. We need to create a backup system to address the possibility of a grid failure. In April of 2013, an underground vault, just outside of San Jose, belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric was attacked by sniper fire. And according to Newsmax, the 20-minute assault knocked out 17 giant transformers that fed electricity to the Silicon Valley, resulting in about $16 million in damage. Unknown shooters escaped before police arrived and continue to remain at-large.

Our highways provide us the freedom of travel, the ability to go to work and facilitate our economy through the delivery of goods. We couldn't live without them and they need to be maintained, widened, improved, this is a crucial infrastructure responsibility of the state.

I propose to create a crowd-funding program for our cities and counties that would allow residents to invest in their own infrastructure. They have a vested interest in improving their community and could benefit in both receiving a rate of return on their investment as well as enjoying the infrastructure their investment created. This method of funding community projects will bring the community together and give the residents more power to create their own future.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. References to opponents are not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: May 22, 2014 09:54
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