You Spoke. I Listened.
As I have discussed local issues with citizens in our communities, six general concerns are frequently raised about our quality of life. As your legislative representative, I appreciate your input, ideas and opinions and pay particular attention to legislation affecting these areas.
- Family and Community Values: Protect and preserve the moral and ethical values that foster strong families, communities and government. Elevate the importance of family in society. Encourage government at the local level. Advocate multiple use of public lands. Provide adequate open space. Ensure balance between environmental protection and population growth.
- Education: Assure adequate funding for supplies, technology and text books. Reduce classroom size. Improve student test scores. Competitively compensate educators. Increase parental involvement. Increase accountability in education. Provide more education choice, such as charter schools, public schools, private schools.
- Tax Burden: As population grows, increase tax revenues for essential government services through economic development rather than raising individual or business taxes. Limit the size and cost of government and government regulation. Simplify the tax system.
- Transportation: Assure that appropriate transportation infrastructure is commensurate with community growth. Improve mass transit along the Wasatch Front and in Davis County. Improve safety of state highways by re-engineering, widening, rebuilding, maintaining and building alternate routes.
- Public Safety/Crime Prevention: Strengthen DUI laws to get drunk drivers off the road. Protect families and their homes from crimes though enhanced community involvement. Focus on illegal drug trade which accounts in one way or another for about 70% of crime in Utah (burglary, theft, assault, abuse, murder, illegal weapons, sale and use of illegal drugs, gang violence).
- Healthcare: Improve access to affordable and portable insurance for healthcare.
These principles guide my votes in the Legislature:
I oppose national healthcare legislation.
I support the rule of law for regulating immigration. I support a national guest worker program for foreigners, which is needed to support the workforce in many businesses.
I believe in the value of all life, including the aged and unborn.
I oppose abortion, except to preserve life of the mother or in case of rape or incest.
I believe in freedom of religion rather than freedom from religion.
I support our second amendment rights to own and bear firearms.
I believe that the traditional family, where a mother and father raise and nurture their children, is the core of our society's strength and stability. Our homes are where values and ethics originate. I believe that marriage is a sacred institution. I believe that attempts to lawfully recognize same sex marriage must be stopped.
I believe that parents' rights are to be protected from government intrusion.
I oppose intrusive government mandates that infringe on the constitutional rights of citizens.
I oppose unfunded government mandates to state and local government.
I oppose the federal government's creation of the Department of Education, primarily because it infringes on states' rights by creating a "federal" education mandate.
I support development of our nation's conventional and renewable energy resources. I believe our national sovereignty is in jeopardy because of our nation's dependence on foreign oil (60% is imported). I support development of Utah's oil shale and oil sands. It is estimated that there are more barrels of recoverable oil reserves in oil shale located in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming than the known amount of crude oil reserves in the Middle East.
I support responsible environmental management. I recognize that there are changes in our climate, but my research has convinced me that this is primarily from natural climate variation. As Chairman of the Natural Resources, Environment and Agriculture Committee in the House of Representatives, I cautiously balance EPA initiatives with energy development to assure our state's energy resources are allowed to be developed responsibly.