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Questions
The League of Women Voters has made every effort to present accurately the candidates' responses as they were submitted.
1. If elected, what two things do you hope to accomplish as a member of the House of Representative for the people of Utah?
I propose we set the Property Tax at the time of purchase of your home. Furthermore, when your mortgage is paid off, I would like to see the Property Taxes to be done away with.
* To stop "hate crimes" and "thought crimes" legislation. We cannot read peoples thoughts or know the intent of their hearts. We are only able to judge the actions which they have taken, which allow the law to be administered fairly, while being based on concrete evidence.
2. How would you address the following issues? (Please answer each question in 200 words or less.)
-Adequate funding for education, including funding for disadvantaged populations such as non-English-speakers and prison inmates
What is adequate funding for education? Evidence does not suggest that increased spending increases quality.
Public Education may be improved in a variety of ways. A very effective way in improving quality will be through competition. First increase the number of choices available to the students for education. A variety of methods can be incorporated to achieve this, including enrollment in schools based on student/parent choice, not geographical boundaries. Other competition offered outside of the public education system, such as private schools and home schools, will also allow quality to improve. To facilitate this, we will need the money spent per student to be given to the education facility where the student attends. This competition for financing will cause schools to make improvements to compete. Quality will also be achieved as we allow greater localized control of the curriculum. This allows the teachers to assess the needs of the students in their local schools and provide for them the best solutions to fulfill those needs.
- Energy resource development and clean air
We should allow the free market system to provide Energy in the manner they choose. We do need to make sure that no matter which type of Energy they choose, that we our satisfied with the safety features of those facilities, as well as the site locations being well planned. We must be wise stewards over the resources we have.
- Water development and conservation
Water is definitely an issue today. My great-great-great-grandfather actually homesteaded the land where I now reside.
Utah
was quite different at that time. Agriculture was the main employment. Water was their livelihood, and thus protected.
Utah
has since experienced a very large residential growth spurt. As farmers have sold their land, they have provided shares of water for the land they sold. We have unfortunately allowed rights to be transferred from one water basin to another. This has stressed the water available for high urban areas. We now need to make sure that the current zoning throughout the State will support the water needs of those areas. As residents, we can all do our part at conserving the water which we now have.
- Better communication between elected officials and their constituents
It would help to have later hours for elected officials. This could be addressed by the 10-hour workday. Two shifts would allow even greater access. Monday through Thursday, and another shift to work Tuesday through Friday. The later hours would allow constitutents to more readily meet with their elected officials. It would also allow constitutents to participate more in the legislative sessions.
3. If the State had a revenue surplus of $100 million, how would you allocate the money? (Response should include $______________ for ________________________________.
$100 M - return to the citizens. The elected officials already determined in their budget how much they needed. Anything left over was an overpayment by the taxpayer and should be returned promptly.
Opponents:
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