Assemblymember Solorio's Newsletter

Welcome Message

Governor Schwarzenegger's latest state budget adjustment proposal is a briefcase filled with high hopes, complicated economic assumptions and unmerciful cuts.

What's missing are the files on fairness, vision and real solutions. Now it is up to the Legislature to unlock that budget briefcase, include the missing files, and add the reality, compassion, and compromise folders. Not a small order.

Key to the Governor's recent budget plan is to sell bonds using the future proceeds of the California Lottery. The financing plan includes risky assumptions. But as unpalatable as it is that Lottery proceeds - originally meant to augment education - are now being considered to balance the budget, we must look at this proposal with an objective eye.

On May 30th, the Assembly Budget Subcommittees completed their recommendations for crafting our version of the budget for 2008-09. The Assembly version does shift debt costs to lottery securitization funds. But there are no accounting schemes, no smoke and mirrors, and no unreasonable assumptions.

The Assembly version takes a balanced approach to crafting the budget with tough cuts in every area of the budget, but calls for fair and modest revenue increases, and puts education first by restoring over half of the Governor's $4.3 billion cuts to schools. Most importantly, it rejects the Governor's severe cuts to the elderly, the disabled, and the children of California.

As the state budget deadline looms, let me remind you that a knowledgeable constituency weighing in on the budgetary process can help ease the gridlock in Sacramento. Please, stay informed, share your ideas with others in your community and stay tuned.

Sincerely,
Jose Solorio's Signature
Jose Solorio
State Assemblyman

News Room

Solorio Honors Robert Escalante As the 69th District's "Business Person of the Year"

"Like the vintage Packard cars that Robert restores and maintains, he is a classic," says Solorio. "His shop at 3rd and French in Santa Ana retains the historic look of a by-gone era, but Robert's business savvy is all 21st century." More

Solorio Tackles Alarming Peace Officer Vacancy Rate

"Statewide, there are currently over 15,000 peace-officer vacancies, and 14 percent of the state's peace officers are eligible to retire," said Assemblyman Solorio, Chair of the Assembly's Committee on Public Safety. "We need to start filling those vacancies by streamlining the hiring process." More

Bills On The Move

Assemblyman Solorio's legislation for 2008 is garnering wide consensus. Most of his top priority bills passed out of the Assembly and are now assigned to various Senate policy committees.

Solorio-Proposed Legislation
Addressing Local Issues:

Assembly Bill 2339 (SOLORIO) - Helping Publicly-Owned Professional Sports Facilities

Publicly-owned professional sports facilities like Anaheim's Honda Center provide important contributions to our communities, including job creation, economic development and family fun.

To help our sports facilities afford to pay its employees, maintain the building, and reign in on soaring ticket prices, it needs to create more advertising opportunities to generate income. Assemblyman Solorio has authored a bill that would provide publicly-owned professional sports facilities an exemption from provisions of the Outdoor Advertising Act regarding displays in view of public highways. The next step for AB 2339 is a hearing in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee. More

Assembly Bill 2589 (SOLORIO) - Sunshine on Commissions

The Santa Ana Unified School District learned the hard way that an unscrupulous insurance brokerage firm can impact the cost of healthcare for their employees, and Assemblyman Solorio is doing something about it.

This bill would require healthcare insurance providers and healthcare plans to disclose to their public-entity clients (such as a school district) the commissions paid in respect to that contract.The next step for AB 2589 is a hearing in the Senate Health Committee. More

Other Solorio-Proposed
Legislation:

AB 2391 - Teacher Professional Development. This bill would help teachers acquire data analysis skills as a means to increase pupil academic achievement.

AB 2639 - School Safety. This bill addresses the importance of schools properly preparing, filing and updating their school safety plans as required by law, and puts procedures in place to accurately access each school's compliance.

AB 1975 - Missing Persons DNA Data Base. This bill would remove the termination date of death certificate fees used to fund the Missing Persons DNA Data Base.

AB 2553 - Domestic Violence. This bill specifies that when a judge declines a request for a restraining order, the judge is required to include a reason for the denial.

AB 2816 - Graffiti. This bill would clarify that if the intent to commit vandalism is clear, the size of the marker used to create graffiti does not matter.

AB 2937 - The Arthur Carmona Justice for the Wrongfully Convicted Act. This bill would require that wrongfully convicted persons receive similar assistance given to ex-offenders and parolees.

