Issues

Housing is a Human Right

Many of the families Alexis grew up with in Hayward are struggling to continue living anywhere in the Bay Area. Too many people are just one paycheck or one medical bill away from displacement or homelessness. This was true long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Alexis is committed to housing policies that put people over profits. Alexis will fight to expand protections for people experiencing housing insecurity, to curb corporate real estate speculation, and to ensure that people throughout California can continue to live in their communities with dignity and prosperity. Alexis will advocate for:

Universal rent control in order to ensure housing affordability throughout California.
Repeal of Costa-Hawkins, which restricts cities and local governments from passing stronger rent control standards.
Protections for working homeowners from being priced out of gentrifying neighborhoods.
The right to legal counsel in any proceeding that can result in an eviction or foreclosure.
Legal aid organizations and fair housing agencies that help people understand and enjoy their rights.
“Right of First Refusal” laws to grant tenants the right to buy—or refuse to buy—their home at a fair price before it is listed for sale on the market, and (if this right is violated) to award tenants with moving costs, and other damages, including penalties on landlord violators.
Support for tenants seeking to purchase their homes through pre-purchase housing counseling and alternative funding sources, such as public banks, community land trusts, and other shared equity home-ownership models.
Minimizing corporate housing speculation by raising taxes on housing speculation, vacant investment housing, and luxury home sales.
Repealing the Ellis Act of 1985 to ensure that cities can act to prevent for-profit evictions.
Affordable housing throughout California, including by supporting housing nonprofits and community land trusts, by repealing Article 34 of the California Constitution to allow the construction of new social housing, and by initiating a state-wide program to support social housing.

Workers' Rights

Alexis is the child of a union family and has worked as a labor organizer and a workers’ rights paralegal. He understands firsthand the importance of strong workplace protections, robust enforcement, and the transformative power of union membership. Alexis will fight to:

Increase the number of paid sick days workers can take in a year.
Raise the minimum wage to $20 per hour statewide.
Expand the California Paid Family Leave program to encompass full wage replacement for low wage workers.
Increase funding for the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency in order to expand enforcement of wage theft and other labor code violations.
Increase penalties for violations of the California Labor Code, including for wage theft violations and violations under the Private Attorneys General Act.
Expand workplace protections for all workers, including gig workers, independent contractors, and workers without citizenship.
Create good, union jobs through increased green infrastructure development and affordable housing construction throughout California.
Protect the right to organize by enabling gig workers and other independent contractors to engage in collective bargaining and access union membership; prohibiting employer intimidation based on workplace organizing activities and immigration status; prohibiting employers from mandating attendance at anti-union meetings during work hours; and penalizing employers who intimidate employees for union activity.

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Get Money Out of Politics

For too long, our elections and politics have been rigged byand for wealthy corporations and donors. As your Assemblymember, Alexis will fight to limit the influence of corporate power by:

Expanding public election financing for all state and local elections.
Expanding voter access by making election day a state-wide holiday, and allowing all Californians with a state-issued IDto vote, including IDs from public universities and community colleges.
Shining a light on dark money by requiring political advertisements to conspicuously list funding sources.
Freeing public regulatory boards from corporate capture by excluding, from regulatory positions, all people whorecently received donations, salaries or advisory fees from regulated industries or from lobbyists.

Hold Corporations Accountable

Every major global business depends on access to California, the fifth largest economy on the planet. Yet, so many Californians live paycheck to paycheck. Instead of giving sweet deals to corporate donors, lawmakers should stand up for working people and make sure corporations pay their fair share. As your Assemblymember, Alexis will work hard to:

Close corporate tax loopholes, including by reforming Prop 13 to ensure that corporations are paying their fair share in property taxes.
Fight back against corporate bailouts – such as the PG&E bailout proposed by my opponent.
Increase taxes on corporate profits, shareholder dividends and sale gains, real-estate speculators, and other millionaires.
Close the wealth gap by supporting and funding publicly owned banks and worker-owned business development.
Regulate internet providers as public utilities, and ensure access to high-quality, affordable, and privacy-protected internet access to all Californians. ‍
Invest in good, union jobs through increased green infrastructure development, affordable housing construction, improved disaster preparedness, and growth in the healthcare system

Invest in Public Education

Alexis is committed to fully funding public education in California and ensuring that every Californian—no matter their zip code or their family's wealth—has access to a high-quality public education.Alexis will work to:

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Increase funding for public schools by ensuring corporations are paying their fair share in taxes (including by supporting the Schools and Communities First initiative to reform Prop 13!).
Increase funding for critical resources, including nurses, counselors, sports and arts programs in schools.
Implement tuition-free universal childcare and pre-K programs, for all California residents.
Retain high-quality teachers, by setting a $60,000 starting salary for teachers in California, developing housing for teachers in California, and providing emergency living assistance to rent-burdened teachers in California.
Expand career and technical education programs for all students, including a school-to-union pipeline to train young people for good union jobs in growing industries such as healthcare, clean energy, and infrastructure development.
Keep public funds in public schools rather than offering special giveaways to charter corporations.
Provide tuition-free public higher education, including community colleges, California State Universities, such as our district’s Cal-State East Bay (formerly Cal-State Hayward), and all campuses of the University of California.
Expand democracy in educational institutions, including by incorporating the voices of students and educators in making appointments for administrative positions (which are too highly paid, too numerous, and not an efficient use of financial or educational resources).

