senior-spectrum.com

Candidate: Cheryl Bly-Chester
Ballot Designation: Businesswoman/Environmental Engineer
Party: Republican

1. What do you consider the most pressing issue facing California's senior citizens?
There is such a broad spectrum of who constitute Senior Citizens, including income differentials and current health and family/support status, that no one problem alone would represent a Senior Citizen “Most” pressing issue.

The primary concerns facing many senior citizens include inflation, increased taxes (property, sales and hidden taxes) fears of homelessness and abuse; short and long term health care, and planning for their final affairs

2. Do you favor or oppose amending the rates of the following taxes:
Property tax – I’d hang tough and not raise property taxes
State income tax – Please see the “California Contributors Program” at the end of this response:

Vehicle license fee – I will remove the tripling of the vehicle license fee on one primary vehicle per licensed driver. Additional vehicles will continue to be taxed at the triple rate.

Gas tax – This is a hidden tax. I will, at very least, institute measures to bring these taxes into the light. All gasoline prices will be posted at the base price of the gasoline and all of the taxes will be disclosed on the gas receipt and on the pump.

3. Do you favor or oppose putting new restrictions on older drivers?
I do not favor age discrimination of any kind.

4. When putting together the state budget for the next fiscal year, would you change current levels of funding for any of the following programs?
I consider these programs to be valuable and do not propose changes in funding to any of the specific programs.
In-Home Supportive Services
Adult Protective Services
SSI/SSP benefits
Foster Grandparents Program
Brown Bag Program
Senior Companion Program
California Commission on Aging – The commission on the aging has been around for about 30 years and could benefit from a fresh look. As it is now, the governor appoints 19 of the 25 volunteer Commissioners. These slots are often filled with political backers of the governor’s campaign. I would restrict the governors authority in the following way:

Nine of these appointments would come from professional areas specific to Senior’s concerns and should not be entirely up to the whim of the Governor. My suggestion is that 3 Commissioners come from the Geriatric Care/Geriatric Medicine professions, 3 Commissioners come from Tax Accountant/Estate Planning professions, and 3 come from the Social Services/Law Enforcement fields. Of the Remaining 10 appointments made by the governor, at least five must be to Seniors who are on a fixed income with limited assets. The other five appointments will be entirely at the Governor’s discretion.

5. If elected, how will you improve California for seniors and all other residents?
I have a four-pronged approach to Closing the Budget Gap:
1) Root Out Waste Fraud and Abuse
2) Implement Austerity Measures
3) Rein in over-taxation and overspending
4) Implement a Unique “California Contributor Program” beneficial to the both upper-end taxpayers and recipients of State funds.
1) Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

In order to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, I will institute a three-month amnesty program for the reporting of suspected misuse of state funds, fraud perpetrated upon or under cover of the State of California and abuse of State governmental authority. Persons participating in, or having knowledge of such abuse will be able to report this abuse without repercussion if the practice is stopped and restitution made, where appropriate. Reports will be made to the Governor’s office and copied to the agency or department file, with a receipt of delivery and copy kept by the person making the report.

The reports will range from improvement-of-operations type suggestions (how to improve efficiency, money saving measures, eliminating or correcting policies that are unfair, wasteful or abusive, etc.) to criminal acts (e.g.: welfare, disability, or unemployment fraud.) If the criminal acts are reported, corrected and restitution is arranged before the end of the amnesty period, the perpetrators will not be indicted under State laws.

After the amnesty period, the Governor’s office will begin leveling charges that may be answerable with loss of employment, fines, and/or jail time. The charges will not only be against perpetrators of fraud, waste and abuse, but also against anyone who has knowledge of the act (or should have had knowledge based on the person’s position and responsibilities) as aiding and abetting the fraud, waste and abuse.The “Phantom” state employee and pockets of buried funds not being used for the intended purpose will immediately become history. State employees and citizens will no longer feel helpless witnessing the same inefficiencies every day and having no power to make a difference. The State will prosecute waste, fraud, and abuse to the fullest extent of the law. Estimates have been made that there is approximately $4 billion in waste fraud and abuse within the State system. Additionally, attrition of State employees due to firings for waste, fraud, and abuse after the close of the amnesty period will mitigate some possible State employee layoffs.

2) Austerity Measures
I would first consolidate and reorganize the Executive Branch, realigning what are now convoluted reporting chains, making fewer appointments and suspending some functions until we can afford their good services again.

All Commissions will be required to state the year they were initiated, the original mission, what is the progress on accomplishing the original mission and how and when the mission changed over the years under what authority. They will also report the original budget, what the budget was 10 years ago and what the budget is today. This information will be used to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the commissions and committees to see if there is room to consolidate functions, pool support services, or otherwise reduce the burden or increase the service to the people of California.

3) Reining in Over-taxation and overspending
I will first require the Legislators to be accountable for their spending priorities by going on record with ranking every item in the budget (in groupings) based on importance and taking into consideration whether the item receives federal funding. All funding from within the State will be considered equally, whether it comes from the General Fund or from special fees, taxes, or fines. Once everything in the Budget is ranked, the lower ranked items will receive particular scrutiny to review whether the budgeting levels are warranted.

I will use the Governors Line-item veto to eliminate unnecessary future spending proposals and not allow major taxation increases without the legislators overcoming my vetos.

4) California Contributors Program
My proposal will help balance the budget, is taxpayer friendly and beneficial to all strata of our society. It will resolve the issue of taxpayer money going to controversial programs that are vehemently opposed by many individual taxpayers. It will also curtail the influence of special interest groups and campaign finance corruption.

California is a land of abundance. We have wonderful weather, bountiful resources, lively cultures and brilliant people. We also have one of the most generous populations. The economy of California may be suffering and the budget may be in need of repair, but we still have abundance.

When people feel the abundance, generosity will ensue. My plan will enable contributors to exercise some control over their contributions. The following plan will help bring the economy around in a way that will feel safe to be generous.

Those taxpayers who itemize their charitable deductions will be encouraged to give a portion of those contributions to the State. The incentive will be that for every dollar they volunteer to the State, the contributors will be able to claim $1.50 charitable contribution on their tax returns to the Franchise Tax Board. Therefore, they can get into a lower tax bracket and reduce their overall tax liability to the General Fund.

The contributors can allocate their contributions to the specific budget items that they want to support. In this way, they can give directly to their pet State-funding program instead of giving money to political campaigns intending to influence a vote for that project.

Examples:
• Farmers can give to a line item that promotes water subsidies to growers while lowering their tax liability to the General Fund.
• Art patrons can give to the arts with the same effect.
• Pro-Choice advocates can give to their cause so that Pro-Lifers can feel secure that their contributions are not supporting something they oppose.
• Contributors can earmark their own County's funding, so that their volunteered extra money comes back to support local causes.

To avoid competition between state and other charitable organizations, contributions to the state could not exceed 50% of the total charitable contributions made in a single tax year - you can still give to your church or other non-profit organization. To take advantage of the tax benefit, the tax-payer would have to make equal contributions to other causes.
Additionally, if a line item in the budget receives the total budgeted amount, then no funding will be needed from the General Fund. If the item receives more than is budgeted, then the remainder can be set aside for the following year and it will flag the Legislators to consider extra funding without drawing from the General Fund. Conversely, if the item does not receive any contributions, the effect would be to reduce that particular budget and draw less money from the General Fund.