Candidate for
State Representative; District 194; Democratic Party

Jobs & Economic Opportunities:

The most important issues facing the District, the State and our Country concern jobs and economic development. We must provide incentives and do what is necessary to help the private sector create good paying jobs with benefits. This means training in both blue and white collar jobs, building infrastructure to repair our unsafe roads and bridges, developing alternative sources of power and investing in research and development to create the good paying jobs for the future. We must also get health care costs under control so that the cost of health care does not continue to act as a drag on the economy and send employers to other countries to save on health care costs.
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Crime and Public Safety:

We need to be both tough on crime and smart on crime. We need to give the police the resources they need to fight violent crime and to ensure that people who are a threat to our community stay locked up. We also need to look at those programs that work at reducing crime and saving money. We should give serious consideration to alternatives to incarceration because the crime rate has not fallen in proportion with the rise in prison budgets. The 2010 budget for prisons is now over 2 Billion dollars. If we can reduce the prison population by using a combination of drug and alcohol treatment, strict monitoring and community based prisons we can save enough money to pay for those programs we really need. Programs that stand to benefit include public school improvement, prescriptions for senior citizens, lower taxes and better reacreational facilities. New York instituted a program of strict monitoring and supervision of low level drug offenders and reduced crime by over fifty percent while saving millions of dollars. We should look at what has worked other places and try it here.
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Education:

Reforming public education is critical to our future. I support reduction in class size, increased opportunities for early childhood education, as well as partnerships between local school districts and teacher training colleges. We also need to balance the funding inequities between various communities by utilizing casino revenues and other new funding streams. Best practices should be employed improve education; these practices include high expectations, strong leadership, personalized relevant learning, parent involvement, flexible time structure, data-driven decision making, and rigorous challenging curriculum. We should encourage all students to pursue a higher education, but provide pathways to a job in the trades or other specialized occupations for those students who decide not to pursue college.
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Budget:

We need to control government spending and make efficient use of resources. Sales tax reform presents an opportunity to reduce the over all tax rate and fill in loopholes that exclude certain sectors of the economy. This would help the budget on the revenue side, but we also need to keep the cost of government down. At the same time, we need to take full advantage of the federal government's resources provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Federal Match for Medicaid. Regional economic opportunities require thinking about growth and benefits for the entire region. We are interdependent and must start thinking and legislating that way. Increased pension contributions must be phased in over time in order to stabilize pension funds that have been under funded in recent years.