MY POLICY AGENDA
California has the highest poverty rate in the nation. Our schools are failing and millions of forgotten Californians cannot afford decent housing. Millions more must choose between buying a half tank of gas or groceries for their families, this is a choice no one should have to make. All of this happened on Gavin Newsom’s watch. Here are John Cox’s priorities to fix California.
Affordability
If Gavin Newsom cared about struggling California families, he wouldn’t support regressive taxes that hit the poor hardest. Caltrans is one of the most corrupt bureaucracies on the planet, spending more than double the national average to build and maintain a mile of highway. Voters can fight back by passing Proposition 6 to repeal this onerous tax. [link to Gas Tax page with posted stories of John and the gas tax. California’s sky-high sales taxes, vehicle license fees, and the highest gasoline taxes in the nation are a major reason so many families just can’t make ends meet anymore. These high fees are a major reason California now has the highest poverty rate in the nation. The most urgent need right now is to repeal the new vehicle license and gas tax increases.
Millions of Californians are struggling. They are the forgotten ones falling through the cracks. Their choices are either working two or three jobs to afford basic housing, groceries, and energy, or moving their families out of California. For seven years as Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom did nothing to take on the privileged class of lobbyists, politicians and insiders who have rigged the system to their advantage. John Cox vows as Governor to take on the special interests and, in his words, “clean out the barn”.
Environment & Energy
California needs an environmental policy free from the corrupting influence of special interests on both sides. One that manages our forests, and delivers clean air and drinking water.
Any environmental or energy policy in California must focus on creative solutions that prioritize both environmental protection and the ability of Californians forgotten by the Sacramento political class to afford to pay their rent and put food on the table for their families.
John Cox supports clean energy efforts and that begins at home by driving an electric car. He opposes any new or expanded offshore oil drilling because he believe its important to focus on what we can do to ensure we protect California’s coastline, natural habitat and ocean waters.
As Governor, John Cox will work to continue California’s environmental stewardship by working to expand clean energy options.
Healthcare
If you think access to quality health care is tough now, imagine if the DMV was in charge. If Gavin Newsom gets his way, expect the same long lines at your doctor’s waiting room as at your local DMV office. And since the prices will be set by the politicians, the lobbyists will have a field day padding the bills. Long lines, lower quality, higher costs. John Cox will take on Pharma, the HMO’s and the insurance companies and put health care consumers back in charge.
Homelessness: Time to Get Serious
In Gavin Newsom’s San Francisco, the playgrounds are littered with drug needles and the sidewalks are covered with human feces. Instead of fixing the root problem, they’ve just hired $130,000 a year “poop police” to walk around the city with shovels. That’s not a policy, it’s an admission of defeat.
Unlike other states, the majority of those on California streets are there simply because they’ve been priced out of their homes. By rapidly increasing the supply of affordable housing, we can help those people help themselves, and then focus on treatment options for the mentally ill and substance addicts. Two different problems. Two different solutions. John Cox will prioritize them both.
Housing
It shouldn’t cost twice as much to build a house in California as in other states. John Cox spent decades building and renovating housing in other states at less than half the California cost. Red tape, taxes, sweetheart contract deals, fees and outdated environmental rules have created this problem. The answer is to streamline the approval process for building housing and remove the artificial barriers put in place by the lobbyists and politicians.
Earlier this year John Cox proposed a plan to build more housing and spur economic growth through a reform of the California Environment Quality Act. Click here to read Thinking Boldly About Housing in California and CEQA.
Immigration: Fixing a Broken System
John Cox flatly rejects Gavin Newsom’s “sanctuary state” policies that have allowed violent criminal aliens to escape prosecution. Cox favors what he calls “smart immigration” that favors those with skills needed to fill specific worker shortages instead of competing with Americans for jobs. He also supports securing the border to stem the flow of illegal guns and human trafficking that’s plaguing our inner cities.
Transportation: Cox opposes the High Speed Rail Project in contrast to his opponent Gavin Newsom. He believes that we can better invest in roads, highways and more efficient transit projects. As Governor he will call for CEQA Reform for Highway Projects (modeled on prior legislation affecting sports stadiums; exceptions for threats to health and safety, Native American heritage sites, etc.).
In addition there are billions in reforms that can get projects moving now. Including but not limited to, dedicating a percentage of motor vehicle sales and use taxes to transportation projects, dedicate percentage of “cap-and-trade” fees to transportation projects, dedicate vehicle insurance taxes to transportation funding, $100 million redirected bond payments and cap-and-trade funds currently allocated to High Speed Rail to transportation projects.
Water & Agriculture: The complete failure of the Sacramento establishment to provide the necessary funding, authorization, and will to build adequate surface water storage is the single greatest reason California continues to suffer unnecessary water shortages. Even the most recent approval of funds by the California Water Commission for both the Sites and Temperance Flat reservoirs are but a fraction of the funds needed to complete these two vital water storage projects. John Cox will prioritize these projects and also bring the focus back to protecting farmers, ranchers and our food supply.
Paid for by John Cox for Governor 2018
https://johncoxforgovernor.com/my-policy-agenda/
