I was born and raised in Hanson where I attended Maquan, Indian Head, and Hanson Middle Schools while playing my little league and youth football in town. These formative years forever attached me to this great town and invested me in its success.
My story is not possible without the incredible hard work of two generations of small business owners. My grandfather started a fence company in 1969 shortly after returning from Vietnam. He was able to raise three children and pass on the trade to my father, who expanded the family business into what it is today. I owe everything to the men who taught me what hard work is and gave me the opportunity to succeed.
This is the dream of every person who owns a small business. These businesses are the lifeblood of communities like ours and contribute considerable value while creating a better life for their families. This is who I will fight for and give back to after they have done so much to make our towns what they are today.
How exactly do we do this?
1. Eliminate unnecessary regulations that only incur undue burden and cost. We all saw during the pandemic that certain regulations were thrown aside as a form of assistance to small businesses, especially those hardest hit like bars and restaurants. If we can eliminate these regulations in times of crisis why should we bring them back in the post-pandemic environment? Government proved that its regulations are unneeded and I promise to contstantly search for ways to take these burdens off of the small businesses in our community.
2. Put our small businesses on a level playing field with large corporations. I understand the appeal of building a new Target or Whole Foods for convenience but they do not add the value of our local business owners. Small business are the ones that advertise at the local little league fields, they are the ones that sponsor and show up for community events, they are our neighbors! I want to cap the tax benefits that interstate businesses can receive in order to incentivize the recruitment of locally owned businesses. We must close loopholes in the tax code which benefit these large corporations with large legal and accounting teams but leave small businesses out in the cold to foot the bill.
I encourage everyone to support local businesses in the 6th Plymouth District.
We have all seen over the past few years (or decades) how public education has rapidly changed. Although change is not always bad we must put the future of education in job training and back under the control of parents.
1. Protect the rights of parents to have a say in their child's education. We are seeing seriously concerning trends in education across the country and across the state. My goal is not to step on the toes of school boards but rather to make sure that a parent's voice is always protected and never stifled. I do not believe the state should be dictating specific curriculum to school districts but there should be checks in place to make sure that curriculum fosters growth and unity not strife and division. I want to help foster an environment where academic expertise can be supplemented with the needs of students, communities, and families, not produce an adversarial environment.
2. Exponentially grow the size and resources for technical education. I believe that parents and individual towns should not be stuck into going along with one size fits all educational programming from Beacon Hill but one specific area that the state must intervene is in assisting the growth of technical education. Communities need the resources to support our students and prepare them for the real world without college. If a student wants to get a technical education there should be nothing to stop that. The application process is burdensome and would be unnecessary if the schools grew with demand.
I understand that technical education can be expensive to offer but even if a student does not go to a VoTech school they should be able to learn some of the necessary skills to become a competitive applicant out of school. Whether this is accomplished through after school technical programing or assisting municipalities fund the classes as part of a student's regular curriculum.
I will fight to help lead this improvement because not only is it just but it is necessary!
Brave men and women in District 6 get up early every day, working overtime shifts, missing times with family and loved ones -- to keep us safe from harm and help us sleep soundly at night. As state representative, my promise to you is to help our first responders by implementing the following:
1. Assure that departments are fully funded as we continue to recover from the pandemic without putting undue burden on municipalities and taxpayers.
We have seen in small towns across the commonwealth that taxpayers must choose between losing essential services or dramatically raising taxes, such as in Hanson's case with its override vote. I believe that no municipality should have to choose between the two. Towns have suffered from unfair government closures and regulations that reduced or wasted tax revenue to pay for services like police, fire, etc. I will fight to assure that financial hardships created by the state will be rectified by the state.
Communities like ours are also particularly susceptible to increasingly dangerous drug epidemics hitting our nation. We must assure that our paramedics have the resources needed to complete adequate training and be supplied with up to date treatments to save the lives of the children in our community that are too often suffering from drug dependence.
2. Address key issues with the Police Reform Act of 2020, formally known as the "Act Relative to Justice, Equity, and Accountability in Law Enforcement in the Commonwealth". We all can agree that bad cops should be held accountable, and unfortunately, some exist. However, we should not be punishing & harming the 99.9% of cops that are selflessly serving our communities every day. We all believe that racial profiling is bad, and that any police officer should be compelled to intervene if they witness inappropriate actions by fellow officers. These are standard best practices that currently exist in the Commonwealth & this act put it in writing.
