ISSUES

State funding is paramount to education. If we don’t fix it, our taxes go up.
Smart and fair investing in our schools boosts the economy, reduces crime, and fosters equality and mobility.
Quality schools are an early key indicator for economic well-being.
Pennsylvania ranks close to the bottom in the nation in terms of state funding for education. We need to fix educational funding and support our schools and our educators.

As a veteran, I have handled military style weapons and I know first-hand they don’t belong on our streets or in our homes… They belong in the armory.
As a public policy analyst, I know there’s only one variable in all the research, in all the statistics that distinguishes the US and its litany of mass shootings from all the other countries that don’t have this problem. It’s not mental illness, it’s not immigration, it’s not poverty… It’s the numbers and the military capability of these weapons. And you don’t need a PhD to know that.

Increased access to healthcare promotes a healthy workforce and economic growth.
We need to expand healthcare access, not restrict it.

If we are going to produce non-renewable shale oil and gas in Pennsylvania, it should be taxed to offset the cost to deal with the effects of extraction.
We must protect the health of our creeks and the Schuylkill…our water supplies and the beauty of Pennsylvania is vitally important.

Fair and open elections are key to democracy.
I support Fair Districts and the absolute need to have an independent council set district boundaries. Gerrymandering divides communities and marginalizes our voices.
We need to break down barriers to voter registration and early voting in Pennsylvania by considering options such as automatic registration, same day registration, early voting, modernized absentee ballots, and modernized balloting machines.
What started as an effort toward non-partisan redistricting in Harrisburg recently became an effort to encourage partisan gerrymandering. Elected officials should NOT choose their constituents- constituents should choose their elected officials. To do otherwise threatens democracy.

I support property tax reform to ease the tax burden of seniors and working families in our district. Why? Because I am here to serve the residents of the 150th and not special interests.
When property taxes are eliminated big businesses get a tax cut while the burden paying for public schools, of which property taxes are a major source, falls on older and working Pennsylvanians, and on small business owners, in the form of higher income and sales taxes.
Republicans know this as well, which is why they have never eliminated property taxes despite 12 years of control in our legislature. I support property tax reforms that will ease the burden on older residents and working Pennsylvanians, the people who need it most, and not corporations.

SERVICE – EQUALITY – PROGRESS