TALKING POLITICS–State Sen.Tony Strickland, right, speaks to Kevin Suber last Thursday at an Agoura/Oak Park/Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Cisco’s restaurant in Westlake. Strickland addressed a packed house about the economy and California’s budget. A bill authored by state Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) that eliminates the state’s Integrated Waste Management Board and the six-figure salaries paid to its officers was signed into law last week by Gov. Schwarzenegger.

The bill is part of the recent budget agreement in Sacramento that helps to close California’s $26-billion shortfall.

Speaking at a July 27 Westlake Village luncheon hosted by the Agoura/Oak Park/Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce, Strickland said members of the waste management board—who are mostly former legislators— were making twice as much as some teachers, police officers and firefighters while having to meet only once or twice a month. He called the board an “outrageous example” of what helped lead to the state’s large budget deficit.

“I’ve always said this should be the first thing on the chopping block, not the last,” said Strickland, who also applauded new measures put into place that will target fraud in the state’s CalWorks welfare program.

He complained that as many as 25 percent of California’s CalWorks recipients were fraudulent cases.

“Real reform only comes out of tough times. This budget has real reform,” Strickland said.

The senator, whose 19th District includes the cities of Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Simi Valley, Camarillo and the community of Oak Park, denounced what he considers to be an anti-business climate in California. He said California has become like an “economic development corporation” for Florida and Texas, areas where much of the state’s business has fled.

Unemployment figures show California lost 66,500 jobs in June.

“What we need to do at all levels of government is to figure out what it takes for the CEOs to remain here,” Strickland told the Chamber of Commerce audience. “You need to streamline the permitting process for all business.

“I think California is worth fighting for,” he said.

Outside the Cisco’s Westlake restaurant where Strickland was speaking, several demonstrators with signs expressed opposition to the senator’s support for cuts to education and welfare and his reluctance to increase taxes on oil and tobacco companies.

“This time around Gov. Schwarzenegger and Republicans drew a line in the sand when it came to new revenues—even taxes on big tobacco and oil companies,” state Sen. Fran Pavley, a Democrat from Agoura Hills, said in a statement. Pavley said it was “hypocritical” that the Republicans opposed tax increases while at the same time taking money away from public education and local cities.

Strickland said he agreed with Schwarzenegger’s assessment that “we can’t have a government we can’t afford, and we can’t spend money we don’t have.”

And he regrets that the new budget didn’t address public employee pension reform. “A promise made is a promise kept, but for the new people coming on you absolutely have to have pension reform.”

He felt glad that the automatic cost of living increases tied to many state programs had been eliminated, and he promised to work for a new government spending cap that doesn’t exceed population growth plus inflation.

Strickland said he’s a “glass half-full guy” who believes the state’s “best days are ahead.”