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Important Issues and Position Statements
There is one thing everybody in Georgia agrees on. The 147th General Assembly (2003-2004) has not accomplished much notable legislation. For that failure, everybody is also quite vocal in blaming someone else- the other “side”, the other party, other parts of the state.
Having carefully read the weekly reports on this session, it is clear that both House and Senate played obstructionist games. In a time when Georgia needs serious and focused leadership, the top priority for everyone is political posturing- and it's time to tell them we’ve had enough!
With the opening of this year’s political season, we are hearing the same vague promises we hear every two years. One candidate tells us he wants to represent his conservative constituents saying, "I’m going to vote for what’s right.” His opponent boldly proclaims, “I’m a representative of the people… re-elect me and I’ll keep on fighting…”
I’ve had enough of candidates saying how much they care about ME when their top priority is so obviously their own interests! I’ve had enough of empty promises: I want to know what a candidate really intends to DO as my representative. Most of all, I’ve had enough of people who assume airs of moral superiority and assert that we can effectively legislate character and righteousness.
I will tell you the truth about why I am running for office this year: - I worry about my husband’s job, and how we would pay our bills if the company closed,
or one of us became seriously ill. - I worry about the kind of world and future awaits my children and grandchildren.
- I care about our community, and feeling safe to take morning walks.
- I care about lettuce being $1.69 a head and gasoline at $1.90 a gallon and rising.
- When teachers are called terrorists, Americans are denied their rights and jailed without charges, or when laws are enacted on the sole basis of somebody’s personal religious beliefs, then I worry about our basic freedom as Americans.
When my motives are so blatantly self-centered, why am I running as a representative?
Before deciding to run I studied the latest census records for people in this district:
Most of us are in the same age and income ranges; most of us have the same kind of jobs;
most of us have the same kind of families, the same kinds of “stuff” (a house, a couple of cars),
and the same level of education.
Most of us have the same family heritage for generations in NW Georgia.
When we are so much alike, it’s reasonable to think that anything that is going to help MY family is also going to help YOURS – and that’s why you know I am going to do everything in my power to make things better for ALL of us!
Before I list specific things I want to do in Atlanta as your representative,
I need to explain what I CANNOT and WILL NOT do:
Many of the problems facing us today have their roots in seriously flawed national policies. There simply isn’t much any state representative CAN do about those major ills except to find the best ways to deal with their results. I’ve spent a lifetime coping with the challenge of making ends meet, making the most of what we have – and I WILL do the same in Atlanta.
What we desperately need are national leaders who actually CARE about average Americans, and it’s up to us to elect them and hold them accountable.
The thing I WILL NOT do as your representative is repeat what has happened these past two years: Over and over we have seen issues raised by politicians that serve only to divide us and distract us from the things that really matter in our daily lives. I WILL NOT allow these underhanded tactics to draw my focus away from effective legislation on Jobs, Education, Health and Safety, Community Needs, and our basic Rights as American Citizens.
Jobs and the Economy
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Introduce legislation that prohibits the State Government from outsourcing its jobs to overseas workers or specifically imported temporary workers. Require State paid work to be done by U.S. citizens and Georgia residents preferably whenever possible.
- Provide tax incentives to companies who agree to maintain their Georgia workforce or reverse outsourcing policies to return previous jobs to Georgia citizens.
- Support public works as a means to stimulate the economy by creating jobs and taxable income, funded by savings from unemployment assistance and other types of aid needed when people cannot find work.
- Support measures that assure every responsible worker in Georgia is earning a living wage.
- Work to develop transition programs with companies that anticipate layoffs to assist workers with benefits, retraining and job placement. Work to develop programs with existing agencies and institutions to help the unemployed through retraining, small business and entrepreneurial assistance, giving a needed hand to obtain or create the means of earning a living income once again.
- Facilitate links with existing state programs to help local small businesses find ways of making their own efforts more competitive and profitable, lessening the impact of major corporate decisions upon the whole economy of our District and State.
- Encourage new small-farm agricultural enterprise to take advantage of growing markets for certified organic and wholesome food products.
- Continue to develop tourism as another income-producing enterprise for our District while preserving our heritage and the environment.
- Propose incentives for companies that provide child care facilities for struggling parents.
