Vincent Karchi Fong is an American politician serving in the California State Assembly. He is a Republican representing the 34th district, encompassing the southern San Joaquin Valley including parts .
The Central Valley is highly regarded as the world’s most productive agricultural region because historically, we have been able to provide abundant, affordable water to irrigate millions of acres of farmland.
Unfortunately, misguided environmental laws have routinely chosen to value small fish over our communities, and Kern County has paid the price in lost jobs and a weakened economy as needed water is pushed to the ocean and current water supplies have become harder and more expensive to obtain. The drought has made a difficult situation much worse, and a recently passed regulations by the state to regulate groundwater will create even further challenges in the future.
Agriculture is the foundation of our Valley’s economy and I have been fighting for over a decade to rollback restrictions that threaten to dry up our farms and devastate our economy. As an Assemblyman, I will continue this work in Sacramento to restore common-sense priorities and get our community the water it needs.
Instead of wasting billions on a fundamentally flawed High Speed Rail project, we should instead allocate that money to build new state reservoirs—something we have not done since the 1970s—in order to store water in the good years and weather the next drought.
An important responsibility of government is to ensure safe communities by providing high quality public safety services. Yet, decisions in the State Capitol seem to prioritize protecting criminals over families — and Kern County is suffering as a result.
Proposition 47 significantly weakened penalties for a number of crimes. This, combined with prison realignment—which flooded local jails with inmates from state prisons resulting in thousands of early releases—have turned our communities into a revolving door for criminals because there are no longer significant consequences for their actions. This has placed a tremendous strain on the work of California law enforcement and is causing violent crime to increase at an alarming level even as the rest of the country has experienced declines.
Parents should not have to worry about their kids walking to school but if current trends continue, this will become a sad reality. We need leaders in Sacramento who are willing to put public safety first — something I will do from day one if elected to serve.
Kern County produces around 75% of California’s oil, employing thousands of local workers while simultaneously powering the state with affordable energy. Despite this, hostile regulators have subjected projects to endless red tape — stunting the growth of a promising local industry and the new jobs that come with it.
Unfortunately, most industries face significant challenges operating in California as the state has been repeatedly ranked as the worst business climate in the nation for well over a decade. State bureaucrats and opportunistic lawyers have created a nightmare of regulations that invite endless lawsuits, which are most harmful to small business owners who are barely scraping by and cannot afford to fight litigation in court.
The best way to fight poverty is by creating new jobs and economic opportunity — not chasing them away with high taxes and stifling regulations. Getting Sacramento to focus on common sense ways to grow the economy will be one of my top priorities as an Assemblyman.
Despite already being one of the highest taxed states in the country, many politicians in Sacramento are calling on middle class and working families to pay even more. I led the fight against a massive new gas tax that is going to cost families and those working to get by. Even as California’s record-high budget remains in a surplus, politicians insist on passing the largest gas tax increase in California history, considering a new tax on real estate transactions, and even an assault on Proposition 13.
Instead of asking you to pay more every year to the government, we need to first focus on funding core services like public safety, education and infrastructure. By setting priorities for the services most important to our community, we can fully fund the state government while saying NO to new taxes.
Kern County leads the way in energy production. With new technological advancements, our community fuels and powers California.
Our community leads California in oil and natural gas production as well as in renewable energy.
Energy production is a major driver of economic activity in Kern County creating new jobs and opportunity. However, onerous regulations and bureaucracy threaten our ability to power our state. In order for our state to thrive, we must have common sense solutions that allow us to meet our energy needs.
My father worked to put himself through college and later became a local pharmacist here in Bakersfield. From an early age, I was taught the value of education and I know firsthand that it can serve as a powerful path to a good quality of life.
Today, too many of our public schools are failing our students as laws are designed to benefit the whims of special interests over the best interest of our children. Parents agree that a high-quality teacher should teach in every classroom but Sacramento has chosen to ignore this request, impeding our efforts to make our state’s education system among the envy of the nation once again.
We need to give local schools and parents more autonomy so they can best meet the needs of their students. We should expand charter schools to provide more educational opportunities. Career technical education must be made available so students leave with skills they can immediately use in the workforce. Community colleges, CSUs and UCs need to remain affordable for working and middle class families, and must direct funds into the classroom instead of toward a bloated administration.
