District 70 Issues
ECONOMY
The number #1 issue facing our state is the economy. I will work closely with our county commissioners to improve the business environment in Sarasota County. We need to reach beyond the county borders and entice the renewable energy and high tech sectors to our community to provide the much needed jobs for our citizens. We can no longer solely rely on tourism and construction. We must broaden our tax base. Several ways to improve job creation are to support tax incentive programs, the creation of research and development tax credits and matching grant programs, to assist Florida entrepreneurs, especially small businesses.
PROPERTY INSURANCE
Citizen's windstorm insurance is a disaster waiting to happen. One of the most important issues this November for voters is the establishment of a national CAT fund. Insurance is best when spread over the largest number of policy holders. Although different parts of the country have their own problems, fires in the west, mudslides and earthquakes in California, flooding along the Mississippi, tornadoes throughout our heartland, and hurricanes in Florida, a national CAT fund is the best solution. Everyone in Florida knows the availability of policies was scarce and pricing was astronomical until Citizen's insurance came along. However, Citizen's, a state backed insurance organization, is underfunded to meet the costs a major storm could cause. Recently, our state government took a gamble with Warren Buffet to pay Berkshire Hathaway 224 million dollars, on the chance Florida would be struck by a major storm. If Florida was stuck by a major storm Berkshire Hathaway would purchase 4 billion dollars worth of state bonds paying 6.5%. This deal is a win win for Buffet and a lose lose for the citizen's of Florida. How did we get ourselves into this situation? If we can't get a national CAT fund, we need problem solvers from all sides of the issue to come together and hammer out a solution as quickly as possible.
EDUCATION
We need to find an effective way to fund education. Why, because the graduation rate in Florida is one of the lowest in the nation…in the nation. We must graduate an educated workforce, by doing so we will attract more small businesses to our community. The benefit will be to broaden and diversify the tax base. What does this do for all of us? This alleviates some of the burden on the property owner. By doing this we are not cutting services but improving education. The cornerstone of economic freedom is education. Our children are being asked to pay off the largest debt in the history of the world. We can at least give them 21st century skills to compete in the global economy. We owe this to our children. We must stop thinking of education as an expense and look at it as an investment in our children's future.
ENERGY
A priority is to establish a renewable electricity standard for the sunshine state. Why hasn’t our state government taken a leadership role in the development of solar power to cut our dependency on foreign oil? Governor Schwarzenegger, of California, has a plan called 1,000,000 solar roofs. This program has been described as California taking a giant step toward becoming the Saudi Arabia of the sun. Germany, not exactly the sunshine state, is the world leader in the production of solar power followed by Japan and Spain. Florida needs a plan to promote solar power which will attract new companies to our community providing much needed jobs for our citizens. Make no mistake about it the problem is not a lack of ideas the problem is a lack of leadership. This is one of the reasons I want to go to Tallahassee.
PROTECTING FLORIDA'S ECOSYSTEMS AND WATER RESOURCES
We need to stand united in our vigilance to maintain the provisions of the Clean Water Act, and increase funding for infrastructure projects before we face serious impact on tourism for our state. The fishing industry has noticed for years the declining fish populations. Most Floridians are unaware of the amount of sewage spilled into our waterways each year. Enforcement against the spillage of sewage has been on the decline and we need to address the effectiveness of the water treatment facilities in our state. This sewage has the potential to foul our drinking water, close our beaches, and spread waterborne diseases.
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