Former Rep. Tom Campbell told a Culver City Chamber of Commerce audience Friday that California needs to “address a system where we spend more than we take in — not accidentally, but quite [purposely].” (Photo by Gary McCarthy)
Story Created:
Jul 31, 2009 at 1:54 PM PST
Story Updated:
Jul 31, 2009 at 1:54 PM PST
In remarks to a lunchtime gathering of the Culver City Chamber of Commerce, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Tom Campbell called for renewed bipartisanship in the handling of California’s deep fiscal woes.
The July 24 speech by the former congressman and state budget director came on the eve of a final legislative compromise to close the state’s $26 billion deficit.
Now on the law school faculty at Chapman University, Campbell is eyeing his party’s 2010 nomination for the state’s highest office. In a frequently wonky presentation — complete with follow-along handouts circulated to the audience — Campbell floated several ideas he said could put California on the road to fiscal stability.
“I’m being as pragmatic as I can be,” he said. “I’m not here offering political doctrinaire dogma.”
One of the proposals: an approach modeled on a process used in Arkansas, where the state banks one year’s worth of tax revenues, allows it to accrue interest, then spends it the following year. Still, said Campbell, “the long-term solution is to slow the rate of growth in spending.”
“I’m prepared to deal in specifics, even if it’s not politically palatable,” said Campbell. “You can’t put a lot of trust in a candidate who says, ‘I can’t tell you until I get the job.’”
Delineating several core principles over the course of his speech — rejecting, for example, proposals to increase taxes on the wealthiest Californians (those behind such ideas “might be engaged in class warfare … or politics. They’re not engaged in fairness”) — Campbell called on lawmakers to strive harder for cooperation in their handling of the state’s economy.
“The word non-negotiable should never pass your lips,” said the onetime state senator, who served in the finance post under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004-05. “Don’t demonize the other side. I would hope that we can restore the concept of shared vision.”
In a question-and-answer session that followed his remarks, Campbell was asked whether California Highway Patrol officers should be posted outside hospital emergency rooms to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving care.
While acknowledging his belief that “fundamentally, illegal immigration hurts our nation,” Campbell’s response was unqualified.
“If someone is coughing,” he said, “I want them to receive immediate medical attention.”
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