However, the law uses these agreeable terms and practices to hide its weaknesses. I commit to revising the composition of the POST board, which the Act established as a majority civilian board to de-certify police officers. This civilian board's decertification process could strip officers of their qualified immunity, opening them up to personal liability in cases where they acted justly. How can we ask officers to keep us safe if they believe they could be liable for doing the right thing?
As I mentioned, I am deeply appreciative of police and our first responders, many of whom I have the pleasure of calling family and friends. I also served most recently as a forensic scientist for four years, and understand the processes and challenges police face as I worked alongside them towards justice.
As a tax-payer and private citizen, I know how important it is to provide for yourself and those you love. However, I also understand that many struggle living paycheck-to-paycheck as we all navigate the costs of healthcare, commuting, and providing for our families.
That is why as your state representative, I want to help support lower taxes in order to allow each of you to bring home more money to provide for your families and yourselves.
1. Establish automatic Income tax reductions based on several factors through a Massachusetts fiscal year. The state continues to run a budget surplus which is a good thing, but then politicians often provide supplemental budgets to spend this surplus on pet projects. I will work to establish guidelines that can automatically put savings from a surplus back into your pocket after capping the amount the state is allowed to save or spend after the initial budget is approved.
2. Make dramatic changes to the sales tax rate in the Commonwealth by introducing creative savings and business incentives. I want the state to collect the minimum amount of funds needed to perform its services while allowing individuals and communities of need to grow. Not only could tax holidays be more frequent, and potentially targeted to help our homegrown community businesses, but the sales tax should be tied to the surplus as well. When businesses grow and succeed in the Commonwealth there should be a reward. I believe the State could encourage business by amended the sales tax.
As a private citizen, it can be incredibly frustrating to not fully understand what your representatives are working to accomplish for you and our community. I believe fundamentally that the culture of government in Massachusetts needs to change, where I can be as transparent as possible to you in what initiatives we are pushing, what policies will affect us in the 6th Plymouth, and most importantly -- what will affect your day-to-day life.
You will see from my campaign that I will become a familiar face to you, speaking directly to you out in the community to keep you up to date with how Beacon Hill is working for you.
The legislature recently made a rare good decision by allowing all future committee meetings to remain in a format that can be recorded and made available to the public. However, they fell short by allowing committee votes to remain hidden. This clearly and obviously stops accountability with our elected leaders. Every representative should be held accounts for EVERY VOTE that they take. We should know exactly how our interests are being represented and how honest they are being at all times.
As state representative, I promise to share consistent updates that have shown how the demands of our community are being met by myself and others in our government.
Most importantly, I encourage you all to take time out to meet with me, in-person or virtually, to talk to me about what issues you care about and how I can help. I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you!
It has become abundantly clear that we need to reel in the authority of bureaucracy in Boston. Through the pandemic the worst aspects of unelected power has shown itself to not be trustworthy with our rights as residents of the Commonwealth. Decisions that affect our kids in school, our businesses, and our towns should be left to elected representatives at most and our local communities at best.
As Bay Staters, we love the water. It is a staple of our communities, in health, recreation, and overall well-being. Over the last decade, there have been threats to our accessibility to clean drinking water that could irreversibly damage the health of our communities and future generations. I will address the two big challenges that have emerged as threats to that safety and accessibility of our water.
1. Fund projects for failing infrastructure, such as replacing outdated water pipes that are negatively affecting water quality in our communities.
Having clean drinking water is the most basic service that needs to be carried out for residents of the community. Often water quality issues are being caused by extremely outdated infrastructure. Easing state regulation on water usage by towns in order to rectify water quality issues is a great place to start. Expanding access to some state funds through loans or grants in order for municipalities to create long term solutions to failing infrastructure will be crucial to the health of all residents.
2. Address the emerging threat of PFAS chemicals. PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are an emerging health threat that is affecting the quality and accessibility of water currently in the district. The exact health implications of the chemicals are being studied but it includes a wide range of negative impact.
The current interagency task force organized by the legislature is undertaking the current battle against PFAS in a fact-finding approach. Municipalities are stuck to fend for themselves in both solutions and costs. Duxbury has already had to shut off one well due to contamination overtaking the threshold set by the state, and is doing so with no financial assistance to rectify the problem. PFAS can be removed from water with special filters but they are very costly and places an extreme burden on towns just trying to get by with their regular annual expenses. The state needs to intervene with a clear set of guidance and financial grant program to assist in this extremely important matter.