Teachers play an important role in shaping our children’s futures. Every student deserves the highest quality education, but unfortunately our public education system doesn’t always put students first or treat them equally. Both in California and nationally, our education systems have been declining....

The State Constitution requires the budget be passed each year by June 15, so the Legislature spent Father’s Day debating and voting on the $108 billion general fund state budget. While debating the bill on the Assembly floor I felt like Bill Murray in the romantic comedy, “Groundhog Day,” where...

California is home to world class universities and technology giants such as Amgen, Google and Facebook.  But our most famous industry that we export throughout the globe is television and film. Assemblyman Scott Wilk The film industry provides more than 190,000 direct jobs and $17 billion in wages...

Simi V. Wilk Gov. Jerry Brown in his State of the State address made an off-the-cuff remark about his dog, Sutter, stating: “Bark if you don’t like deficits.” He passed out a playing card with a picture of Sutter Brown on the front and graph on the back showing how California has gone from budget...

Assemblyman Scott Wilk There is a looming budget battle developing in the state Capitol, but it’s not your usual partisan Democrat-versus-Republican fight. This time it’s a Democrat-on-Democrat scuffle over what the state’s spending priorities ought to be. Recently, Gov. Jerry Brown and Speaker...

Assemblyman Scott Wilk Many pundits claim Gov. Jerry Brown is the “only adult in the room” in the state capitol. While the governor is generally fiscally conservative, he still leans too far to the left and is too appeasing to special interest groups. Previously I commended Brown on his vetoes of...

Assemblyman Scott Wilk Gov. Jerry Brown and I do not see eye-to-eye on many issues. We have contrasting perspectives on what the size and scope of government should be, as well as what needs to be done to help grow small business.  But from time to time, the governor can surprise. Make no mistake. The...

Assemblyman Scott Wilk During my first year in the Legislature, I’ve experienced many unsettling actions. Most troubling to me is the lack of transparency on how the Legislature conducts its business such as passing budget bills containing no language and circumventing the legislative process by “gutting...

I have always taught my children not to make procrastination a habit, but in the Legislature, procrastination is part of the culture. After wrapping up my first legislative session, I was struck by the lack of transparency and debate due to an end-of-session procedure called “gut and amend.” This...

Assemblyman Scott Wilk I hope it’s not an omen that the 2013 legislative session ends on Friday the 13th of September. But as we enter the last final weeks of this year’s legislative session, I’m hopeful that common-sense solutions will prevail, and that both parties will reject special interests...