Claire Levy Questionnaire answers
GENERAL
What issue areas will your first five bills address? Provide as much detail
as possible.
I havenÕt yet decided exactly what my first five bills will be. This is what
I generally would like to accomplish during the 2009 session: Obviously I
canÕt do it all via bills that I initiate.
1.Crack down on the misclassification of employees as independent contractors.
Classifying employees as independent contractors deprives them of benefits
to which they are entitled and allows employers to avoid paying workers comp,
unemployment insurance, and tax withholding. This is particularly a problem
in the building trades area.
2 Continue efforts to target transportation funds to discourage sprawling
development patterns that require reliance on single occupancy motor vehicles,
increase the transportation costs to families and contribute to global warming
pollution.
3 Work on eliminating electronic waste from our landfills.
4 Initiate programs to encourage more use of transit such as Òpay as you
driveÓ car insurance, credits for locating housing near jobs, tax benefits
for issuing transit passes, etc.
5 Increasing funding for legal aid. Colorado rates very poorly in its funding
of legal services for the poor, which affects their access to housing benefits
and other public assistance. Legal aid and pro bono legal services are necessary
to help with child custody and child support issues as well as landlord/tenant
disputes and basic consumer rights.
6 Continue working towards maximizing energy efficiency. Energy efficiency
is the most cost-effective and cleanest way to generate ÒnewÓ energy.
7 Work on creation of a single payer health care system that can be phased
in.
8 Work on keeping juveniles out of the adult correction system. The governor
vetoed the bill I did in the 2008 session that would have increased judicial
oversight over D.A.Õs decisions to treat juveniles as adults in the criminal
courts. IÕll try a different approach in 2009.
9 Other: increase recycling in Colorado; stop abuse of flagpole annexations;
increase funding for transit
Your Support of Progressive Issues and Candidates: Which parts of the current
Colorado Democratic Party Platform do you support? Explain why you do or
do not support the planks that you consider most important. Have you supported
the issues articulated in the current platform in previous elections, either
as a candidate or a supporter or opponent of other candidates?
I believe I support almost all of the CDP platform. I may have a few quibbles
here and there on foreign policy. I responded to the platform questionnaire
sent by the Boulder County Dems, which is available on their website.
TABOR/TAXATION
Do you support the platform plank advocating simplification of the tax code
and revocation of the TABOR amendment? Do you support more progressive taxation
in Colorado? How will you persuade TABOR supporters that there are better
and more just possibilities for limiting taxes?
I definitely support reforming the TABOR amendment. It is not politically
realistic (or constitutionally possible) to repeal it entirely. We must have
greater flexibility to direct funds where they are most needed and we must
remove the revenue limitations, which are arbitrary and limit our ability
to respond to the many pressing needs in Colorado.
A graduated income tax would be a far better way to fund state services than
the current flat tax and sales tax. That is probably not politically possible
in the near term but it should be a longer term goal for progressives in
Colorado
Persuading voters to reform TABOR requires us to make a good case that Colorado
isnÕt living up to its potential. The needs are all too apparent, unfortunately:
ColoradoÕs percentage of children in poverty rose at the fastest level of
any state in the nation between 2000 and 2007; we rank 48th in our support
for higher education and 46th in funding K-12. Our Medicaid benefits are
poor relative to other states. We cannot fund public transportation to allow
people to use their cars less. The list is long of ways in which we fail
to support families in Colorado with the result that our corrections budget
is burgeoning and the disparity in graduation rates between minorities and
whites is appalling.
PUBLIC EDUCATION
Where do public education and children's issues fit into your priorities for the state budget? They must be among the highest priority. Only through education and taking care of our children can we make Colorado a prosperous and successful state.
HEALTH CARE
What is your stand on single-payer universal health care, one in which health care is publicly financed and privately delivered? Please elaborate.
I have been an outspoken supporter of single payer health care. A single payer system allows all of the dollars we currently put into the health care system to be directed toward health care rather than diverted to administration, advertising and profit. It appears that a substantial income tax will be necessary to fund a single payer system, so a concerted public education campaign will be required in order for it to succeed. Some people are examining the feasibility of phasing in a single payer system on a voluntary basis. That appears to be promising.
ELECTORAL REFORM
The Colorado Democratic Party platform develops specific planks in the areas
of election reform including the requirement that the paper ballot become
the official record of voter intent, that any electronic voting machine produce
a voter-verifiable paper record, and that proprietary software programs by
vendors be eliminated. Will you support these planks? Will you resist efforts
to scrap precinct polling places and move Colorado to a mandatory all mail-in
ballot?
I support the CDP platform on electoral reform and I support precinct polling.
I do believe we should allow wide use of absentee ballots for people who
opt in to them in order to maximize voter participation. But I do not support
having an exclusively mail ballot system.
IMMIGRATION
What measures do you propose to reduce abuses of undocumented immigrants
and detainees in Colorado?
Immigrants are being used as scapegoats for a lot of problems in Colorado.
I have and will continue to oppose legislation that attempts to turn everyone
from health care providers to small businesses to teachers into immigration
enforcement officers. This should be the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal
government. We must make it safe for everyone in Colorado, regardless of
their immigration status, to report domestic violence and other crimes.
LABOR
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the United States for suppressing workers' rights to unionize and bargain collectively. Governor Bill Ritter vetoed an attempt to change the Colorado Labor Peace Act (which restricts these rights). How would you guarantee the right of Colorado workers to form and join unions and bargain collectively?
I was very disappointed that Ritter vetoed HB07-1072. Given that veto, it is probably not realistic to introduce the same legislation unless there is a thorough process that Ritter will support. I oppose the so-called ÒRight to WorkÓ initiative and will speak against it when I have the opportunity. I would like to see RitterÕs executive order allowing state workers to form unions enacted into law so it cannot be repealed by a new governor.
GLOBAL WARMING
What would you do to promote new technologies and infrastructures to bring Colorado into a new sustainable energy economy?
I believe we should concentrate our efforts on increased energy efficiency.
We can reduce our current consumption of fossil fuels dramatically by spending
money on efficiency. I sponsored HB07-1037, which was just implemented by
the PUC. It will reduce the demand for electricity by Xcel energy customers
by over 900 megawatts by 2020. Programs such as XcelÕs should be extended
to areas served by Rural Electric Associations. (My bill to achieve that
goal died in the Senate in 2008.)
Additional energy efficiency programs include having appliance efficiency
standards, supporting programs to trade gas guzzling clunkers in for new
model vehicles, modifying electricity rate structures to reward reductions
in peak power usage, and other programs.
We have begun to make renewable energy more affordable to moderate income
families. We should continue those efforts.