Working for a better tomorrow

Unlike many states with aging infrastructure, decaying cities, urban crowding, obsolete factories/industries and other maladies associated with 20th century growth, Wyoming is just coming into its own. It is a beautiful state with tremendous resources and tremendous potential. 

As we continue to grow we don’t need to clean up the old before we build the new. We can identify the industries of the twenty first century, what their infrastructure and workforce needs are and prepare our communities and people to provide attractive, affordable places for these companies to locate. 

Technology is making the world interconnected and companies want affordable locations with highly trained workforces that are motivated and hardworking – a perfect description of the Wyoming workforce. Some things we need to focus on:

• Diversifying our industries beyond the traditional energy companies to embrace non-traditional energy companies (e.g., wind and geothermal) as well as non-energy companies.
• Creating an environment that’s friendly to and supportive of small, locally owned and operated businesses that enables them to expand, increase jobs and increase the tax base of our communities.

These are some of things that we are capable of achieving if we work together for our common good. These are things that are important to me and I would be honored to serve in representing our community to keep us focused and moving forward towards an even more promising future and community. We can do it

Health should be an inalienable right for all

Americans and there are things we can do to enhance our systems:

• Expand Medicaid in order to increase access for families
• Expand suicide prevention and awareness efforts
• Attack the opioid and other addiction problems
• Remove the stigma from ‘mental health’ issues and appropriately reframe them as health issues
• Include social-emotional health services in insurance benefits and provide continual assistance to families seeking help.
• Expand medical access and care with innovations such as telehealth.
• Ensure recognition and protection for all different family arrangements.

Because Wyoming has not adopted Medicaid Expansion we have a significant number of people without insurance.

59,970    Number of people covered by Medicaid/CHIP as of July 2018

27,000    Number of people who would be covered if the state accepted expansion

6,000      Number of people who have no realistic access to health insurance without Medicaid expansion

$1.3 billion   Money the state is leaving on the table over the next decade by not expanding Medicaid

 https://www.healthinsurance.org/wyoming-medicaid/ 

All children in Wyoming should have access to a strong, high-quality education which leads to a workforce that attracts desired industries and creates rewarding careers and strong families. In order to achieve that we need to ensure:

• That our school districts have the appropriate funding needed to provide access to highly qualified teachers, up-to-date curriculums, and buildings and technology that keep our children competitive with the rest of the country
• That we balance our resources and teacher pay scales to ensure all school districts produce quality education and that our educator’s salaries are competitive to attract the best.
• That we maintain funding in special education so that our most vulnerable students with disabilities have the resources needed to best prepare them to live their most productive and meaningful lives.
• That our children are trained in civics and have a comprehensive understanding of all levels of government and learn how to participate in a democracy with civility and respect for all. This would include bringing voter registration to public high schools. I believe it should also include exploring the lowering of the voting age to 16 years.

Our future lies with our children and we must ensure that they thrive in a safe environment. I will work to ensure:

• The development of comprehensive crisis response plans
• That school districts are able to stay within recommended ratios of school counselors, school social workers, and school psychologists.
• That we all are aware of mandated child abuse reporting laws
• That society understands the value of moving from a punish-first model and that children understand that we view them as innately good and deserving of positive support and care.
• And that we review and update laws and sentencing guidelines for crimes committed against children.