Posted on 10/25/2006 9:47:38 AM PDT by calcowgirl
TWO relatively young Southern Californians, Democrat John Chiang and Republican Tony Strickland, are vying to succeed Steve Westly as state controller.
Chiang, 44, has a bachelor's degree in finance and a law degree. He has served on the State Board of Equalization the past eight years and previously had been a tax law specialist for the IRS and an attorney in the controller's office under Gov. Gray Davis.
Strickland is only 36, but already has served six years in the Assembly, where he forged a reputation as a fiscal watchdog. He has a bachelor's degree in political science; counts our state's top fiscal conservative Tom McClintock, a candidate for lieutenant governor, as his mentor; and is president of the California Club for Growth, an anti-tax advocacy group.
As you might surmise, Chiang is more a nitty-gritty financial type, while Strickland is more of a politician. In fact, Strickland earned his battle stripes as a young legislator in 2001 by suing Gov. Davis over secret contracts with energy companies during the energy crisis. He won that suit, causing the contracts to be renegotiated and saving taxpayers millions, perhaps billions, of dollars.
California's controller oversees the state's $131 billion budget and pension funds and has the authority to audit state and local agencies for waste and fraud.
Both Chiang and Strickland profess they will make audits of state agencies a priority, but Strickland apparently would take a more aggressive, "grassroots approach." He says there are a lot of areas where "we need to get more bang for our buck" and vows to "root out waste, fraud and abuse." One of his first acts would be an audit of the Los Angeles school system. He says we need to know "where our education dollars are going."
Chiang might focus more on businesses that avoid paying taxes, saying we lose about $8 billion in unpaid taxes annually.
Chiang can't imagine the chief financial officer of the world's fifth-largest economy not being an expert in finance. Strickland sees Chiang as more of a bookkeeper, saying the controller has to have the "political will" to get things done and can surround himself with capable number crunchers. He sees their differences as micro vs. macro views of the office's functions.
This is a close race with two capable aspirants. Strickland favors less taxes and opposes the oil, cigarette and parcel taxes on the Nov. 7 ballot. Chiang supports the oil and cigarette levies, but not the parcel tax.
We give Chiang a slight nod based on his background and financial qualifications. But if you think state government needs someone to stir things up more, forcing government and its agencies to be more fiscally responsible, Strickland is your choice.
Sounds good to me!
VOTE with VIGOR ~ straight Republican ticket!!!
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