Friday morning California State Senator Tony Strickland appeared live on KHTS AM-1220 for a special 45 minute broadcast.

The podcast of that show is available now by clicking the player below.

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The goal of the program was to talk about Strickland’s personal history and to hear his thoughts on the state of California.

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Strickland was elected to the 19th district state senate seat after narrowly edging out Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson in a race that took three weeks of ballot counting to decide.  The 19th district encompasses portions of Newhall, Valencia and Stevenson Ranch, as well as parts of Santa Barbara and Ventura County.

The son of an Army drill sergeant, Strickland previously served as the 37th District Assembly representative. His wife Audra Strickland currently holds that seat.

On the special broadcast, Strickland talked about his ideas for the future of California. He said that the number one priority should be creating jobs in our state.

“The only way we get out of this budget mess is to create jobs. No one’s ever taxed their way to prosperity,” said Strickland. “Raising taxes in this bad economy is the worst thing you can do because it costs jobs. People change their behavior and they go to other states.”

He continued by offering the example of Fidelity, a company that moved its operations out of Santa Barbara.

“They moved their corporate headquarters and thousands of high paying jobs from Santa Barbara, California to Jacksonville, Florida. And when the CEO was asked why he did that he said ‘simple, with the overregulation in California and with the high tax structure, it just made sense.’ So now they’re paying their taxes in Jacksonville, Florida and not here in California.” 

Strickland also said that the problem isn’t just the loss of jobs, but that when you take a job out of a local community, that employee doesn’t support local businesses anymore and it has a ripple affect through the entire area.

Some of the solutions Strickland is advocating involve reducing the environmental regulations and adding incentives for environmental technology companies to manufacture their goods in our state.

Another Strickland project in Sacramento is government waste.

“Right now there are over 14 boards and commissions that make over $100,000 a year and they show up for their jobs once or twice a month,” he said. “Average citizens don’t serve on these boards and commissions. They’re former legislators who are termed out, so they can have a nice soft landing.” 

Strickland says that the Legislature shouldn’t be taken seriously on their vows to reform government until they address this issue.

Other wasteful spending practices described by Senator Strickland include the “use it or lose it” school funding and mailed receipts for state employee direct deposits. 

If you would like to hear all of Senator Strickland’s comments, click on the podcast player at the beginning of this article.