COMMITTED TO
I am committed to shaping practical solutions for state and local government.
I am a common sense every day person, conservative in nature, just like you. Who work hard for our money and spend it wisely.
LIST OF ISSUES
ELECTION INTEGRITY
Election integrity is a top priority of mine. We need to restore confidence in our elections by closing election law loopholes, protecting voter ID, and ensuring no bureaucrat or outside organization can manipulate Wisconsin’s election process. This past April Wisconsin voters answered two ballot referendum questions that blocked private donations for conducting elections ie: "Zucker Bucks" and and another that requires only election officials can administer elections, in contrast to the widespread practice of using volunteers at the polls.
This November you will have another chance to answer a statewide ballot referendum specifying that only citizens aged 18 and above may vote in elections at all levels of government.
Together with my assembly colleagues, we have passed election integrity bills designed to make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat. Unfortunately, the only way these bills can become law is with a Republican governor or by statewide referendums.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
I am leading the fight to eliminate human trafficking because Wisconsin has an overall grade of "F" when it comes to
enforcing Human Trafficking laws and protecting victims. As a member of the speaker's task force on human trafficking I worked in a bi-partisan manner authoring and passing Human Trafficking bills. Gov. Evers signed three bipartisan bills recommended by the Speaker’s Human Trafficking Task Force. I authored one of those three bills AB 973: Human Trafficking Training for Employees of At-Risk Businesses because the first step in preventing human trafficking is awareness education. Another bill that I authored is AB 972: which increases jail time and fines for a person who intentionally solicits a person who is at least 18 to practice prostitution or establishes a person who is at least 18 in a place of prostitution . More Human Trafficking bills are in the pipeline for next session.
PARENTAL RIGHTS
Parents have been ignored by our public schools for too long. That's why I authored AB 963. This bill establishes a legal standard for state infringement on fundamental rights of parents and guardians, explicitly establishes a number of parental and guardian rights relating to a child's religion, medical care and records, and
education, and creates a cause of action for the violation of these rights. Governor Evers vetoed this bill twice. Wisconsin needs a Republican governor to sign these into law.
TRANSPARENCY IN OUR SCHOOLS
Parents and students need to know what is being taught in our schools. No student at any level should ever be taught that one race or sex is inherently superior to another.
I authored AB 413 to prevent anti-racism and anti-sexism student instruction and anti-racism and anti-sexism training for employees of University of Wisconsin and Technical College Systems. While this bill bans anti-racism and anti-sexism students and professors can still have an open dialog on any issues while maintaining academic freedom.
I also supported Assembly Bill 411 that prevents the teaching of racial and sexual sterotyping and other components of Marxism in K-12 classrooms.
Neither of these bills object to teaching history or theoretical concepts. The purpose of these bills is to support the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Both AB 411 and AB 413 won't become law until we have a Republican governor.
SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS
I am a strong supporter of protecting our second amendment rights, We all have the right to legally bear arms and the right to protect ourselves and our family. I will continue the fight to keep that right from being taken from us.
I was the assembly lead on AB 518. That bill removed the requirement that an issuing state place you on a list maintained by the Deparment of Justice. Under this bill, an out-of-state resident may go armed with a concealed weapon in the same manner as a Wisconsin licensee when the out-of-state resident has a valid license issued by another state.
EDUCATION
I support school choice. School funding should follow the student to whatever school they choose, public, private, charter, and home schools. Every parent should have the right to choose where they send their children to get the best education possible. Democrats have pledged to not only raise taxes, but to defund school choice and divert those funds to public schools only.
I voted to support a substantial funding increase for education in the 2022-2023 biennial budget because I am committed to quality education.
Quality education is a top priority for me. Education is not only the key to success for individuals and families, but education is the future that will drive our economy. That is why we need to continue to make responsible investments in all forms of education from K-12 to higher education. An educated workforce will be better prepared to keep Wisconsin moving forward.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
I continue to support youth apprenticeship programs in our high schools and expansion to our middle schools. Private-public partnerships between businesses, high schools, technical colleges, and universities is something I will continue to support.
I supported AB 932 a bill that required the governor to allocate a minimum of $20 million of federal funds made available to Wisconsin under the federal American Rescue Plan Act. These funds were to be used by the Department of Workforce Development to expand and promote the apprenticeship and youth apprenticeship programs. Governor Evers vetoed this bill in its entirety.
Washington County is fortunate to have Moraine Park Technical College. I support the reforms that expand learning opportunities such as private and public partnerships at our technical college. In addition to their skilled trade degreess; MPTC offers Associate of Science and Associate of Arts degrees.
