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Tom McClintock on Government Reform

2004 former Republican Challenger CA Governor


Duplicative bureaucracies must be weeded out

I've introduced a Bureaucracy Reduction and Closure Commission, so that we can begin weeding out these duplicative bureaucracies and provide that businesses don't have to needlessly respond to multiple agencies every time they want to do something.
Source: Recall Debate, Cal. State Univ. at Sacramento Sep 24, 2003

Tort reform: no punitive damages except in criminal cases

[Regarding] litigation, we have got to overhaul the tort system in this state, one of the major initiatives that I will be introducing will be a general measure to restore our civil courts to the simple process of compensating victims of torts and move all of the punitive damages into the criminal courts where they belong, or at least apply a criminal justice standard order to them.
Source: Recall Debate, Cal. State Univ. at Sacramento Sep 24, 2003

Local governments need to have more authority

Senator Wilson raided the local property tax funds, I was one of the very few members of the state legislature who stood up and tried to stop him. This is a cause near and dear to my heart. It seems to me that the biggest problem that we've had with local government is this blurring of revenues and authority. Sacramento has not only raided their money. It's also usurped their authority. The state worked a lot better when local governments could use local revenues and apply those for local purposes. They've got to have a dedicated stream of revenues restored to them, and then they've got to have the full authority restored to them to use those revenues as they best see fit. Mandated state costs on local governments have got to stop. If the state government wants to mandate programs for local governments, the state government can bloody well pay for them.
Source: Recall Debate, Cal. State Univ. at Sacramento Sep 24, 2003

Privatize services & replace state job with private jobs

Q: When you say that you would give Californians the option to find services elsewhere, you are talking about privatizing some government services?

McCLINTOCK: Right. Contracting out services, that the private sector can provide more efficiently, cheaply than the state's bureaucracy.

Q: Does that mean laying off state workers?

McCLINTOCK: Yes, it does. We've added 44,000 new state workers to the public state personnel roles in the last four years. We cannot sustain those kinds of expenses. We have now a record level of state public employment at the same time we've lost nearly a third of a million private sector jobs in 2.5 years. The public sector cannot continue to grow at the expense of the private sector.

Source: Recall debate in Walnut Creek Sep 3, 2003

If rights come from man, then they may be revoked

If the source of our fundamental rights is not God, then the source becomes man - or more precisely, a government of men. And rights that can be extended by government may also be withdrawn by government.
Source: State Senate website, www.sen.ca.gov, "Issues Directory" Jul 3, 2002

Other governors on Government Reform: Tom McClintock on other issues:
AK Frank Murkowski
AL Bob Riley
AR Mike Huckabee
AZ Janet Napolitano
CA Arnold Schwarzenegger
CO Bill Owens
CT Jodi Rell
DE Ruth Ann Minner
FL Jeb Bush
GA Sonny Perdue
HI Linda Lingle
IA Tom Vilsack
ID Dirk Kempthorne
IL Rod Blagojevich
IN Mitch Daniels
KS Kathleen Sebelius
KY Ernie Fletcher
LA Kathleen Blanco
MA Mitt Romney
MD Bob Ehrlich
ME John Baldacci
MI Jennifer Granholm
MN Tim Pawlenty
MO Matt Blunt
MS Haley Barbour
MT Brian Schweitzer
NC Mike Easley
ND John Hoeven
NE Dave Heineman
NH John Lynch
NJ Jon Corzine
NM Bill Richardson
NV Kenny Guinn
NY George Pataki
OH Bob Taft
OK Brad Henry
OR Ted Kulongoski
PA Ed Rendell
RI Don Carcieri
SC Mark Sanford
SD Mike Rounds
TN Phil Bredesen
TX Rick Perry
UT Jon Huntsman
VA Tim Kaine
VT Jim Douglas
WA Christine Gregoire
WI Jim Doyle
WV Joe Manchin III
WY Dave Freudenthal
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