Issues
THE ISSUES
Vision For a Better Future
My conservative vision for a brighter future in Colorado focuses on the policies that matter to northeastern Colorado: affordability, good jobs, better education, safer communities, and conservative values.
I hear Coloradans complain that our great state is no longer so great when it comes to raising a family or starting a business. Colorado’s inflation rate in recent years has been the highest in the nation, pressuring families. A flood of new regulations imposed by the far-left Legislature and bureaucrats are killing jobs. Our schools too often stray from the essentials necessary to succeed in the workforce. Lax crime policies are making many communities unsafe.
These failures do not just happen. They are the by-product of bad decision-making and policy by a state legislature and Governor who have too often doubled down on Joe Biden’s failed policies.
We can and must do better
Here's My Vision
Affordability
Reduce the Property Tax Burden:
Lawmakers successfully repealed limits on property tax increases in 2020. Punishing tax hikes on homeowners and skyrocketing rents have been the result. Coloradans may face a 25% increase in property taxes in 2024, according to the Common Sense Institute. This would crush Adams and Weld County families. I will make property tax relief a top priority in the Senate.
Defend the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR):
I support TABOR. Voters should have the right to vote on any proposed tax hikes. I will oppose efforts to characterize tax hikes as “fees” to circumvent TABOR. Likewise, I will oppose Democrat efforts to raid TABOR refunds to increase government spending.
Cut the Cost of Health Insurance:
The Legislature passed a government-run health insurance program known as the Colorado Option in 2021. It’s made things worse. Costs are rising and choices are declining as private insurers flee the state.
Instead, we need to get government and insurers out of the middle of the patient-doctor relationship, enact more consumer-driven care (e.g., health savings accounts), ensure price transparency, promote portability of insurance plans so people can take their plan from one job to the next, cap medical malpractice awards to limit defensive medicine, and fundamentally reform Medicaid, to allow beneficiaries to buy into the private market.
Good Jobs
Rein in Costly, Onerous Regulations:
The Colorado Legislature is making it difficult to start and operate a business. Colorado is losing its competitive edge. “Colorado has over three times as many regulatory mandates as Arizona, adding over 10,000 mandates in just the past five years” (Loren Furman, “Perspective: Colorado Has Fallen Behind in Economic Growth, The Gazette, 1/28/2024).
In the Colorado Chamber’s most recent annual business poll, 46% of Colorado business leaders said they will make future business investments out of state. Punitive regulations are killing good-paying Colorado jobs. I’ll push for a regulatory moratorium and a strict cost-benefit analysis before any new regulations can be imposed and work to repeal onerous regulations currently on the books.
End Corporate Welfare:
The government should not pick winners and losers in the marketplace through corporate subsidies or preferential tax treatment.
We need a level playing field. This is particularly true in the energy industry, where Colorado lawmakers have doubled down on Joe Biden’s anti-energy regulations with punitive state-based regulations.
Better Education
Promote Education Freedom and Choice:
Get Dollars to the Classroom:
Education spending goes up year after year, but teacher salaries are not keeping up and student achievement has declined. Why? Because the percentage of school budgets going to administration has skyrocketed in the past couple of decades. According to the Common Sense Institute, there are now 7 students for every public school staffer. There were 8.65 students per staffer in 2000. I’ll work to get education dollars to the classroom.
Get Our Education System Back to Being the Best on the Planet:
Keep Politics Out of the Classroom:
Ensure Transparency::
Enhance Career Pathways,
Vocational Options, and College Entrance Rates: More and more students, particularly boys, are steering clear of a four-year college. I want college to be aspirational for kids. A college education still has value. However, college isn’t for everyone. We need to make sure kids and young adults are fully prepared for the workforce, so they can succeed. I will work hard to make Colorado the best in the nation for vocational, trade, and technical education and job training opportunities.
Conservative Values
Defend the Second Amendment:
Freedom of Speech and Thought:
There is a reason that freedom of speech and worship were the Founding Father’s First Amendment to the Constitution: freedom of thought is fundamental. I will vigorously defend freedom of speech. The government should not be in the business of viewpoint discrimination, particularly religious-based views. Likewise, university DEI (so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs favor some students over others based on what they look like or how they think must end.
Protect Life:
I am pro-life. I believe life is a gift from God. I strongly opposed the 2022 law enacted by Democrats that allows abortion, for any reason, up until the moment of birth. Instead, I would like to work toward building consensus on common-sense limits on late-term abortions and ensure taxpayer dollars are not used to finance abortions. Any abortion limitations should include exceptions for cases involving rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake.
Safer Communities
End Cashless Bail:
Truth-in-Sentencing:
Criminalize (Felonize) Fentanyl:
Fentanyl is poison. It makes no sense, but in 2019 the Colorado Legislature decriminalized (defelonized) fentanyl. The consequences have been disastrous and heartbreaking. In 2022 alone, more than 900 Coloradans died of fentanyl overdoses, many kids unaware that they were even ingesting the poison. I will work to criminalize (make a felony) fentanyl. Fentanyl dealers need to be behind bars.
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