Contributor

John Campbell

John Campbell (R-Irvine) is an Assemblyman representing the 70th District in Orange County. Mr. Campbell is the Vice-Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee. He is the only CPA in the California State legislature and recently received a national award as Freshman Republican Legislator of the Year. He represents the cities of Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Woods and Lake Forest. He can be reached through his Assembly website and through the website for his California Senate campaign. [go to Campbell index]

Reforming
Submitting bills to change the status quo...
[John Campbell] 3/1/04

More Bills: Last week I highlighted some of the bills I am carrying this year to repeal bad legislation passed in the last couple of years. Here are some of the other bills I am carrying this year:

Government Holiday Reduction: (AB 2460 ) State employees (including Assemblymembers and their staff) now get 12 paid holidays every year. This is in addition to vacation, sick time and "extra days" like the day after Thanksgiving or the day after Christmas. Do you get 12 holidays each year? Probably not even close. Most other states' employees don't have that many either. My bill would reduce the number to 10. But, rather than eliminate any specific holiday, it would allow each department of the state to pick whichever 2 holidays they want to work based on the need in their area of government. This would conservatively save $20 million per year in overtime not including the increased taxpayer convenience benefit of having your local DMV office open for two more days a year.

Pension Reform: (AB 2903 ) One of the biggest budget busters for California is the overly generous pensions enjoyed by state workers. Like the holidays mentioned above, you are very unlikely to have a pension plan that allows you to retire as early as a state worker with so much of your highest pay. The cost of these ever escalating pension benefits is one of the huge problems with the budget in future years as tax receipts cannot keep pace with these costs. You cannot change someone's pension that they have already received, but you can alter those not yet in place. I will be carrying Governor Schwarzenegger's proposal to moderate these pension benefits for future retirees which will save $4.6 billion over the next 20 years.

California Performance Review: (ACA 27) I will also carry the legislation to implement whatever restructuring of California government comes out of the Governor's complete review of the state's 417 departments and agencies and commissions to eliminate waste and duplication and to streamline bureaucracy and save money. This review will be conducted over a period of 6 months by over 150 people.

Taxpayer Bill of Rights: (AB 2421 ) This bill would prohibit the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) from releasing or threatening to release a taxpayer's personal or financial information to the public. The FTB has had many cases of taxpayer abuse in the last few years that make the IRS look customer friendly. These abuses must be curbed.

I am also carrying bills related to reforming the personal property tax depreciation schedule, laying the foundation for increased use of clean burning hydrogen in energy production, putting a check on the Public Utilities Commission so they cannot overstep their powers as they did during the Davis administration, eliminating the privacy invading requirement to file your tax returns online, reforming the tort system relative to multiple lawsuits for the same Proposition 65 violation, and some technical bills having to do with dissenters rights, apportionment of business income, and trusts.

If you want more information on any of these bills, just send me an e-mail.

No rest for the weary you say? I suppose. But with each passing day the state wastes more money, invades more people's privacy, over regulates some business out of state and pollutes more air. We need to at least try to move forward on all of these fronts.

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