PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92024 PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
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MAY 4, 2018
OPEN FORUM MiraCosta College student government hosts 76th State Assembly candidates
By Aaron Burgin
OCEANSIDE — All but one of the the candidates for the State Assembly 76th District seat said they opposed the state's controversial gas tax — including one of the two Democrats running for office — at a political forum Wednesday night. MiraCosta College played host to six of the candidates in the 76th State Assembly District race, as they fielded questions on topics ranging from support of the socalled gas tax to how to improve California's business and tourism climates. The candidate forum, hosted by the MiraCosta College Associated Student Government, featured all but two of the candidates for the seat currently held by Rocky Chavez, R-Oceanside, in the district that encompasses Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista, Encinitas and Camp Pendleton. Republicans Phil Graham, Amanda Rigby, Thomas Krouse and Brian Wimmer and Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Tasha Bo-
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sanctuary laws, which the Trump Administration has challenged in federal court. Rigby, Krouse, Wimmer and Graham said they didn’t support Senate Bill 54, the California Values Act, because it stifled cooperation between state and federal agencies to ensure that undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes do not return to local streets. “It's illegal, it’s dangerous and it's unconstitutional,” Graham said. Krouse said that while the law carves out exceptions for violent crimes, some of the non-violent crimes covered under the law are actually very serious crimes, and cooperation between state and federal agencies should not be stifled by state law. There were some questions where all of the candidates found common ground, including the issue of reforming the state's envi-
In one crucial way, Encinitas continues to be a city without a plan. Still lacking a state-approved housing plan and reeling in the aftermath of a contentious City Council decision to remove a site called L7 from its list of potential affordable-housing locations, RANCHO Encinitas received temporary reprieve in court on SFNEWS April 30. The three lawsuits brought against Encinitas centered on the city’s failure to enact a Housing Element, a state-mandated document that details how a city will meet its housing obligations, with particular attention paid to accommodating low-income residents. Vista Superior Court Judge Ronald Frazier granted Encinitas additional time to win voter approval for a Housing Element. The hearing will be postponed until Nov. 13, after the ballot. At that time, Frazier will rule on whether Encinitas has satisfied California law and, if not, whether the city should have to adopt an earlier plan called Measure T. When Encinitas residents in 2016 voted down Measure T, a housing proposal that would have paved the way for state compliance, the Building Industry Association of San Diego County (BIA) and San
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Oceanside Chamber of Commerce President David Nydegger moderates a forum for candidates running for 76th Assembly District seat Wednesday evening at the MiraCosta College campus. Photo by Shana Thompson
erner Horvath answered questions fielded from the student government group, the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce and audience members over the 90-minute panel. Republican candidates Maureen Muir and Jerome Stocks, who committed to attend the event, canceled on Friday, MiraCosta College officials said. One of the highlights of the event was when candidates were asked if they supported Senate Bill 1, which increased gas taxes by 12 cents and also increases vehicle registration fees to pay for infrastructure and road repairs. All of the candidates except for Boerner Horvath said they opposed the tax, which they said would impact the state's working class families the most. Taxpayers, they said, have already paid a gas tax that was supposed to go to road repairs but has been diverted to other projects. Warren broke from fellow Democrat Boerner Horvath to ex-
press opposition to the tax. “So I’m probably the only Democrat in California who is opposed to the gas tax,” Warren said. “I think we need to go somewhere besides people who have no choice but to commute, small businesses who have to get their goods from one place to another, people who are working very hard who live in Escondido, but work in the coastal cities and have to commute every single day. “We are nickel and diming working people and small businesses into poverty,” she said. Boerner Horvath said she supported it because the price tag for repairing the roads was cheaper than waiting longer to fix them. “If we do not have roads and bridges and the infrastructure we need to get from A to B, we will have major costs for businesses and major costs and delays for individuals,” Boerner Horvath said. The two Democrats broke from their four Republican counterparts on support of the state’s so-called
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