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Lt. Governor Garamendi's Statement on the 36th Anniversary of Title IX

Tuesday, 24 June 2008

SACRAMENTO, CA - Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi issued the following statement today on the 36th anniversary of Title IX:

“As the father of five marvelous daughters, as the husband of a terrific and highly accomplished wife, and as someone who has spent more than thirty years trying to create progressive and innovative public policy, I see the great contributions talented women make in every aspect of California’s government, economy, and society. It is hard to think that just 36 years ago, millions of American women faced sometimes insurmountable obstacles in attaining the education they deserved and participating fully in our nation’s intellectual and economic growth.

“Today, as we celebrate the 36th anniversary of Title IX, we must be mindful that there are still serious challenges facing many women in our society – equal pay for equal work remains elusive for many, child care and family leave issues persist, and while tough policies have challenged blatant discrimination, more subtle but still insidious forms of discrimination and harassment must still be eradicated.

“Still, we have much to celebrate. And the great strides we have made in the last three decades demonstrate what women – and America – can achieve when we put our minds to it and our hearts in it.”

John Garamendi: movin’ on up?

Thursday, 22 May 2008
By Nick Brokaw (published Thursday, May 22, 2008) John Garamendi has been in the Capitol world for more than three decades—as Assembly member, state Senator, insurance commissioner and, currently, as lieutenant governor. With his political smarts and his background--Harvard MBA, college football player, Peace Corps volunteer--Democrat Garamendi remains a force in politics. Capitol Weekly caught up with Garamendi this week in Sacramento. You’ve been fighting for California’s students, trying to make college more affordable. How’s the fight going? The students have done an incredible job bringing to the attention of policymakers here in the Capitol and around the state the necessity of funding education. What I think is really stupid is that the only tax that has been raised thus far is the tax on students. I could not think of a worse tax than to tax students. That’s what the student fee is all about. The tuition and the student fee is a tax on students plain and simple and it’s over $200 million. At the same time, this Legislature, the Republicans there, have refused to increase taxes on very, very wealthy people able to buy airplanes and boats and avoid the sales tax by just parking those boats and airplanes out of state for 30 days. It is ridiculous and it is a very bad policy. CSU and UC fees are going up 10 percent and 7.4 percent respectively. Is that unavoidable this year in your view? No, it is avoidable. Why would any society tax its students when it refuses to tax the general wealth of the economy? That’s what’s happening here. This state is making the decision to tax students, literally to eat its seed corn when there are many opportunities to raise the revenue to fund the education system. It’s about $220 million of taxes on students. It’s an easy way, because it’s not the legislature or the governor that does it. It’s done by two appointed boards, the CSU Trustees and the UC Regents, who are not accountable to the public You have also been active in addressing the state’s water challenges. How, specifically, should Californian’s adapt in order to be better prepared for a potential water crisis? First of all, we need to manage our rivers better using modern technology, satellite radar, satellite imaging, weather forecasting, and on the ground sensing devices so we actually know what is happening in the river system in real time. Right now we manage the water based on the history of the last 75 years, and that history is no good tomorrow because tomorrow is going to be different with climate change. The second thing is that we need to conserve our water. Third, we need to make better use of the underground water bases that exist in California, particularly in Southern California as storage reservoirs, using what is known as conjunctive water management. In the dry years, you pump, and in the wet years, you recharge the water bases. We are going to need more surface storage and we should move to accomplish that. And finally, we are going to have to deal with the Delta. The Pacific Ocean is rising and will continue to rise and it is a serious and imminent threat to the Delta. So we are going to have to find ways of protecting the Delta and transporting the water to the pumps south of the Delta. That’s a big challenge and that’s what we have to do.
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