What issue areas will your first five bills address? Provide as much detail as possible.
While I do not have a chronological list of bills I intend to introduce, the first bills that I will introduce, co-sponsor or otherwise support will include the following five:
1. A bill to increase staffing and spending on mental health care through community health care centers and clinics. This is a priority among other bills I will support to publicly fund and guarantee access to healthcare for all Coloradans.
2. A bill to fund the hiring of more primary school teachers with the goal of reducing classroom sizes across the state. This is a priority among other bills I will support to dramatically improve the quality and accessibility of primary and secondary education in Colorado.
3. A bill seeking to review and possibly retroactively cap health insurance rate increases in Colorado during the last several years. I also support the proposed Fair Accountable Insurance Rates (FAIR) legislation introduced by Senator Sandoval.
4. A bill to better provide transparency and accountability in subsidized contracts and other special benefits to companies by requiring thorough public disclosure of all costs and benefits and other items of public concern. I support requiring detailed projections of actual wages and benefits and clawbacks in the event that promises are not delivered.
5. A bill to expand the scope and access of light rail mass transit along the front range. This is priority legislation among a host of bills seeking to end our stateŐs dependence on fossil fuels by subsidizing and otherwise encouraging green technologies.
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 support the Colorado Democratic Party Platform as consistent with my legislative priorities for Colorado: expanding health care, improving education and protecting the environment.
Do you support the platform plank advocating simplification of the tax code and revocation of the TABOR amendment?
Yes.
Do you support more progressive taxation in Colorado?
Yes.
How will you persuade TABOR supporters that there are better and more just possibilities for limiting taxes?
There are a number of alternatives: abolishing the Alternate Minimum Tax, adjusting taxes of land and developed areas to encourage population density, shifting taxes to windfall profits, lowering user fees for public transportation, lowering taxes owing to home improvements, especially improvements relating to energy efficiency. What is need most, however, is a public campaign to educate the public about TABORŐs disastrous effects on the quality of state services and finances.
Where do public education and children's issues fit into your priorities for the state budget?
Improving and reforming public education is one of my three most important priorities. The alarming news that Colorado exceeded all other states in the growth rate of child poverty from 2000 to 2006 should put this and other childrenŐs issues at the top of every legislatorŐs agenda. The legislature should strive to get more cash in the hands of more families in dire need of assistance.
Repairing and renovating declining and dilapidated schools is another urgent priority. Five years ago the state estimated it would cost $4.7 billion to fix our schools. The situation has grown worse since then with nearly half of our school district unable to afford to build a single new school. The BEST bill, which I supported, is only the beginning. When the state completes its assessment of school repair needs I will support significant state assistance and increasing the maximum bonding capacities of school districts to bring our schools up to standard in due haste. This requires both more construction and hiring more teachers to ensure reasonable teacher-student ratios.
I also support a variety of measures to ensure better and adequate funding for ColoradoŐs school, such as legislation and ballot issues to obtain more state money for public schools; the provision to fund K-12 public education at a minimum of inflation plus 1% base funding through 2011; fair state tax policies which produce funds for increased investment in Colorado public schools; amending TABOR to provide money for public schools and other state programs; and overall a greater state role in financing pre-K-12 school modernization and construction.
I also support a variety of reforms to improve the system of teacher accreditation and professional development. The most important reform, however, is to improve the system of teacher compensation so that staffing and attrition are no longer problems.
What is your stand on single-payer universal health care, one in which health care is publicly financed and privately delivered? Please elaborate.
I support publicly-financed and privately-delivered health care for everyone in Colorado. I would fund health care from general revenues using a trust fund system that guarantees that all such funds must be used for health care and nothing else. I would keep health care providers in the private sector but require that they charge the same rate for the same procedure regardless of whom they are treating or where they are being treated. I would ensure that this system is transparent and administered and governed by people who are accountable, either directly or through elected officials, to the people of Colorado.
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?
Yes.
Will you resist efforts to scrap precinct polling places and move Colorado to a mandatory all mail-in ballot?
Yes. I favor a multifaceted, hybrid approach that includes precinct voting, paper ballots, early voting, mail voting and other measures intended to increase voter turnout. Our priority should be getting people to participate, not lowering the cost of administering elections.
What measures do you propose to reduce abuses of undocumented immigrants and detainees in Colorado?
There is no excuse for demonizing undocumented workers merely because of the increasingly vital role they play in AmericaŐs economy and particularly in Colorado, where they provide about half the farm labor. I would fight to end the legislatureŐs war on undocumented workers and help secure them the same work-related rights other workers enjoy (as in California), including the right to receive a minimum wage and overtime pay, the right to file wage claims, the right to file workplace safety and health complaints, and the right to work in a safe environment free from retaliation for exercising their rights.
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?
The right of workers to collectively organize and negotiate the terms of their employment is fundamental to a free and democratic society. As State Senator I will introduce or support legislation that recognizes the right of all employees, public and private, to collectively bargain. I also support repealing the Labor Peace Act because it excessively restricts collective bargaining rights, impedes efforts to improve work conditions and living standards, requires unnecessary and wasteful elections and promotes labor conflict. I would have voted to overturn the veto of HB 1072 (amending the Labor Peace Act) and look forward to the signing of a successful bill.
What would you do to promote new technologies and infrastructures to bring Colorado into a new sustainable energy economy?
I would focus on more funds for mass transit. There are enormous opportunities for expanded light rail and additional bus service along the front range.