Know Your Future Governator: Tom Campbell

This week in Know Your Future Governator, meet Tom Campbell!

Currently a visiting professor at the Chapman University (Hey I went there!) School of Law, Campbell has a long history in politics, serving five terms as a Representative in the United States Congress and spent one year as the Director of Finance for the state of California from 2004-2005, the last year that the state balanced the budget without additional taxes, borrowing or dipping into reserves.

Campbell has a PhD in Economics (something that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling) from the University of Chicago and his JD from Harvard (ok, we get it, you’re a smart dude). He served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Byron White and was mentored by Milton Friedman. Campbell taught law at Stanford University for five years, and was also Dean of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business for five years.

Ok, with a record like that how is this guy not 105 years old? Clearly, I think we can all agree that he is well qualified. If you’re not appropriately impressed by the short list that I have presented here, feel free to check out the full list at his website:
http://www.campbell.org/meet-tom/campbell-record

Now for the important stuff!

While Tom lists out several of his platforms individually, I am going to lump a few of them together because otherwise, 1) this will get extremely convoluted and repetitive and 2) I will be late for a barbeque and I’m getting hungry.

On the budget & tax reform: First, CA should be able to pass a budget with a simple majority (YES PLEASE!) provided expenditures have not increased more than inflation and population growth from the prior year. A greater increase should require 2/3 of the votes. Also, if the budget deadline passes and no budget has been agreed upon, we need a provision to continue the previous year’s budget so state citizens do not go without necessary services. Don’t forget the old Republican mantra: no new taxes. In fact, Campbell wants to lower taxes by constraining spending. How does he plan to do that? The infamous line-item veto. I have to say, I do not feel comfortable that a Governor can go through a budget passed by my state representative and cut out certain things that HE (and maybe not anyone else) thinks are unnecessary. Last, but certainly not least, Tom wants to completely overhaul our income tax system and make the state income tax a straight percentage of whatever you pay in federal income taxes. Hmmmm…..

On growing the CA economy, innovation and competitiveness: Campbell believes that it should be written into state law that mortgage writers and lenders in CA have to offer the best terms available to the purchaser, rather than the most lucrative. (Good luck convincing all the legislators’ bank buddies to go along with that.) To preserve California’s innovation and competitive edge, Tom is strongly against cutting any more into education, including K-12, community college, and the UC and state school. (I think I love this guy.)

On education: See above! He also suggests programs to increase parental involvement and mentorship such as one that is currently implemented between the Haas School of Business and the city of Oakland. He also cites a Pleasanton program which embeds character education into the curriculum as a way to keep public school’s safe. To attract and retain good teachers, he suggests relaxing the certification standards so professionals with masters or doctorate degrees could also be eligible to teach elementary or secondary schools. Also, he wants to increase bonuses for good teachers and reduce class sizes even further.

On immigration: Besides imposing severe sanctions on employers who hire illegal immigrants, Campbell wants to implement an e-verify system to make it easier for employers to ensure that their employees are legal. With the system, an employer can simply log in and make sure that the employee’s name matches the social security number he or she gave.

On water: Clearly, we need more storage water to buffer California when we are in serious drought (like right now). He does not claim to have all the answers on this issue, but believes that we can solve this problem by possibly raising dams, developing on-stream storage, and recharging aquifers. He also suggests desalination, which is currently too expensive because of the high amounts of energy needed. Campbell believes that California should lead the way in designing innovative solutions to solve this problem using alternative energy sources as well as finding new ways to desalinate ocean water without harming the environment.

I confess, I never thought these words would come out of me when discussing a political candidate, but this guy really seems to have a plan. I strongly suggest checking out his website www.campbell.org, if you’re even remotely interested because I only skimmed the surface here. He goes into great detail on all the issues including exactly what he sees as the problem and what he thinks could be a possible solutions. Happy reading!