BY TED APODACA: State Senate candidate Gerri Schipske was the guest speaker at the recent monthly meeting of the Democratic Club of West Orange County.
Schipske is challenging State Senator Janet Nguyen for the 34th State Senate seat. Nguyen was elected to the seat in 2014, getting more than 58 percent of the vote against democrat Jose Solorio. Nguyen has built a strong hold on the region, having served on the Garden Grove City Council and the Orange County Board of Supervisors, prior to being elected to the senate.
BY TED APODACA: State Senate candidate Gerri Schipske was the guest speaker at the recent monthly meeting of the Democratic Club of West Orange County.
Schipske is challenging State Senator Janet Nguyen for the 34th State Senate seat. Nguyen was elected to the seat in 2014, getting more than 58 percent of the vote against democrat Jose Solorio. Nguyen has built a strong hold on the region, having served on the Garden Grove City Council and the Orange County Board of Supervisors, prior to being elected to the senate.
Despite her strength, Schipske told the nearly 50 attendees at the meeting, that recent events have brought changes to the pulse of the county and the nation. She percentage of registered voters in the area has shifted to a Democrat majority, with 40 percent to Republican’s 30 percent.
“We can win because we know that people are fired up,” Schipske said.
One of Schipske’s primary focuses will be on health care. California was a leading state in supporting the Affordable Care Act this year. Despite cuts at the national level to the support of the ACA, Covered California made a strong push to encourage people to enroll.
This year, Covered California announced that this year’s total enrollment was more than 423,000 people, a three percent increase from last year. That increase brought premiums down for subsidized consumers, Covered California stated. However, it was also noted that without help from congress, premiums are likely to rise in 2019.
“We need to have single payer plans for health care,” Schipske said.
Schipske said that one way the state can help pay for single-payer health care would be looking at taxes on oil production. Schipske said that California is the only state that does not charge a severance tax (tax based on volume or value of oil production) and that it could potentially raise $500 million per year.
“We need to look at that,” Schipske said.
Schipske would also like to see a change in the Prop. 13 laws, regarding commercial properties. She said that Prop. 13 should remain consistent with residential properties, but that commercial properties laws should be revisited. She said commercial property taxes have not increased fairly.
“They need to hae some responsibility for paying into the system that has allowed them to thrive in California,” Schipske said.
Schipske is an adjunct faculty member at Cal State Long Beach, a lawyer and registered nurse and previously served on the Long Beach City Council and the Long Beach City College Board of Trustees.
The 34th Senate District stretches from southeast Long Beach to Santa Ana, including Los Alamitos, parts of Westminster and Garden Grove, and southeast Anaheim, as well as parts of Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley.