- Propose coordination of existing agencies to assist companies locate fully legal and documented immigrants who are themselves clearly pursuing American citizenship, not simply temporary worker status. Enact and/or strictly enforce serious penalties on companies continuing to use illegal workers in order to eliminate this practice in Georgia as a normal way of doing business. Acknowledging there are some difficult or unpleasant jobs that are hard to fill with American workers, this offers a fair solution.
Health and Safety
- Work diligently for passage of bills that protect our most vulnerable citizens, our children and our elderly. Keep access to adequate health care for our children and seniors a top priority.
- Work to adequately fund law enforcement and fire/emergency services in our District.
- While strengthening sentences on violent and predatory criminals, propose effective alternatives to long sentences for non-violent prisoners to lead to productive lives instead of continuing as wards of the state.
- Work to protect our citizens’ ability to seek just remedies to medical malpractice. Observing that states that have enacted tort reform have higher insurance rates than others without these measures, this legislation clearly benefits only monopolistic insurers and neither physicians nor citizens. Propose legislation (as in other states) for insurance reform as an effective alternative. Propose legislation that grants tax credits to good physicians and hospitals which have premiums in excess of reasonable norms. Vigorously support legislation and/or enforcement of existing law to stop clearly incompetent doctors from practicing medicine in Georgia. If the tort reform bill is passed in the 2004 term, work to have it repealed, protecting the rights of our citizens to proper justice in our courts of law.
Education
- Propose legislation that makes use of the buried exemption in “No Child Left Behind” to stop this unfunded mandate from draining state funds. Work to encourage national leaders to repeal this law with its intrusion into our local schools, and its promotion of military recruitment of our children without our consent.
- Work to preserve the HOPE Scholarship for those who would not have access to higher education without it by returning to its original income-based design. There is some concern that we are not receiving our fair share of lottery earnings in District 2, compared to other parts of the state. We are not being cheated- we are losing out for one reason only: our children in the District are not going to college in as great of numbers, and many who do start college do not maintain the grades required to receive HOPE funds. As legislator, I could work with local teachers and state officials to get whatever our schools need to increase the numbers of students who enter college well-prepared to succeed. A promotional program is also needed to help our students, and their parents, to clearly understand the advantage of a college education.
- Give high priority to legislation that provides preschool opportunities as well as the development of an online-degree program (as in other states) to further adult education around work and family schedules.
Community Needs
- Our District needs particular attention and funding to preserve or provide safe, adequate water supplies and also sewer services developed in areas of concentrated housing.
- A personal priority for me is to obtain adequate funding for our local libraries. Particularly, the Rossville Library needs help to modernize more than any other facility in the District.
- Besides maintenance of our roads and existing public buildings, I would work to find funding for community recreational projects and development of tourist attractions and facilities.
Protection of Basic American Rights
- Diligently guard against any type of legislation that threatens our personal privacy, our rights to freedom of speech, assembly and petition, and our right to the free exercise of one’s personal religious beliefs.
- Guard against any legislation that violates our property rights with unreasonable searches or seizures, including eminent domain confiscations. While some environmental measures are necessary for the common welfare, efforts should be made to make these the least intrusive as possible and/or provide some type of compensation.
- Promote whatever means is necessary to ensure honesty and trust in our governmental elections. Seek ways to engage citizens’ interest and participation in our political process to ensure a healthy democracy.
Taxation
Noticeably, in contrast with other candidates, I am not making empty promises concerning unrealistic tax reductions, although I will work fervently to oppose further increases, in any form whatsoever. I believe the key to good government, as in our personal finances, is to live within our means and avoid debt (except as a tangible investment). The fact is, right or wrong, the majority of us (state and local governments included) have come to expect certain things to be provided by our government as part of the Constitutional clause “to provide for the general welfare” of our nation. Of course those expectations must be paid for through our tax dollars. My job as your representative is to bring home, not “pork” or special favors, but our own fair share of what we have paid by our taxation.
That is what I want to do for every one of us!
Diversions
There are certain issues used to disrupt our legislative process at every level of government, which simply cannot be justly legislated nor enforced under our Constitution. As a candidate to become your state representative, my personal opinions on any of these controversies will not affect my ability to serve District 2 as a committed legislator in any way:
I have no intention of being diverted from matters that are my duty, as your state representative, by sensational and emotional political manuvers.
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