Until we succeed in reforming California’s education system, we are failing to meet the needs of the next generation and are not providing the educational opportunities that will allow our children to live out the American Dream.
What, if anything, are California policymakers doing to combat the inflation crisis?
Let’s be clear: the last few years have been a tough time for Californians. The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with rising prices on everything due to the inflation crisis, is hitting California citizens in their wallets.
Sky-high prices of groceries, electricity, gas, and more are burdening families and workers. And making matters worse, residents of California are already overtaxed, yet Sacramento Democrats refused to suspend the gas tax. To make matters worse, the Governor refused to exercise leadership to stop the automatic gas tax increase as promised. Raising the gas tax is asinine because California already has the highest state gas tax in the nation at 51 cents per gallon.
The hardships caused by the inflation crisis are real. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, the majority of Californians have stated that the inflation crisis and rising prices have caused significant financial hardship. Furthermore, 26% of state residents are “very concerned�? about not being able to pay their rent or mortgage, and the majority of Californians say that the lack of affordable housing is a huge problem. And if those numbers don’t convince you of the severity of the inflation crisis, 46% of residents say that they are seriously considering moving to another state to escape the quickly rising prices in California.
Is California taking the necessary steps to prevent wildfires?
Let’s get straight to the point. No. California is not taking the necessary steps to prevent wildfires, even after the second-worst wildfire season in California history struck our state in 2021.
Wildfires don’t occur in a specific region of the state. As we have seen, they can strike anywhere and quickly spread out of control. That is why it should be a priority that both parties get behind dedicating more resources and fast tracking vegetation management projects to enhance wildfire prevention.
Complicating matters, California is facing a severe drought coupled with record-setting heat waves, which continue to set the stage for destructive wildfires. The impacts of wildfires are no longer confined to select regions of the state.
But here is the problem. Despite all the rhetoric, the Newsom Administration and Sacramento Democrats have not acted with any urgency when it comes to prevent catastrophic wildfires.
When it comes to wildfire prevention, Sacramento Democrats are all talk. They want to make the voters believe that they care about the environment, but when it actually comes to passing budgets and policies that will protect California residents from wildfires, they are silent, or worse, they cut the budget. If preventing wildfires were a priority, the Governor needs to focus less on photo ops, and more on streamlining vegetation management projects to prevent catastrophic wildfires.
Investigations have uncovered the hypocrisy of Sacramento Democrats
Research and investigations have proven that Sacramento Democrats and the Newsom Administration aren’t doing enough to prevent wildfires, and worse, they have been misleading the California electorate that they have been at the forefront of fire prevention.
Unfortunately, their lack of action regarding wildfire prevention has displaced families, children have been evacuated from schools, and our forests are being destroyed. Yet, Sacramento Democrats continue to choose to do nothing.
A recent investigation by Capitol Public Radio and NPR found that the Governor has misrepresented his accomplishments. Furthermore, he has actually disinvested in wildfire prevention. In fact, Newsom has done nothing short of blatantly lie. He overstated, by an astounding 690%, the number of acres treated with fuel breaks and prescribed burns meant to help vulnerable communities.
The investigation found Newsom has claimed that 35 priority projects carried out as a result of his executive order resulted in fire prevention work on 90,000 acres. Once again, that is another deceit because the state’s own data shows the actual number is 11,399.
Unfortunately, the Governor’s blatant dishonesty and lack of action could not have come at a worse time. Last year, Californians endured the second most catastrophic wildfire season on record. Californians are continuing to face extreme drought conditions, and because of the lack of action by Sacramento Democrats, our residents continue to face significant fire risks.
Just look at the facts, and you can see the hypocrisy of the Newsom Administration. In 2020, over 4.2 million acres burned, resulting in an estimated 112 million metric tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Despite a budget surplus of nearly $100 billion and the Governor declaring that we are in the midst of a “climate damn emergency,�? the Newsom Administration provided no additional funding specifically for wildfire prevention.
The Governor owes Californians and the Legislature an explanation for his exaggerated numbers and egregious inaction.