Jobs for Californians and the education of our children.Is there really anything more important right now?We all know someone in desperate need for light at the end of the tunnel right now, if not ourselves.I am running for the office of State Assembly because I want to help turn that light on again.For you, your family, your friends, and mine. A Light at the End of the Tunnel: Creating Jobs Companies are afraid to expand, stay, or come to California and create jobs because of high taxes & fees and a well-deserved reputation of being anti-business.Simply put, California has high levels of rules and regulations and regulatory agencies not seen in other states.Extreme environmentalists block projects from happening by invoking laws and regulations never intended to be applied to particular situations, even for good green energy, job producing projects.
What has Luis Alejo done?He authored a bill that would raise the minimum wage and then index it to inflation.This is bad for new workers, who would never be hired.He voted for Card Check, allowing unionization of a company without an election.He voted for the unionization of child care workers, which includes if a family turns to a grandmother, aunt or a friend for child care, it would force those providers to pay union dues.Alejo wrote a bill that increases employers’ workers compensation liability for injuries that occurred away from work.He voted for a bill that when a company changes contractors for landscape, window cleaning or food cafeteria services, to retain employees of the former contractor for 90 days and thereafter offer continued employment unless the employees’ performance during the 90-day period was unsatisfactory.These are just a few examples of the California economy-killing environment of which Luis Alejo is striving to be the ring master of.
To grow our economy, which will benefit everyone, we need to be practical about creating jobs.Here is how: 1.Stop enacting new job-killing laws and regulations. 2.Sunset existing laws and regulations that affect California’s economy.For those that are unfunded right now, kill them right now.For others, eliminate them over a 3 year period.If they are that important to survive, let a future legislature debate and vote them in again. 3.Loosen rules to give employees and employers more freedom when appropriate. 4.For example, employees in semi-professional positions should be able to choose when they take breaks and at what point over-time kicks in (after 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week).Employers should be able to request that those same employees modify their schedules when conditions warrant, without risk of not being subject to fines and attorney fees for minor adjustments. 5.Hold employers up high.Our economy and workplace is very complex and intertwines with a myriad of federal and local agencies.Before supporting one cause over another, examine how local employers may be affected. Making the Light Shine Brighter: Education It is well understood that we are not preparing our children for jobs when they become adults.The end (getting a job one can live on), depends on the beginning (appropriately educating our kids).Math, science and English communication leads to the ability to apply those skills and then communicating results of analysis is what leads to innovation, which creates jobs.
What has Luis Alejo done?He voted for the California Dream Act, which flaunts Federal policy and diverts available financial assistance from citizens to illegal immigrants.He voted to increase regulations on charter schools, decreasing freedom and flexibility to explore and innovate new models of education and governance.Luis Alejo voted for mandated instruction in social sciences to include the study and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans to the economic, political, and social development of California and the United States of America, with a particular emphasis on portraying their role in contemporary society.This diverts resources and time away from important math & science curriculums which leads to skills that employers want and need.
Here is a path that leads us to where we need to go in education: 1.We have to have a K-12 curriculum that emphasizes skill-building, communication and reasoning in math and science.Higher education needs to de-emphasize “social justice” and other degrees that have no connection to the economic realities of individuals being self-sustaining. 2.For those that simply are not inclined to go to a university or college, they still have to have curriculum for that leads to having a marketable skill, whether it be farming, or one of the traditional trades that provide services and products that people buy. 3.The public education system must be robust and highly functional.The system needs to be able to purge personnel that are not fit to manage classrooms and teach the skills necessary for students to succeed. Keeping the Light On: The State Debt Crisis Have you ever wondered why American Airlines has no paint on its planes and only has the aluminum skin showing?Because they figured out that paint adds several hundred pounds to the plane, and that means extra fuel costs to fly the plane.That is what each government agency, employee, building, and anything else the state buys must be like.It is time to start stripping the airplane known as the State of California of its paint.
What has Luis Alejo done?He voted to eliminate fingerprinting of CalWORKS and CalFresh (food stamps) recipients, taking away a great fraud protection.Alejo voted to allow individuals convicted of any felony drug charge to qualify for the CalFresh program, He voted to establish a blue ribbon task force to consider the creation of a socialist “state bank”.Alejo voted for denying state funding of public works projects by charter cities that have banned the use of project labor agreements (PLAs) imposing higher costs and decisions best left at the local level.
Here is how to make California financially stable: 1.Kill projects like high speed rail.New costs estimates are over $98 billion.Borrowing costs are estimated to be $10 billion a year.The ridership estimates used to rationalize the project are equal to California’s population and ticket prices at half at what other systems around the world charge and they use a 50% operating margin when not one system in the world does better than break even, and most are at a loss. 2.Stop funding entities that do not realistically lead to economic sustenance for state or individual citizens.Our state schools have grown exponentially, but are graduating students with majors that have no connection to being able to get a job.We are investing billions of dollars annually in a system that has no return to the students or state.This has to stop. 3.Significant pension reform must occur for government employees.Like the old General Motors, the state’s finances are dominated by pension liabilities because of poor design and planning.Future beneficiaries are going to have to pay more in contributions and time served, both more in line with the private sector, in order to have checks in retirement. 4.Prudence.California must establish a rainy-day fund and not implement big programs in good times that cannot sustain themselves in economic declines.
If you agree with my solutions, please note that I need to raise substantial funding to counter the significant funding of Alejo’s campaign by union leadership.Please consider supporting my campaign by sending a donation of any size to Bernosky for Assembly 2012, PO Box 2200, Hollister, CA95024-2200.You can send me messages to rob@votebernosky.com, call me at (831) 801-5823, and follow me on Twitter at votebernosky.