(Image courtesy of Reuters)

Assembly Candidate Das Williams Comments on Governor’s Budget Proposal


SANTA BARBARA, CA – Assembly District 35 Candidate Das Williams today released the following statement regarding Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal to balance the state’s budget:

“Californians have been suffering from two years of nonstop budget cuts and one-sided sacrifices. And what does Governor Schwarzenegger propose today as a solution? More pain for children, seniors, the disabled, and our low-income citizens. Today’s proposal does nothing but devastate an already crumbling state safety net, and pose further harm to the critical public programs and services that our vulnerable populations rely upon. The Governor’s budget fails yet again to produce the real and sustained revenue generation our state so desperately needs, and instead focuses on even deeper cuts to Medi-Cal and In-Home Supportive Services, and on so-called cost containment strategies that jeopardize programs like Healthy Families. The Governor said this year was all about priorities and it’s painfully clear once again that our state’s needy are not among his. I urge the Governor to consider the notion that a higher tobacco tax or a dime-a-drink increase will hurt our collective humanity far less than his proposed budget cuts.”

Das Williams is running to succeed fellow Democrat and termed-out Assemblymember Pedro Nava in 2010.



Das Williams grew up on the Central Coast and is a product of local public schools. In 2003, Das Williams became the youngest person ever to be elected to the Santa Barbara City Council, and was re-elected in 2007. Das has worked as a teacher, a policy aide for former Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, and a community organizer working to stop the development of a Wal-Mart in Ventura and enact local living wage laws in Santa Barbara and Ventura. Das serves on the Peabody Charter School Board and is a national board member of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Das received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley and holds a graduate degree in Environmental Science & Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Labels: 35th-Assembly-District, california-assembly, california-budget, Schwarzenegger