HEALTH CARE
Affordable Healthcare
We need a system that insures all people in Wisconsin have access to affordable healthcare. The healthcare plan should be as good as what the legislature has. There are currently 2 plans to consider. One is Healthy Wisconsin. This guarantees coverage for nearly most people in Wisconsin with no pre-existing discrimination. Healthy Wisconsin is a standardized plan with the same benefits as our state employees and legislators. The second is the Republican plan of health savings accounts that get taxed when you use it. I don’t know about you, but if you’re making $10.00 per hour and have a family how can you afford to use this plan when milk is at $3.50 a gallon and gas over $4.00 per gallon. I have seen and lived the impact of our poor healthcare system. It is the number one cause for bankruptcy in our country. My wife has pre-existing illness, my daughter passed away due to a long terminal illness and I have lost my home. I know this better than most and will work to solve this for you, our children and our families. I believe a healthcare system that covers all will attract companies to relocate to our state. In a recent USA Today article Price Waterhouse claim costs for healthcare will be up 10% in 2008 and another 10% in 2009. They say the cause is an increasing amount of uninsured people using the healthcare system and new hospitals being built closing close to home clinics. Then the choice is looks to be pretty easy to slow the rate of growth of healthcare costs we need to get people coverage and way out the decision is building a new hospital the way to go?
Autism, Hearing aides for Children and mental health needs.
To it is a crime we let our children suffer. Where is the compassion not to have them covered by insurance? The Republicans consider themselves the moral majority. Does this sound as a Christian like attitude when they will not approve legislation to cover sick and challenged people? Well I’m a Christian and I believe it is our duty to help and get them coverage.
TAXES
Our business tax structure is just plain wrong. There to many companies that is allowed to pay no income tax at all because of handshake deals in our past. This has got to stop. It has placed the burden on our small and medium size business to carry the burden for the state. If you do business in our state you should be paying income tax. If we have these companies do this it will lower the burden on the others that are here and doing there part. I believe you will see companies have more money to invest in the business and in there employees, providing more jobs and growing in our state. See one my plans to help one industry out in Our Environment section. We need to eliminate the Real Estate Investment Trust. This will stop companies who operate in our state but reside else ware from basically renting from themselves and the taking a deduction for rent.
Natural Disasters
If we can learn something from what has happened this year from the record snow, tornados and record flooding is we have no reserve to help sustain us when these events occur. We are reactive and not proactive. I propose a ½% increase on sales tax for a Wisconsin Natural disaster fund limited to a total of 500 million dollars to have in reserve. We can’t hope the Federal Government will bail us out when theses events occur. As of this date 6/17/08 only 7 counties have been given disaster status, yet Indiana has 20. We need to take care of ourselves.
FUEL PRICES
I believe this will not level off anytime soon. We need to pass legislation reducing the speeds on our highways by 5% this will conserve fuel and by the way reduce accidents. We need to set a state mpg law on all new vehicles sold in Wisconsin be minimum 30 mpg in 2010 and 50 mpg in 2020. We all need to do our part. During the fuel crisis in the 70’s we all shared in a conservation effort that worked. We stopped and need to rethink what we do on a daily basis.
Our Environment
We must continue our recycling efforts in this great state to preserve for the future.
Plastics
I would support and author a bill that would allow companies that produce plastic to claim up to a 50% income tax rebate if they use 100% recycled material. If a company uses 50% recycled material then they would receive a 50% rebate. You get the idea. This will not only help clear our landfills of plastic but encourage plastics companies relocating to our state providing much needed good paying jobs.
Electric Vehicles
We need to lift all restrictions locally for them except on our interstates. This will provide an alternative that is non-polluting and provide relief from the gas tank.
Incandescent light bulbs
We need to be a proactive state reducing our use prior to the Federal ban in 20014.
Installing renewable energy sources at home and our business.
We need to provide full tax credits for all who chose to install and use renewable energy.
Clean coal
Is there such a thing as clean coal? Having family that has died because of black lung in West Virginia I am against this idea.
Land Fills
It is my belief we allow other states to abuse the system. I am for increasing land fill fees for other states dumping here and also charging them a yearly rent property tax for the use of our land.
Our state
I support legislation restoring to the Natural Resources Board the authority to appoint the DNR Secretary. I favor prohibiting the diversion of fish and wildlife funds.
EDUCATION
No Child Left Behind
This has not worked but left a burden to our schools and families.
No Child Left Behind Left the Money Behind: The goal of the law was the right one, but unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the Education Department and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have limited its effectiveness and undercut its support. As a result, the law has failed to provide high-quality teachers in every classroom and failed to adequately support and pay those teachers.
Students Left Behind: Six million middle and high school students read significantly below their grade level. A full third of high school graduates do not immediately go on to college. American 15 year olds rank 28th out of 40 countries in mathematics and 19th out of 40 countries in science. Almost 30 percent of students in their first year of college are forced to take remedial science and math classes because they are not prepared.
High Dropout Rate: America has one of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world. Only 70 percent of U.S. high school students graduate with a diploma. African American and Latino students are significantly less likely to graduate than white students.
Teacher Retention is a Problem: Thirty percent of new teachers leave within their first five years in the profession.
Soaring College Costs: College costs have grown nearly 40 percent in the past five years. The average graduate leaves college with over $19,000 in debt. And between 2001 and 2010, 2 million academically qualified students will not go to college because they cannot afford it. Finally, our complicated maze of tax credits and applications leaves too many students unaware of financial aid available to them. All Wisconsin graduates should be able to pursue there dream at a Technical College or state university without worrying about the cost.
Eliminate the QEO
Our teachers need to be compensated for the job they do. We are having teachers leaving to other states because the QEO is a bad faith deal A friend of my taught me a very good lesson when dealing with teachers. He was just hired as the school administrator for a school system in Wisconsin. At the time of hire there was bad blood between the city and the teacher. He called for a meeting. He brought his staff and the teachers brought there lawyer. There was one thing he asked of his staff prior to the meeting. He asked them to wear overalls to the meeting. So they all went to the meeting dressed in overalls. The teachers and there lawyer asked what is going on with the overalls. He said he was ready to give them the farm and what to do they want. From there on there was no more lawyers and content between the city and teachers. We can work with the teachers that provide for there services if we work together with them.
Campaign Finance Reform
This is an area that needs so much change. I decided that if it doesn't start with me then who. I take no PAC money and will not. I will not take contributions from anyone outside the district that I am running for office in. I will endorse major campaign reform change when elected.
Other items of note
* We were the LAST state in the nation to finish our state budget due to nasty GOP partisan politics.
* The GOP leadership CANCELLED more days of legislative session than we actually met, providing for only 25 session days in all of 2007 & 2008 combined, the LOWEST number of ANY state in the nation.
* And, because of Republican inaction, we still have not addressed accessible and affordable health care, tax fairness, job creation, the environment, civil rights or quality education in any serious way.