Strategy for Washington
Create
and keep family wage jobs in Lewis and Thurston counties:
- More
rural jobs: Develop a job creation package that provides
incentives to rural businesses
- Expand worker retraining:
Continue the worker retraining programs at Centralia College,
South Puget Sound Community College and other public schools
- Reduce red tape: Reduce
regulatory burdens on businesses
- Help agriculture:
Focus on restoring and promoting our agricultural industries,
including Washington’s growing
wine industry
Ease the tax burden
on families and businesses:
- Reduce property
tax burden: Limit
property tax increases for senior citizens on fixed incomes
and increase exemption limit
- Eliminate death
tax: Repeal the
state’s estate
tax enacted in 2004 by the democrats that penalizes family
businesses and successful individuals who have been paying
their taxes all along
- Establish fiscal
controls: Establish
a constitutional amendment requiring a 2/3 majority to raise
taxes, shift funds, or access emergency reserve funds
Find
market-based solutions to control costs and improve our health
care system:
- Control health
care costs: Reform the
state’s
Medicaid system to a risk-based consumer driven program,
and look to cost containment models in other states (Florida,
South Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, and Wisconsin)
- Help seniors
and our vulnerable populations reduce drug costs: Promote
proper utilization and rebates to assist seniors and vulnerable
adults with prescription drug coverage
- Provide health
life style tax credits: Institute a business and occupation tax
credit for businesses that provide child care services, exercise
programs, and expanded health benefits
- Provide health
benefit options: Support legislation to provide a basic (reduced
mandates) health care option for small business employers
and employees
- Offer health
saving accounts: Allow
government employees to purchase health savings accounts
Determine long term funding solutions
for our public schools and colleges:
- Update basic
education funding: Reform the basic education funding model to meet
the needs for the 21st century
- Change school
district transportation funding: Restructure transportation funding for our public
schools. The funding model that is now used must be changed
- Offer dual
career paths: Create hybrid,
multi-district magnet schools and expand skill centers to
focus on vocational career alternatives
- Reform teacher
salaries:
Revamp the teacher salary grid to provide flexibility for
hard to fill subject areas, reward high skills, and bring
good teachers to rural districts.
Improve education standards
so our children can compete in the global economy:
- Support a
successful WASL: Focus state funding on retakes, remediation
and low performing schools, and look to successful schools
and districts for leadership.
- Separate standards
for special need students: Provide the resources to support a separate
graduation standard for special need populations in our schools.
- Promote early childhood
learning:
Focus on public-private partnerships in reading such as
the “Kennewick
model.”
- Require college performance
standards:
Establish new goals to increase four-year degrees and performance
standards in our public colleges and universities. Washington
ranks last in the country; this embarrassment must end.
Prepare
state budgets that are truthful, fully funded, sustainable,
reward performance, and are accountable to taxpayers:
- Require
budget priorities: Require the governor and legislature to
use the Priorities of Government (POG) model for budgets.
- Fully
fund employee pension funds: End raiding the state government
employee pension funds to help balance the budget. We must
be responsible and resume retiring the state’s
unfunded liability now.
- Restore budget limits: Restore the
budget limit initiative voted on by the people (Initiative
601) and eliminate game playing.
- Establish constitutional
reserve fund: Require a minimum reserve in the state general fund
of 3 percent and a super majority to access it.
- Require business
fiscal impacts on new legislation: Require legislative fiscal
notes be prepared for business impacts before legislation
is enacted.
Offer common sense solutions for environmental
policies:
- Link salmon recovery
to quantitative goals: Require that salmon recovery efforts be linked to
quantitative goals that can be measured
- Support sustainable
timber harvests: Support the Department of Natural Resources
plans for sustainable timber harvests
- Return local control
to growth management: Abolish or significantly restrict the
rule-making powers of the growth management hearing boards
- Protect personal property
rights: Make
sure personal property rights are protected in the Growth
Management Act and critical area ordinances
- Explore alternative
fuels: Develop legislative incentives for production and
use of bio-diesel and other alternative fuel sources
- Promote
environmental incentives: Provide incentives and exemptions
to businesses and carriers who promote environmental stewardship.
www.gary-alexander.com | alexandergary@comcast.net
Paid for by the Committee to
Re-Elect Gary Alexander, State Representative, Dist.
20, Pos. 2, GOP
P.O. Box 48 • Olympia, WA 98507
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