For many years, our economy was driven by the population growth and the development industry.  Since growth has slowed and new home construction has come to a halt, we have seen state revenue decrease and jobs disappear.  To create jobs and get our economy back on track and persons back to work, I believe we must:

• Support and expand job training programs like Job Path and other direct-employment programs that provide skills for jobs that pay a living wage;

• Create a state empowerment zone like the federal government has done, to utilize tax credits for employers to hire and train workers in fields that have a high demand;

• Support the creation of jobs in the green building and solar energy sectors by expanding the tax credits for creating jobs in the sciences and high tech sectors.
  

Our state budget must reflect our values and priorities for the future that:

• Balance the state budget in an open process and on time.

• Fund our most critical needs and obligations (education, healthcare, senior/child protection and transportation) for Arizona’s population and;

• Offer income tax credits to working families;

• Broaden the sales tax base to include personal goods and services.  Food and medical care, including pharmacy prescriptions, would be exempt. 

Increasing taxes such as property taxes, sales taxes, various user taxes, etc. should only be done when a specific plan is presented.  Raising Arizona’s sales tax is not good and hurts middle class working families.  The voters should consider taking two actions to reform our state’s sales tax:

1. Lower the current sales tax rate by half a cent;

2. Broaden the sales tax base to include personal goods and services.  Food and medical care, including pharmacy prescriptions, would be exempt. 

In addition, the state’s education equalization tax has been reinstated and should NOT be repealed since this funding supports our community’s schools.

Educating our state’s children in the essential subjects of reading, writing, science, math and vocational classes is important to Arizona’s economy.  To accomplish this, I support:

• Supporting and training of highly qualified teachers through certification and staff development;

• Smaller class sizes that allow for students to learn and for teachers to give attention to every student;      

• Starting a partnership between community colleges, school districts and charter schools, that allows students to pursue college courses during their high school years.

• Better teacher pay and the preservation of voter approved Prop 301 teacher/performance pay;

• As the budget situation stabilizes, increase and equalize funding for schools without tampering with the voter protected Prop. 301 funds.
  

Arizona’s universities are critical to developing our state’s economic future and in training the future workforce.  By funding the universities at an acceptable level, students can afford to pay a reasonable tuition in order to get a good college education.

The rising tuition is too high for students to attend our universities.  Tuition must be slowed down and must not be increased above the rate of inflation.  Future increase must be lower than in the previous years in order for students to have the opportunity to attend UA, NAU or ASU. 

To help students attend college, we can do the following to make it more affordable:

• Expand state loan forgiveness programs by providing additional funding;

• Expand our state’s financial aid commitment by creating a state and corporate income tax credit with the contributions going for college tuition assistance;            

• Consider tuition on an income sliding scale;

• Expand work-study programs beyond the college and university campuses by working with private industries;

• Ensure the smooth transition from high school to college by utilizing Pima Community College and other Arizona community college degree transfer programs which offer reasonable tuition and flexibility to traditional and non-traditional students in completing the first two years of a baccalaureate program.
  

Pima County’s transportation planning is done regionally through the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA).  Pima County and its cities and towns work together as one region with a long range plan that includes a dedicated funding that has:

• Expanded and improved access to transit services;

• Built and maintained roads, sidewalks, and bike paths;

• Acquired land for open space preservation. 

With the improvements made by Pima County with the RTA, I believe Arizona should:

• Adopt the same approach in planning for our state’s transportation needs;

• Establish a statewide funding source for improving Arizona’s infrastructure;

• Study and plan for the building of a high speed rail between Tucson and Phoenix;
  
  
• Expand the use of Arizona’s ‘Gas Tax’ to fund local public transit systems and not just be used to fund the building and maintenance of roads and bridges.
  

Arizona is a rich state with natural treasures and great plant and wildlife, which adds to our quality of life and helps our economy with tourists who want to see Arizona’s beauty.  If elected, I will advocate for:

• Clean air and water for our state to ensure quality and safety;

• State standards for emissions to help address air quality and greenhouse gases;

• Measures to protect Arizona’s water supply;

• Expand state incentives such as tax credits and deductions to further establish alternative energy production and construction, such as solar energy since we are a state with sunshine year-round.

Conservation is important and Tucson is showing to be a leader in water harvesting and in gray water plumbing.  We must take the same approach Tucson has used and implement water harvesting and gray water plumbing on a statewide level.

We must protect our state land from mining, overdevelopment and forest fires.  Our state parks and monuments belong to the people of Arizona for all to enjoy and to continue this, I support:

• Full access to park and monument trails for persons with disabilities;

• Waiving the entrance fee to state parks and monuments a few times a year;

• The consideration of an ‘all access pass’ for admission to state parks and monuments for recreation, education and exploration purposes.
  

Arizona provides health care insurance at a low cost to children of working families through the state’s Kids Care program.  In addition, Healthcare Group (HCG), a state health program that helps small businesses and sole proprietors afford health coverage for their employees and their family members, has been helping to insure Arizona’s working families. 

The Arizona Legislature has been chipping away at the funding for HCG and has been starving this important health insurance program.  At a time when health insurance premiums are becoming unaffordable, programs like HCG and Kids Care, are needed to help insure our state’s children and small businesses in order to have healthy students and healthy workers. I support the need for a health care public option and this can be achieved in Arizona by:

• Expanding our state Medicaid program, the Arizona Healthcare Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), by lifting the enrollment cap for AHCCCS to include more uninsured families on a sliding-scale program and/or fee-for-service programs like the Pima Community Access Program (PCAP).

• Encourage the use of community healthcare clinics like El Rio Clinic and Marana Health Center for low cost preventive care.  
  

We cannot repay the debt of gratitude to our state’s military veterans and the men and women who serve and have served in the Arizona Army National Guard and the Arizona Air National Guard. We must continue to take care of our state’s veterans and active duty service members by:

• Providing shelter to homeless veterans;

• Supporting state veterans service centers to help veterans with service disability compensation claims, medals/awards claims;

• Creating a state soldier civil relief law that grants relief to service members who are deployed for military missions.  The law would mirror the Federal Government’s Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act. 
  

Enforcement of immigration laws are a matter for the Federal Government to carry out and not a state duty; nor is it a duty of our community law enforcement agencies.
Our law enforcement officials should enforce the criminal laws, arrest and detain criminals and keep communities safe. 

To solve our immigration problem, I support:

• Comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level;

• Secure borders;

• A guest worker program;

• A humanitarian approach to the undocumented immigrants working and living in a productive manner.
  

This sacred choice lies with a woman and her physician.  I am pro-choice and I support a woman’s right to make such an important decision. 

The Supreme Court’s decision of Roe v. Wade allows for personal choice and I oppose:

• Laws that restrict access to abortions performed by a physician;

• Laws that restrict or limit access to women’s health care;

• The creation of laws that criminalize the performing of abortions by physicians.

For persons who oppose abortion, including partial birth abortion and want to reduce teenage pregnancies and abortions, I support:

• Comprehensive, age appropriate sex education courses to our youth;
  
  
• Access to contraceptives and counseling.