Both options offer great affordable educational opportunities that allow students to live and work in the community while attending classes. Attendance at a local institution encourages our students to choose Washington County as their future workplace and home. I will continue to do whatever it takes to keep MPTC viable in our county.
PRO-LIFE
I have the endorsements of Pro-Life Wisconsin , Wisconsin Right To Life, and Wisconsin Family Action
because I am pro-life, no exceptions. That has always been my stance except in extreme cases where the mother's life is at risk. In the case of an ectopic pregnancy, where the child never survives, the motive is to protect the life of the mother. The same holds true for a mother with an aggressive form of uterine cancer. It is morally wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being. Abortion kills an innocent human being, therefore, abortion is morally wrong.
QUALITY HEALTH CARE
I have a proven track record of protecting the frail, elderly, and vulnerable. As caregiver for my parents, I know the importance of programs like family care and senior care. I was an only child who gave up career opportunities outside of the state to remain here to care for my aging parents. I am committed to protecting the most vulnerable in our society, including the unborn.
In the Assembly, I serve as the Chair on the Committee for Aging and Long-Term Care. Improvements have been made, but we have much more work to do for our frail, elderly, and vulnerable.
This term I voted to approve $600 million new dollars be allocated to ensure residents can get access
to mental healthcare, hospital services, dental care, substance use treatment, and long-term care.
The funding increases can't end here. We still need to get medicaid reimbursment rates in line with private pay. We need to attract and retain health care professionals with competitive pay for CNA's and making training and licensing less restrictive without lowering the safety and quality of service to our loved ones. I will continue advocating for more funding increases in those areas.
I will never vote to eliminate pre-existing conditions from insurance plans. Direct Primary Care and the Wisconsin Healthcare Stability Plan that reduce premiums for those on private health plans are initiatives I support. The Healthcare Stability Plan opens the market to other insurance providers further reducing the cost of healthcare.
I support other life-saving treatment options such as Right-To-Try.
More needs to be done to address mental health issues in schools and society, such as expanding programs like
child psychiatry consultation and aid for student mental health in schools.
As Chair of the Washington County Aging Disability Resource Center Board, I made sure the elderly and those with disabilities were getting the services they needed. Early in my county board career, I fought successfully to keep the countywide shared ride taxi so people in need can have a safe and affordable way to get to work and their medical appointments.
While Chair of the Washington County Board of Health I worked with legislators in Madison to change legislation so we could merge health departments with Ozaukee County. That merger saves taxpayers $250,000 per year and has improved services. This Joint Board of Health is now a Level III health department, the highest level that can be achieved. It is recognized nationally and is a model for other counties and municipalities to follow nationwide.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE
I serve on the Assembly Committe for Substance Use and Prevention. I am on the forefront of addresing these issues for Washington County and Wisconsin. During the 2021 session ten bills passed out of committee in both the Assembly and Senate. Only two were signed into law. The other bills were vetoed by Governor Evers.
- AB 41/Act 181 This bill requires the Department of Administration to issue a request for proposals, to establish and maintain an opioid and methamphetamine data system to collect, format, analyze, and disseminate information on opioid and methamphetamine use as specified in the bill.
- AB317/Act 155 This bill modifies rules relating to driver safety plans to require an evaluation of medication-assisted treatment as an option for drivers.
TAXES
My track record speaks for itself. During the 12 years as a Washington County Board Supervisor and as County Board Chairman, I have been a responsible steward of the taxpayer's money. During that same period, I advocated for a more transparent County government, which allowed us to peel back the layers of bureaucracy, thereby enabling the county to operate more efficiently and cost effectively. I have brought that same mindset with me to Madison.
In this biennium, I voted to cut taxes by $3.4 billion making it the largest tax cut in state history only to have
Governor Evers slash it by over a $1 billion dollars.
Continuing tax reform is the only way we can lower inflation. I support efforts to eliminate state income Tax or just going to a flat tax.
In the meantime, I am open to reviewing levy limits, the expenditure restraint program, and education aid formulas to ensure that there is fairness so that local needs are met when distributing state aids.
TRANSPORTATION
Washington County has done well maintaining its highways without raising taxes. I have been advocating for the same in Madison.
In the two previous sessions, I voted to approve investing over $85 million dollars into state and local highways
I sponsored AB 238 a bill that required the governor to allocate $308,519,800 of the funds accepted under the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) for this program. The proposed bill provided $144,000,000 for grants to counties. The bill also provided $164,519,800 for grants to municipalities.
An important bill providing much needed transportation funding for all local governments was vetoed by the Governor. Governor Evers continues to pick and choose his personal winners and losers.
