Mandates and Regulations
The
Legislature has discovered that placing mandates on workers, employers, businesses,
and property owners can be used to create and fund state programs without the
appearance of raising taxes. Even farther removed from citizen control is the
practice of imposing increasingly expensive and intrusive regulations by
state boards and commissions who never face the voters for approval. In
reality, these mandates and regulations are hidden taxes built into the cost
of products, insurance, and services that we all must pay for. As a starting
point, dealing with this problem will require:
- Including a
detailed analysis of costs to consumers and businesses, in addition to the
currently required analysis of costs to the state, as part of each proposed
bill.
- Preparing a
clear accounting of all of the costs of state mandated services so that the
public is aware of and can respond to these government created expenses.
- Establishing
periodic legislative review of state regulations so that elected
representatives can be held accountable for the manner in which the laws they
pass are implemented.
Government Accountability
We
must ensure that elected and appointed government officials can be held
accountable to the public they are representing, and we must remain vigilant
to detect and eliminate wasteful state spending. The one hundred million
dollar Oracle contract scandal and continuing revelations about the state's
participation in the energy crisis are good examples of the need for better
oversight. To help provide this accountability, I support establishing a
state grand jury with the authority to independently investigate questionable
activities by state agencies, departments, boards, commissions, and the
Legislature.
Much
of the problem in detecting and eliminating unnecessary government spending
and regulations lies with the sheer number of laws, programs and rules that
are intertwined in a manner that makes change very difficult. In fact, the
complexity of government requirements has reached a point where it is
unlikely that anyone can undertake a substantial project in California with a
full knowledge of the legal requirements and without violating some law or
regulation along the way. Without a conscious effort toward simplifying and
reducing state codes and regulations, we will continue along a path that
already leads to escalating costs and legal gridlock for lawful projects.
This is another area where my experience with state government will bring a
practical perspective to the Assembly on how our state laws are working and
how to bring about changes in the state bureaucracy.
|
