The North Carolina House of Representatives is the lower house of the North Carolina General Assembly. The House of Representatives consists of 120 members who serve a term of two years. Each member represents an average of 87,116 residents *, as of the 2020 Census . The presiding officer of the House of Representatives is the Speaker of the House, who holds powers similar to those of the Senate President pro-tem. The Speaker is elected by the members from their membership for a two-year term. The Speaker’s duties include maintaining order in the House and appointing members to the House standing committees.The North Carolina General Assembly, of which the House is a part, is to convene a new regular session every two years, and the dates for these sessions are set by law. The NC legislature makes decisions on the budget: taxes, tax credits, economic development, education funding, Pre-K, the courts, Medicaid, etc. It also passes laws that set environmental standards such as water and air quality, tax rates, tax credits, criminal justice. Legislators in both chambers serve two-year terms without term limits. Sessions begin at noon on the third Wednesday after the second Monday in January.* https://ballotpedia.org/Population_represented_by_state_legislators
Position/philosophy statement
My goals as a Representative are to focus on public education, public health, dismantling the gerrymander system that robs voters of their electoral voice, and to advocate for the needs and concerns of the average working family.
Current Occupation
Retired (Logistics)
Age (optional)
62
Campaign Phone
7045308075
Experience and skills aren't necessarily the most accurate parameters for qualifications to hold public office. While I have amassed a great deal of both in my 62 years, I believe a willingness to bring the needs and wants of one's community to a legislative body, and to further negotiate the most effective way to achieve those goals is paramount. Understanding your district and seeing it's place in the overall picture , while maintaining one's integrity and connection to the constituents is keeping within the spirit of our commission as the People's representatives. These are the attributes that I bring to the table.
My priority in the NC House will be to prioritize the NC public education system and restore the support that once made it one of the best systems in the country. Education in the 21st century is a vital necessity and we will be called upon to meet the challenges from international competition. I also hold that our current laws defining the legislature's ability to "gerrymander" the districts will eventually lead to further disenfranchisement, and must be, if not eliminated, reduced in power and scope as to be practically ineffective.
Our current policy of open ended school vouchers need to end now. While I feel that some facets of the Opportunity Scholarship Program have merit, our current inclination to fund private institutions of "education", be it religious or not, is untenable. Spending upwards of 700 million dollars of taxpayer money is fiscally irresponsible and I believe it falls completely outside the limits of Constitutional justification.
The NC tax policy, since the Republican Party assumed control over 15 years ago, has been being moved steadily into a regressive tax environment, lifting the majority of the tax burden from the corporate structure and from the wealthy, both of whom benefit most from public infrastructure and services, to a regressive revenue plan. A plan that overloads working families with an unfair portion of the budgetary requirements. We must strive to ease the burden from working families, requiring those who prosper the most to bear more responsibility, while simultaneously providing the necessary services all North Carolinians need to fulfill the traditional needs of industry, culture, and family.
Our current General Assembly has opened the floodgates on so many innately dangerous policies that it is difficult to know where to begin. There have been radical changes to gun ownership and possession laws that need to be reexamined and reconsidered. Their answer to improving highway safety is apparently to circumvent the DMV's efforts to maintain safe roads and drivers altogether. Their solution to a criminally underfunded DMV is to eliminate most of the guidelines that have been put in place over the decades, subverting empirical data for a free wheeling "anything goes" policy that absolves them of not only fiscal, but legislative responsibility.
We must stand up for democracy! We must return to negotiating legislation as opposed to radical swings of political power that encourage legislation by the ancient "my stick is bigger than yours" philosophy. We are dangerously close to a rift that may never completely heal, and if that day comes, then this "Grand Experiment" will become just another failed venture left to deteriorate alongside humanity's path to the future.
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