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Green Assembly Candidate Says Governor Wrong on Taxes

A Green Party candidate for Assembly said today that the governor's continued claims that voters do not want new taxes to solve the state's budget mess is wrong, and rewards the wealthy and polluters at the expense of the poor, elderly and sick.

"Voters do support increased taxes on liquor and cigarettes to fund education and health care spending. Why won't the governor and the Legislature be honest and move in that direction?" asked Jack Lindblad, a candidate for Assembly in the 39th District in Los Angeles.

He also wants to fix a loophole in Prop. 13 as it applies to business, non-residential property.

"Revenues will be increased by redefining what constitutes a 'sale' of non-residential property. It can then be reassessed by the County Assessor, as can non-residential properties every 10 years even if no sale was made in the interim," explained Lindblad.

He also encouraged the Governor to do more than release non-violent and drug offenders a year early, suggesting that state prisons - which could save billions of dollars in doing so - release non-victim offenders and drug offenders.

"Budgetary spending based on locking people in prison for victimless crimes is misguided policy, way out of control, and not sustainable at the current levels of incarceration. A much smaller, revamped prison system will rein in spending to help meet the budget," he said.

Lindblad also insists that instead of "draconian cuts" by the Governor to social services, he sign universal, single-payer health care legislation, which would "realize 30 percent savings over the current privatized structure, and lower the state budget deficit."

Finally, the state should tax those who pollute the environment.

"Currently our legislative agenda favors corporate interests over the people's interests. But we should reduce overall consumption to lower our levels of greenhouse gas. We need to change from our current 'growth' economy to a 'steady state' economy, where the true cost of fossil fuel is taxed as the cost of doing business," Lindblad said.