Good Deeds And Accomplishments

Job well done to UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake for doing all he can to make sure Orange County is a great place for anteaters. On May 15, he joined Assemblyman Solorio and 125 community leaders and alumni at the Santa Ana Zoo to support the planned giant anteater exhibit.

Formally known as "Tierra de las Pampas," the exhibit will provide a special habitat where two anteaters someday will start a family. These will be Orange County's first anteater residents other than the famous UCI campus mascot, Peter the Anteater.

Congratulations to the Santa Ana City Council and Executive Director Gerardo Mouet and the staff of the Santa Ana Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services for their diligent efforts to secure recent grant awards.

California's Office of Grants and Local Services awarded the Santiago Park Nature Reserve Wilderness Resources $100,000 from the Habitat Conservation Fund Program, and $253,440 for Santa Ana Golden Loop Trail Rehabilitation.

Congratulations to The Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble for receiving a Community Leader Award from the OC Human Relations Commission.

Starting with its ambitious landmark production of "The Mexican OC," Breath of Fire has continually used the stage to grapple with a variety of social issues facing the Orange County community.

Ken Nguyen, nominated by Assemblyman Solorio, also received a Community Leader Award at the OC Human Relations event. He has been a dedicated volunteer, taking on leadership roles for the purpose of educating others about the Vietnamese community's contributions, culture and history.

Photo Gallery


Assemblyman Solorio toured the Digital Media Center, a Rancho Santiago Community College District economic development program in partnership with Santa Ana College and the City of Santa Ana.	Assemblyman Solorio participated in "Celebrate Santa Ana 2008," an annual event to encourage productive partnerships between the city, local schools, and the business community.

Assemblyman Solorio participated in Price Elementary's Dual Language Emersion Program, Dia de los Niños Celebration. The school's goal is to help children become literate in more than one language.	Assemblyman Solorio addressed the winners of the Academic Decathlon Championship held this year in Garden Grove. Students traveled from all 50 states to compete in the prestigious event.

Before Assemblyman Solorio took a glaucoma test at Latino Glaucoma Awareness Day, he presented an Assembly Resolution of Commendation to Jose Molina, Spanish-language broadcaster and chair of the project's leadership council.	Assemblyman Solorio invited Teri Takai, California Chief Information Officer, to come to the district to meet his 69th District Technology Advisory Committee. The committee advises the member on technology issues.

Assemblyman Solorio meets with Santa Ana code enforcers Bob Martinez and Kathy Raphael to discuss legislation and his ongoing support of the code enforcement industry.

Quote of the Month:
In Honor of Father's Day

"I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work fifteen and sixteen hours a day. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example."
(Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo)

About Assemblyman Jose Solorio

Jose Solorio, the humble son of migrant farm workers, is the California State Assembly's representative from Central Orange County, including the cities of Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana. His election in November 2006 is the culmination of a lifetime of overcoming odds and striving to achieve.

Only one year into his first legislative session as a California elected official, Assemblyman Solorio has provided leadership on pressing matters in his district; improving schools, creating jobs, preventing gang violence and enhancing transportation infrastructure.

Appointed by his peers in the Assembly to serve as Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Public Safety, Assemblyman Solorio authored legislation that created a $7.8 million prison reform overhaul and co-authored a bill that established the state's first anti-gang czar office.

As a member of the Assembly's Education Committee, Assemblyman Solorio has fought for budget funding for important state programs that provide English skills for children and adults, and authored legislation addressing the sky-rocketing price of text books; requiring more transparency by publishers.

Solorio's passionate efforts to increase opportunities for all Californians spring forth from an inspiring personal story. Solorio was determined to improve his family's standard of living and viewed education as the key to his future. He is an alumnus of the University of California at Irvine, where he served as student body president, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Solorio left a successful career in the private sector to dedicate himself to public service. He was elected to the Santa Ana City Council in 2000, and re-elected in 2004. While on the council, his colleagues appointed him to serve as a board member for the Orange County Water District.

Solorio is interested in using his experience in education, government, and business to help all Californians realize their hopes and dreams. Often asked why he dedicates so much time and effort in the community, Solorio recites one of Cesar Chavez's famous quotes: "The end of all education should surely be service to others."

Assemblyman Solorio, his wife Linn, and their two sons reside in Santa Ana.

Do you have ideas for information that you would like to see in the E-Newsletter? Please contact Carol Chamberlain, E-Newsletter editor, at carol.chamberlain@asm.ca.gov or (916) 319-2069.

If you are not currently a subscriber, but would like to sign up for this E-Newsletter, visit www.assembly.ca.gov/solorio or forward this email to friends so they can sign-up.