Policy Questions
These are questions I have been asked while campaigning. Hopefully, if you have a similar question you can get a feel for what my position is on a specific section. If you are interested in more in-depth responses, shoot me an email and I will be happy to correspond with you about any policy.
Question Asked: What is my stance on the proposed Amendment 4?
Answer: I think this Amendment is a power grab and insulting to every voter. This Amendment will make it harder to pass Amendments in this state. Currently we have the power to initiate constitutional amendments with a simple majority of the voters. Under this amendment, each congressional district would need to reach a simple majority to approve the proposed amendments. One district rejecting an amendment would cause it to fail. This would make it almost impossible to get citizen led initiatives onto the ballot and only let the state legislature refer constitutional amendments for public votes. I am a firm NO on this amendment and any amendment that dilutes the power of the people or allows politicians to subvert the voice of the voters.
Question Asked: Taxation and budgeting for the state is a key responsibility of the House and Senate. How will I be able to support fiscally responsible legislation while at the same time ensuring everyone pays their fair share?
Answer: This state takes in more than enough tax revenue to allocate to the appropriate resources. We had a massive surplus that is rapidly nearing exhaustion because of the Republican controlled legislation and our current Governor.
We had approximately $8 billion in surplus a few years ago and are projected to only have $4.7 million by the middle of next year. This is a direct result of tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations. Even knowing all of that, Kehoe is pushing for more tax cuts by extreme changes to income tax and property taxes.
I believe budget priorities have to be for healthcare, education, infrastructure, public services, and public programs that help everyday people.
Currently the state’s taxes come from 65% income tax, 21% sales tax, and 6.5% from corporate income taxes. Missouri’s corporate income tax rate is ranked 42nd is the county at 4%. That corporate income tax rate is too low especially since it was 6.25% just 6 years ago.
The companies in this state make money off us and we directly lead to them making record profits year after year. Putting the corporate income tax rate back to 6.25% would be a huge start to being able to allocate tax funds to where they belong.
Question Asked: Education is key to success and a higher standard of living. With that being said, we’ve got teachers who can’t afford to support themselves off the wages they are paid. How am I going to address the growing need for well-paid teachers in this state?
Answer: My sister is a teacher in this state and she would likely be able to talk your ear off about the deficiencies and challenges that come with working within this state as a teacher. But I am a data guy and love statistics. The national average starting teacher salary is $46,526 and the actual national average teacher salary is $72,030. Missouri is ranked #49 in the nation with our average teacher salary at $55,132. This is unacceptable for state that values education.
This is also an easy problem to solve. We just need to allocate tax revenue to the areas of our state we want to improve and teacher salary and school resources should be #2 behind healthcare in this state. I actually have a ton more I want to speak on about this, but I will save that for a separate post dedicated entirely to education in the state.
Question Asked: In 2024 the people voted to pass Amendment 3. Should lawmakers be able to nullify the will of the people and how will I work to enshrine our will into the Missouri constitution?
Answer: I find it insulting that the Republican controlled legislature have done everything in their power to subvert the will of the voters. Short answer, no, lawmakers should not be able to overturn the will of the voters. How to enshrine that into the constitution is a bit more difficult. Voters need to vote representatives into place that will guard and protect their vote, regardless of the politicians personal beliefs. From the Governor on down, every politician should be executing the voters will. I do not have a solution other than to vote for the people who will do that. If anyone has a tangible legislative idea to enshrine it, I am open to hearing it and working towards a sensible enactment.
Question Asked: Wage growth is stagnated and recently there has been talk of lowering the minimum wage for youth workers. How will I get Missouri working again?
Answer: I strongly oppose Senate Bill 1325 because it creates a sub-minimum wage that would hurt working families. The minimum wage is already way too lower compared to the rate of inflation, and the Republicans are pushing this bill despite having that knowledge.
The goal should be that an honest weeks work should afford a worker the ability to afford their existence. That is not the reality for most people. This bill does not help the citizens of Missouri and only serves to create breaks to companies that do not need it.
As for getting Missouri working again, I think education and training are key to forging a powerful workforce. Access to properly funded education and training programs is key to developing a talented workforce that employers will desire. There are multiple states that have highly effective programs that focus on getting willing people into good programs that lead to careers. We should absolutely review successfully implemented programs and implement them in Missouri. If it works elsewhere, we should steal it and make it our own.
Question Asked: There is a growing sentiment in this state towards pushing religion into our public school and public offices. How will I protect the idea of the separation of the church from the state while respecting the freedom and rights for individuals to practice their religion?
Answer: No easy questions from this group. I went to law school and I am quite familiar with the constitution and how the Supreme Court has interpreted the separation of church and state. I think every single person should have the right to practice their religion how they see fit. I also believe that no one person or group has the right to make another person live by their religious beliefs. State mandated religious activities should never occur. A child in school should be free to exercise their religion and talk about their religion without consequences but the school should have no part in pushing indoctrination of any sort, religious or otherwise, onto a student. A student should be able to pray, but a teacher should not ask or tell anyone to pray. That is not the role of the school or the teacher. What they do off campus or in their private time is fair game. But not during school hours or in any official school capacity.