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Platform Issues

Effective Governance

Effective governance is being both an open ear and a strong voice. I want to speak to you directly about goals as your future representative.

  1. To advance the priorities of the 8th Legislative District.
  2. To maintain the independent perspective that has so far defined my political career.
  3. To build a healthy relationship between business and government through thoughtful, but not intrusive, oversight.
  4. To build bridges between the 8th Legislative District and the state legislature.
  5. To be the best advocate I can be for my community.
  6. To measure the quality of legislation by asking, simply, whether or not it makes good public policy.

Economic Stability

Hanford as a whole will always be a big part of the local economy; it is a lot of what defines our community. But completion of the Hanford cleanup is imminent. By 2015, we need to begin to reapply our workforce with good family wages. This means we need to begin diversifying our economy by encouraging business growth and development to offset the completion of the cleanup activities. As businesses compete for customers, so do communities. Communities that invest in their economic infrastructure regularly come out ahead. They make it inexpensive and easy for businesses to establish themselves.

These are smart investments of state funds that pay enormous dividends and benefit everyone. By investing in infrastructure, we put people to work and make our community more competitive in the marketplace. We offer nutrient-rich land, natural resources, great minds, and hard workers.

What we need is a representative with vision, competence, and know-how to make smart investments for our community. As I see it, the 8th Legislative District is a natural candidate to emerge as a worldwide hub for:

  1. Clean energy development and technology
  2. Wine production and tourism
  3. Agricultural and Food processing industries
  4. Logistical and Distribution industries

The 8th Legislative District has the potential to be one of the strongest, most stable, and diverse communities within the state. I have an action plan to develop relationships and promote this plan to grow our local economy.

Growing Livable Communities

Economic development creates a tension between people and nature: how do we ensure the stability and well-being of the past without compromising the beauty and majesty of today? The best way to negotiate this tension is to ensure, through careful cooperation between business and the community, the thoughtful development of natural resources. We show pride in our community by making smart, conscientious decisions, ones that protect our open spaces while ensuring our health, wealth, and happiness. Effective state representatives create opportunities to make conscientious living within their communities and states.

As a representative for the 8th Legislative District, I will fight for community investments that sustain the natural wealth of our local and state environment. I will promote nuclear energy as a clean, carbonless solution. I will help the state meet its electrical needs and fight to get hydroelectric power listed as a renewable resource. We will seek out grant opportunities to enhance our riverfront and protect open spaces, such as Rivers to Ridges, Bridge to Bridge, the Amon Basin, and Badger Mountain. I will promote the connection of private industry to state grant opportunities like the energy trust fund. By advocating for alternative transportation options like bike and pedestrian trails we will connect our jobs and living spaces. I will support efforts at PNNL and WSU to develop alternative energy sources like fuel cells, bio-fuels and bio-mass.

Education and Training

Businesses want to operate in regions with access to skilled labor and good educational resources. Therefore, part of the success of the economic diversification of this area depends on our commitment to the intellectual development of our current and future workforce. We are fortunate to live in a community that values education and lifelong learning, and we do an excellent job of providing a high school education that prepares our children to meet the challenges of the new century.

But Washington’s commitment to our local colleges does not reflect these values. This gives rise to two problems. First, without good, local colleges, the children who are raised in this community have to go elsewhere for a good college education. Second, since the need for training and retraining is increasingly necessary for businesses to keep their competitive edge, a lack of good training programs means businesses will not have access to the kind of dynamic workforce they need. This is why it is unacceptable that the state legislature continues to overlook the needs of CBC and WSU Tri-Cities when appropriating state education funds. As your representative, I will advocate for growing and investing in our local colleges so that we can keep our best and brightest within our community and keep our workforce strong and knowledgeable.

I support:

  • Funding programs through WSU-TC and CBC in nuclear certification, training, and design specifications, similar to the viticulture degree at WSU and Kadlec’s partnership with the CBC nursing program. This would enable the clean up workers to start their own small engineering and design businesses — in the energy park — and preserve our globally competitive expertise in nuclear technology.
  • Increased access to funding for short-term certification programs that meet the needs of business.
  • Sustained investment in our existing programs at WSU Tri-Cities by recruiting top-notch researchers through the STAR program.
  • Looking into wage reforms for administrators, especially at our state universities.

Transportation, Economic Vitality & Quality of Life

I believe that transportation, the economy, and quality of life are directly tied to one another, and that enhancing our transportation system is necessary to meet the needs of the United States for the 21st century. Unlike most goods, transportation serves as a key input to production and economic activity along with other important inputs such as land, labor, and technology.

The ability to be mobile in today’s society equates to a competitive edge for business and the freedom to go whenever and wherever one wishes. However, transportation investment should be planned and prioritized according to need; one size does not fit all. During this past legislative session, I was proud to be part of the team that was successful in getting another transportation policy in state statute: Economic Vitality now joins the list of five other policy goals for transportation investment: Safety, Preservation, Mobility, Environmental Quality & Health, and Stewardship. Carefully prioritizing our tax dollars to meet the needs of local communities will enable our state to build a transportation system that helps business, promotes walkable communities, and adds to our mobility options.

At the same time, we must recognize that continuing our reliance on fossil fuels holds us hostage to nations that would do us harm, and that we should aggressively seek to find choices to power our vehicles that do not harm the environment. Good land-use planning where housing, commercial development, and transportation are coordinated to better serve people is also essential in getting a better return for the dollars invested by the public, and must be a strategy that we embrace as we find more efficient ways to deliver this vital public investment.

I support:

  • The development of a new I-82 interchange to support the Red Mountain American Viticultural Area and wine tourism
  • Transportation improvements for the Benton City interchange and SR-224
  • The Duportail Bridge over the Yakima River
  • Commute Trip Reduction programs that incentivize car-pooling and enable workers to reduce the costs of their everyday commutes
  • Safe Routes to School funding
  • River to Ridges trail system
  • Increased rail investment for emerging distribution centers
  • A high-speed passenger rail line between the Tri-Cities and Seattle
  • The Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board
  • A long-term commitment to replacing the aging ferry boats serving our marine community