Healthcare for All

Our health is not a commodity. Our current public health crisis has made it clearer than ever before: we need a single-payer healthcare system that serves individual and community needs, not corporate profits. In the Assembly, Alexis will advocate to:

Establish and fund a single-payer, universal healthcare system for California residents, without co-pays, deductibles, or premiums, and which includes access to dental, hearing, vision, and mental health services.
Increase funding, enforcement, and standards for lead testing and protections from lead poisoning.
Improve working conditions for healthcare workers and patients: improve safe staffing levels; improve protections for health aide workers and social workers; expand protections for whistle-blowers; and improve wages for healthcare workers. ‍
Approach drug addiction as a public health problem, including: decriminalize drug use; and fund comprehensive harm reduction and recovery programs.‍
Ensure access to healthy food at Pre-K through 12 public schools in California and provide quality education on healthy habits.

Environmental Justice

We can rebuild our infrastructure, preserve the environment, and generate thousands of jobs at the same time. Alexis supports a Green New Deal for California, which will employ our residents and help our state prepare for droughts, fires, and earthquakes. Alexis will fight to:

Ban new, and phase out old, fossil fuel production and move to a 100% clean energy future, while ensuring that workers in fossil industries receive new job training and deployment.
Produce hundreds of thousands of good jobs to build clean energy and transportation infrastructure, clean up pollution, improve resiliency, and prevent natural disasters.
Increase taxes on corporate emissions and polluting. ‍
Expand enforcement of mandated testing of lead poisoning in children to help eradicate lead poisoning across the state.‍
Empower working class communities to prevent neighboring sites from hosting new or expanded oil refineries, cement plants, and other toxic industries.‍
Improve and expand public transit (free of charge to users) in the East Bay and throughout California. ‍
Strengthen workplace environmental regulations to protect workers from toxic exposure and prevent retaliation against workers who report hazardous conditions.‍
Repair California's water supply infrastructure and invest in projects to improve the state’s water supply problems. ‍
Support efforts to replace PG&E with a publicly-owned power company or a customer-owned cooperative, with a focus on providing safe utilities rather than generating corporate profits.

Justice and Safety for All

As your Assemblymember, Alexis will prioritize violence reduction through improved social services, the eradication of racial bias in the criminal justice system, increased police accountability, and an end to mass incarceration. Specific policies Alexis will support include:

Reduce violence in our communities through improved access to social services, including access to mental healthcare, and drug treatment.
Reform youth justice by reducing youth incarceration and providing expanded access to diversion programs and social services.
Increase funding for public defender programs across the state.
Pass a moratorium on building or opening new jails and prisons.
Abolish the death penalty, solitary confinement, and the exploitation of incarcerated people for free labor.
Expand accountability for law enforcement officials, including ICE agents who violate Sanctuary State and Sanctuary City laws.
Develop a mandatory independent investigation process for allegations of police violence.
Abolish all forms of voter disenfranchisement of incarcerated people.

Disability Justice

Alexis believes achieving disability justice begins with recognizing that each individual's disability is unique. Alexis will fight to improve accessibility, spurring new jobs, programs, products and services that will create opportunities for everyone to pursue rich lives. In order to achieve this, we must reject the ableism that shapes existing inclusion initiatives. If elected, Alexis will fight to:

Ensure accessibility is incorporated at the beginning of all decision making processes.
Make it easier to obtain assistive technology (e.g. hearing aids, magnification, and mobility aids).
Expand tax credits for disabled people to include a wider range of accessibility expenditures, e.g. mobile devices and data plans; vehicles; home modifications.
Strengthen enforcement of disability rights at the workplace, e.g. eliminating forced arbitration clauses to protect disabled workers' right to public trial.
Eliminate use of electronic visit verification and asset limit tests.
Require availability of quality captions for public spaces, and ensure public documents are accessible. ‍
Update process for compiling/publishing state statistics to accurately identify individuals with developmental, hearing, mental, mobility, vision, chronic pain, fatigue, or rare disease disabilities (instead of aggregating information into one Person(s) with a Disability category).
Challenge law enforcement practices that put disabled individuals at risk of great harm.
Support sensitivity/awareness training for child services staff.

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