As the son of a lifelong educator, I support our Missouri public schools. The formula we use to determine the amount of funding public schools receive hasn't been updated for almost twenty years. I believe we should update the foundation formula from the 2005 numbers, and then we should fully fund it. We should also increase the salaries of those who choose to give their lives and talents to the education of our children. Economic development begins in kindergarten. I will oppose school vouchers while supporting expanded school choice.
A strong economy is one that works for everyone. As your state rep, I will fight for those who build up our economy—our workers—for the wages, benefits, and protections they deserve. I stand with labor unions because I stand with and support the people who live and work in our community.
I will work towards implementing a state Child Tax Credit, universal paid maternity leave, and increased FMLA protections to make sure the companies that operate in our community adequately value their workers and the labor that they provide.
I have personally lost friends and battle buddies to both combat and suicide on the other side of the world and at home. The assistance we offer to those who have laid it all on the line for us in service to this country is personal and close to my heart.
I will do everything I can to ensure that we provide help and support to our veterans in need and make sure that NONE of them find themselves alone, without support or help, mistakenly believing that they have no way out.
Regardless of what happens in November, if you or someone you know find themselves in this situation, contact me anytime, anywhere.
In the years I spent as a public defender in Jackson County, I saw firsthand how undersupported and overwhelmed the professionals and public servants that offer mental health services are. Far too often, those in desperate need of mental health assistance are overlooked--until their struggles lead them to get crosswise of the criminal justice system. Even then, after a judge orders an evaluation, they will sit and wait for months in the county jail just for the evaluation to occur. And then they will wait in jail for months more for a spot to open up at the Department of Mental Health.
By the time they finally arrive at the Department of Mental Health, they have been waiting--in arguably the worst possible place for a person's mental health--for a year or more. We have to do better than this, and I am committed to expanding the resources available to those people and families struggling with mental illness and increasing support and funding to the Department of Mental Health and other mental health providers.
Central to the role of government is to fairly enforce the law and provide protection for its people. I will support our law enforcement officers in their difficult jobs while also demanding accountability when they overreach.
I support tough sentences for violent criminals. I also support the expansion of programs that help those in our prison system turn their lives around and reintegrate into society after they have served their time. I support drug treatment courts, veterans' courts, mental health courts, and diversion programs that find alternative ways to punish and rehabilitate non-violent criminals without simply throwing them in prison, and I will support the expansion of these programs across the state.
I've spent the last couple of years working as an attorney for the Guardian ad Litem in our family courts, and as such I was able to witness firsthand how overwhelmed and underpaid those who provide support and help to our community's families and children are. The recent tragic death of a child here in Jackson County underscores how important it is that we do better to safeguard the health and safety of those children who need it most.
I will fight every day to, first, ensure that we adequately compensate all those who give their lives in service to our communities and children, and second, make sure that those workers have the needed tools and resources available to make a positive and lasting impact on our community.
The recent reassessment of property values in Jackson County was highly problematic in both its execution and its results. This is an issue that needs to be--and must be--fixed. Many of the solutions and bills being offered in Jefferson City to fix this problem seek only to exact a political price or play politics with the issue.
I believe that we need and deserve a real solution that addresses the actual, everyday problems that increasing costs are creating in our lives. I support and will fight for a basic cap on the amount that property valuations and tax bills can go up from one year to the next. I believe that this would provide some much-needed certainty in our pocketbooks and ensure that those in our community who live on fixed incomes are not priced out of their homes.
I believe to my core that you have the right to a voice and a say in your government. I also believe that your voice should be just as important as that of any other voter in this state.
There are proposals in the legislature right now to change and “reform” the initiative petition process--the process by which voters can make changes or additions to our state constitution. These bills, if adopted, would presume to deny you both your voice and your equal standing, each of which are foundational principles of our law and society.
I am committed to making sure that your voice and vote will always matter. And I will continue to remind those who want to limit or silence your voice that this is still a government of, by, and for the people; and that government is still accountable to you.