Born at St. Francis hospital in Lynwood, Art has lived most of his life in the 50th Assembly district. His grandparents raised his mother in South Gate. Now, Art and his wife Joyce are raising their four children in Bellflower. That’s four generations in the 50th Assembly district!

Art has a degree in Design Technology from Cerritos College and a certificate in Advanced Computer Technology from the University of California, Irvine.

Art is the former Mayor of Bellflower where he eliminated the city's lighting tax assessment at the same time services to the city improved through privatization and a competitive bidding process.

He stopped every attempt by the city to use eminent domain during the time that he was on the city council.

While the public unions fund my opponents, my only financial support comes from individuals like you.

Find out who in your city is a member of the $100,000 club.

Taxes

Higher taxes will not solve the state’s budget problems. When Governor Schwarzenegger signed the largest state tax increase in history, state revenue actually went down. When taxes are too high, people modify their behavior in order to make ends meet. After Arnold doubled the vehicle license fee, new car sales declined. The sales tax increase has encouraged people to buy products tax-free over the Internet. And the decreased dependent deduction on your state income tax failed to bring in more money as so many people lost their jobs.

In addition to fixing the state’s pension system, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation needs a major overhaul. The cost of housing a prisoner for one year in California is three times higher than it is in Texas. That is unacceptable. We also need to modify the three strikes law so that low-level drug offenders are not serving 25 years to life.

One area where California could bring in additional revenue is in oil production. Alaska has a 25% severance tax; California has no tax. The tax should not be so high that it would discourage oil production as the oil in California is heavier than Alaskan crude so refining is more expensive, but it is much cheaper to get Californian oil to our refineries.

Education

It is not fair to our children that so many teachers are being laid off. And it is avoidable. If the politicians were not wasting money on six figure pensions and an overpriced prison system, teachers would be able to keep their jobs.

One of the biggest tragedies in the current down sizing at our schools is that many of the best teachers are being let go. State law makes it almost impossible to fire extremely poor performing teachers while some of the best and brightest are receiving pink slips.

One of the simplest education reforms is choice. Parents should be allowed to send their children to any school they want and funding should follow that child.

Compulsory education needs to be readdressed. Teachers can spend the majority of their time disciplining one or two children while the majority of the children that are in class to learn are deprived of the attention they deserve. Troublemakers should be separated from learners and if they do not reform, they should be expelled.

School boards should be allowed to contract for services in order to reallocate revenue to areas they feel are more conductive to learning.

The Field Act should be repealed and schools should be built using the Uniform Building Code without a prevailing wage requirement. Schools cost about 50% more and take years longer to build with all of the bureaucratic obstacles in the way. 

Paid for by Art Olivier for State Assembly 2010, Committee ID# 1325599 (562) 278-2629 Art @electArt.com