Orange County Register

Each week, The Watchdog asks this question of one elected official:

If you could cut one thing from the budget, what would it be and why?

OUR DISCLAIMER: The Watchdog does not agree or disagree with the opinions expressed by said elected officials; we simply serve as the conduit between you, the people, and the folks you have elected to represent you. As the saying goes, the people get the government they deserve!

Background on state Assemblyman Van Tran:

• Republican representing the 68th Assembly District, including Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Newport Beach, Stanton and Westminster
• Highest ranking Vietnamese-American elected official in the nation
• Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on International Trade; vice-chair of the Judiciary Committee; member of the Utilities and Commerce, Governmental Organization,  and Community Colleges committees; member of the Asian Pacific Islander Joint Caucus
• His family came to America in 1975, evacuated by the U.S. Army a week before the fall of Saigon. Originally settling in Michigan, the Trans moved to Orange County while Van was in high school. He interned for Congressman Robert Dornan and for State Senator (now Congressman) Ed Royce.
• Bachelor’s in political science, UCI; master’s in public administration and juris doctorate, Hamline University School of Law in Saint Paul
• Managing partner of his own law practice, served on the Garden Grove Planning Commission, was vice mayor of Garden Grove
• Married, wife Cyndi; one child, Alex.

WATCHDOG: Van Tran, if you could cut one thing from the budget, what would it be and why?

VAN TRAN: California needs a realistic state budget that cuts wasteful government spending and gets us back on track for economic success. Tax increases are not the answer to our budget problems. When then-Gov. Wilson increased taxes in 1992, state revenues declined.

Instead, Republicans have proposed a spending limit that will control state spending and create a rainy-day reserve for the future. We’ve also proposed an education budget plan that will give our schools a year-over-year increase in funding - without raising taxes or increasing the deficit.

The real issue is the refusal to cut spending despite a deficit near $20 billion. Raising taxes to pay for more government spending is the wrong approach when hardworking families continue to pay more for gas and groceries. So I would like to highlight just one of the many cuts we need to make to bring our budget in line with our revenue.

As the Governor suggested in back in January of 2007, it is time to conform the state’s welfare program to the federal welfare-to-work program signed by President Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s. The idea was to give welfare recipients a hand-up, not a hand-out. Under this reform, California would receive nearly $500 million dollars from the federal government to pay for the welfare program for up to five years if recipients could prove they were looking for work. After the five years, welfare payments stop and the person is expected to become a self-sustaining member of society. California refused those work requirements and forfeited the $500 million, choosing instead to pay the $500 million and more so that welfare recipients never had to be employed. In the midst of this near $20 billion shortfall, I think our state can be at least as conservative as Bill Clinton.

It is time to realize the nearly one billion dollars in savings that are available to our state by ending this endless cycle of poverty in some families. By accepting the federal welfare requirements, our state can not only bring in $500 million, we can stop paying $500 million in state funds and we can help families move off of welfare. We could extract an additional $80 million from the welfare system by sending investigators to recipients’ homes in an effort to root out fraud. That would require recipients to frequently reenroll in the program, so that the state can more closely monitor their eligibility.

We could also sell off billions in state surplus property, implement the California Performance Review, cut the salary of state boards and commissions and send out welfare payments electronically - and that is just for starters. Democrat lawmakers’ only real cuts are to local public safety programs, which will result in the loss of over 1,000 front-line police officers and deputy sheriffs who put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities. It also includes a dangerous direct discharge parole plan that would let thousands of serious criminals go unsupervised without having to check in with their parole officer.

We are now many days into the new fiscal year without a state budget agreement. Recently,  Democrats on the conference committee put forward a budget proposal that increases taxes on working families by $9 billion, cuts local public safety programs and does nothing to reform the budget system. If these are their priorities then they should be willing to bring them up in a public debate. What are we waiting for? It’s time we debate this budget proposal, which is a roadblock to negotiations, so we can get beyond it and craft the responsible, balanced budget Californians deserve.

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