| The issues I care about; The issues I care about; Idahoans
deserve balance and a legislator who will work for real Idaho
values—like protecting our quality of life and public lands,
fighting for fair tax policies for small businesses and middle
class families.
I serve on the State Affairs, Transportation and Defense, and
Natural Resources committees. The people in District 18 have
told me that their concerns are Education, Growth and Traffic
and affordable, accessible Health Care.
Education; We need a world class education so that our children
can compete in a world economy.
• I support legislation that would ask those who are paid to
care for children in daycare to have a criminal background check.
• I support pre-K education. There is a large body of research
that demonstrates that those children who go to pre-K are more
likely to go on to college and less likely to end up in prison.
• I support smaller classroom sizes in K-12 and better teacher
pay. Teachers should be held accountable but their salaries
can not be based solely on one parameter like the ISAT test,
but on a multitude of other evaluations from their principal,
other teachers and support staff.
• I supported the community college referendum and can’t wait
for it to be up and running.
• I also believe that we need more scholarships for Idaho kids
who want to go on to college so that cost of tuition and fees
is not a barrier for them.
Transportation;
• We need to start acquiring ride-of-way for public transportation
now. I would support a local option tax for public transportation
and roads.
• We need to continue to support GARVEE bonding for new highways.
• We need to raise the $245 million in funds for maintenance
of existing roads and bridges. If we have to raise gas tax and
registration fees, I would support that but I believe that there
are other ways to raise the funds and will work with other legislators
to draft legislation.
• I support impact fees on new homes
Affordable health care; I support access to simple, affordable,
quality health care system. I support efforts to reduce the
number of uninsured Idahoans and maximize Idaho’s participation
in the Children Health Insurance Program.
Many small businesses can not provide health care coverage
for their employees because of cost so many of their employees
are uninsured or insured through a spouse’s company. I would
support small businesses joining with the state healthcare program
thus increasing the number of people in the insurance pool.
The state should be able to leverage the increased numbers of
participants in the system to lower the premiums for all. |