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To the world, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is known as the Terminator.
To the governor, John Chiang may be the Detonator.
Schwarzenegger’s plan to cut the salaries of more than 200,000 state workers two weeks ago blew up in his face when Chiang, the state controller, opposed it.
Schwarzenegger is a Republican; Chiang, a Democrat.
Chiang argued that it would take at least six months to reconfigure the state’s payroll system to issue checks at the federal minimum wage level. He also disputed the governor’s interpretation of a 2003 California Supreme Court decision which supposedly said the minimum wage could be called for until a budget is passed.
Schwarzenegger has been locked in a battle with the state legislature to get through his budget, which calls for deep cuts, including layoffs.
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At the same time, Chiang noted that even if the governor were right, the state’s computer system is too antiquated to handle the change and would take at least 10 months to update.
“Pragmatically, we just can’t get the system to work in a timely manner for us to implement payment of minimum wage,” said Chiang.
“To the extent that the Order attempts to govern the constitutional duties for which I was independently elected to perform and, because it is based on faulty legal and factual premises, I will not comply with the Order,” Chiang further wrote Schwarzenegger.
This was by no means the biggest challenge of Chiang’s life.
That came in 1999 when his sister, Joyce, disappeared. Sometime later, her body was found in Washington, D.C., where she worked as an attorney, the victim of a serial killer.
“She was my favorite person in the world. I was devastated,” he recalled.
For awhile, it held him back. “I’ve had a lot of challenges,” but recovering from her death “was the biggest,” he said. He told himself: “Fear to assume greater responsibility is why people don’t accomplish what they want. They hold themselves back.” It wasn’t going to happen to him.
Growing up as part of an immigrant family from Taiwan, Chiang faced discrimination on the streets of Chicago but credits his mother, Judy, with instilling a dual sense of courage and reservation. She told him: “We are just going to have to be who we are.”
His background with the Internal Revenue Service was helpful in getting him elected to the State Board of Equalization, which collects state sales and use taxes, as well as fuel, alcohol and tobacco taxes. He was elected chair and in November 2006 became the highest statewide elected official when he was voted state controller, winning by 10 percentage points over opponent Tony Strickland.
As such, said Chiang, his primary obligation is to state workers and retirees, which is why he doesn’t take his opposition to the governor lightly.
He is big on holding the state accountable to the public. Along with the state treasurer’s office, he has proposed a citizens bond oversight commission to provide information to taxpayers concerned with public works projects. As state controller, he sits on 76 boards and commissions throughout the state and is responsible for the nation’s largest pension funds.
Chiang has long championed financial literacy. Through seminars and free tax preparation assistance, he holds forums, such as several he has held in Los Angeles and one held in July with San Diego Assembly Member Lori Saldana.
“I want to bring state experts into local communities so people can ask questions and make the best financial decisions and build trust,” he said.
Chiang, 46, has always been proud of being able to make a difference. At the same time, he understands why other Asian Pacific Islander Americans don’t feel the same way.
“Because so many are recent immigrants, they haven’t built the infrastructure to build ascension,” he says. Part of the reason, he adds, is that many who chose politics in the past dropped out, leaving a deep leadership vacuum.
“So much of politics is relationships,” Chiang explained. For many in the API community, “to have a whole new set of elected officials, where you enjoyed a different level previously, made them look at new options.”
If anything has signified change, however, that is the last major statewide election two years ago, which sent four Asian representatives to the five-member board of equalization. Judy Chu, board chair, is the first to admit that her mentor is Chiang.
“Judy Chu and I are very close,” said Chiang.
These changes mirror the growth of the API population and what’s happening in society, said Chiang. “Hopefully, it will sustain itself.”
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