Archives: Issues

Balancing the budget each and every year is something that our state spends way too much time on causing other important bills to be tabled.  It seems we are always looking for more revenue vs looking at how to better spend the money we have.  We have to start to take a hard look at the major categories instead of trimming around the edges.  I will be a strong voice for budget reform.

Growing an economy starts with a pro growth attitude in government, one which starts at the governor and goes down.  We need incentives for business to move here, and while that doesn’t mean giving away the store we do need to look at our agricultural base, our technology base and our manufacturing as a service sectors.  We should be doing everything we can to support them and see that they remain vibrant.

Arizona needs a vibrant workforce with well paying jobs so we should to be doing all we can to attract top companies to bring their business to Arizona.  We need companies that add to the tax base, not take from it by hiring people that rely on government aid to survive.  We need a pro growth government that is open for business, one that can also help us to train or retrain people being displaced by the evolving tech sector.  The time is now.

Medicare and Medicaid are two programs that are key to helping two vulnerable groups of Arizonans.  Our seniors and our less fortunate.  We must integrate our approach into a new program that will work consistently to reform healthcare for every Arizonan. This new program will include price transparency, competition and cost controls.  Together we can make a better way for Arizona.

Seniors need help to keep their planned retirement from evaporating in an ever increasing heat of rising property taxes, rising costs of healthcare and daily needs.  We need to address ways for seniors to no longer be unfairly burdened by the government of Arizona.

We spend $22Billion on Education in the state of AZ which is 50% of the entire state budget, with $10,000 per student per year K-12. With our test results at 48th out of 50 states we are still near the bottom of results. Something has to change and it must change now.  Our children deserve better and with a Goldwater Institute report showing school districts in AZ waste approximately 40% of their budget on EMPTY buildings and excess administration it becomes obvious that something need to change.  No more! We need no more new taxes for education until districts resolve their wasteful spending.

We need trained counselors and social workers at the elementary level because of the rising rate of kids from dysfunctional homes.  We must turn them around at a young age to give them hope and to give them a chance to succeed in life.

We need a path for teachers to be better paid.  That comes with teachers being able to be terminated just like any other person in the workforce.  Just because a teacher has a credential doesn’t mean they are an effective and successful teacher.  Creating a system that rewards great teachers and weeds out those that truly can’t teach is how we can do that.  Every good teacher should be earning $60,000 within 3 years of hire.  We will have merit raises just like everyone else in the workforce. Competition for excellence is what we need.

Teachers are part of the state employee pension fund yet they are actually NOT state employees.  You say what?  That is correct.  Teachers are pensioned by the state, yet we seem to have absolutely no control over the money given to districts, only the permanent liabilities.

Districts are admin heavy with heavy salaries,  the average principal earns over $125K a year as do their 3 vice principals.  That is almost $500K per high school.  Superintendents are found earning over $350K.  This is why there is no money for paying teachers and the most important person in this process is the teacher.  It’s time we rebuild education in Arizona from the ground up.  Together.

“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  That seems pretty clear.  Yet all across the nation states are seeking to infringe those constitutionally protected rights.  You find the liberals crying out that we need more laws to stop people from killing.  Killing is already illegal.  If you look into the rise of gun violence, you find it all stems from a failure to enforce existing laws already on the books.

This gun control effort is a globalist agenda to disarm American citizens full stop.  They want us to kneel to a global government. The only way that can happen is the shredding of the constitution.  You already hear people railing and seeking suppression of people’s rights to free speech.  The second amendment is the ONLY thing that blunts that effort.

I will campaign hard for Arizona to be a 2nd Amendment sanctuary state.  I will oppose red flag laws in all their forms.   The constitution is clear,  the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Arizona is currently $22 BILLION dollars in debt! That’s not a very well known fact.  Our Governor has acted like a fiscal conservative all the while the state debt grew by two billion dollars under his watch.  Were you aware of that?  Likely not.  Our state spends approximately $40 billion each year,  yet for most of that spending there is absolutely no oversight or accountability.  Does it seem right to you to keep throwing this debt onto future generations just like the Federal Government?  NO.  We need a plan for reducing the debt. I can get that started.  A simple resolution would be that 5% of revenue must go to retiring the debt, not just paying interest, but 5% towards the principal.  We can do this.  We MUST do this.  We cannot leave our grandchildren’s futures mortgaged because we couldn’t act with discipline.

The problem with illegal immigration is that it’s a circular argument. Most people understand that the United States cannot sustain an unlimited number of immigrants forever. This is evidenced by the fact that the federal government itself has placed limits on immigration. It’s the only way society could be stabilized and a stable economy could be maintained.  An infinite supply of cheap labor, while reducing costs, eventually produces a pool of consumers who don’t have the wherewithal to buy the very goods that they create.
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They have given so much to our nation, they deserve our honor, respect and support.  It is embarrassing for the Phoenix VA to be the subject of media attention on the plight of veterans.  Veterans deserve to be treated like any other person on government health programs like Medicare.  They should be able to go to any Dr. or to any hospital to receive the same quality care as other Americans.  They have EARNED it.  We need a better program to assist vets who suffer from PTSD and it’s related side effects.  The level of Veteran suicide is simply unacceptable.  Together we can make a better way for our Vets.  We can do this.  We’ve Got This.