Campaign Phone #
9202669018
Campaign Phone
9202669018
Education
Fox Valley Technical College-Degree in Printing
Wisconsin faces workforce shortages in almost every profession, from healthcare to education, skilled trades to engineers. Employers are looking to hire, but can't find the workforce to fill these open positions. This problem will only become more apparent as we see more and more older Wisconsinites begin to retire.
My priority is to address the workforce issue through any and every policy available. We need to encourage our young people to stay in Wisconsin by showing what a great place it is to live and start a family. We need to compete nationally with other states to bring talented and skilled labor into our hometowns.
I am qualified to continue to work on this issue from my lifetime of experience in the business world as a printer as well as my legislative work as Chair of the Committee on Economic Development and Technical Colleges and on the Board of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
The most pressing housing-related issue is supply. Wisconsin's housing stock is underbuilt and unprepared for any population growth. Again, we need to lure individuals and families from all over the country to come live and work in our state. To do this, we need housing. No one is coming here without a place to live.
This past session, I was proud to be the lead author of a bill that created a revolving loan fund the state could use to encourage developers to turn vacant commercial spaces into multi-family housing. I was also happy to support a historic $525 million investment into Wisconsin housing through this loan and other initiatives such as restoring main streets, home repair and rehab loans, and infrastructure access loans.
I will continue to work with anyone who has innovative ideas on ways to spur the supply of housing in Wisconsin.
Let's start with the good. Wisconsin does not have a health coverage gap. This means that everyone who wants health insurance has access to it, either through their employer or the marketplace. We also have wonderful healthcare providers in the state, who give incredible care to our friends, families, and neighbors. Now with the bad. State healthcare costs are high and access to care can be a burden for the elderly, disabled, poor, and rural Wisconsinites. I have been a proponent of telehealth for my entire time in the legislature. I believe that we can make access to care easier for many people by having basic consultations over the internet instead of in person. This will help to reduce costs and allow for less travel time to see a doctor. I was proud to be a cosponsor of SB 515 which would have allowed out-of-state mental health professionals to practice in Wisconsin via telehealth. Wisconsin is currently ranked 32nd in the country in the number of mental health professionals avail
I have been a supporter of our public K-12 system and our choice schools. I am also in favor of decoupling choice school funding. This would mean that the state would fund each voucher through general purpose revenue as opposed to the current system where the voucher is deducted from the state aid allocation to the local public school. We have a lot of great public schools in our state and we have a lot of great choice schools, we can and should fund both. Having a robust choice program should not cost the public schools, but having the competition and options for parents and students will raise the bar for all schools across Wisconsin.
I have been supportive of the increases of Special Education funding in each of the last two budgets and know that more work should be done in this area. Everyone deserves a quality education in our state.
Redistricting will always be complicated. Wisconsin is a purple state, but that does not mean that we have a lot of purple communities. Wisconsin has many deep blue communities and many deep red communities. With the urban areas being left-leaning and the rural and suburban areas voting more red. When the lines need to be redrawn, whoever is in charge of the maps will have to weigh the need for districts to reflect the overall state voting composition with the rights of communities to have representatives that reflect their values. I will always believe that candidates matter. For example, in his last election, my colleague Republican Senator Howard Marklein secured 55% of the vote. In the same district, on the same day, Democrat Governor Tony Evers also received 55% of the vote. This is an indicator of how strong both of those candidates were and also shows how partisan leaning at the top of the ticket does not always show the true voting patterns of a particular district.
Campaign Phone #
(920)904-5557
Campaign Phone
920-904-5557
Education
Associate Degree in Paralegal, Bachelor's in Business
I would like to address the issues of educators being under-paid and over-worked. My wife has been a teacher for almost ten years so I've seen first-hand the struggles our educators go thru sometimes. Second, I would like to generate more revenue for the state by legalizing marijuana and be able to lower taxes because of this.
I kind of see two housing-related issues currently. First, there's not enough houses available for the amount of homebuyers there are in the market; and second, the rising costs of renting. Renters are paying more for less service nowadays. Working in the service industry I don't see a lot of property offices staffed common hours anymore. A lot of them are "by appointment only" offices. I would support policies that involved some kind of tax incentives for building new homes or updating older homes.
I believe government should stay out of peoples' health business. That's between them and their doctor and I will support any legislation that is in favor of that, including reproductive healthcare.
Being a father of two amazing and healthy young children I know what a great education means to parents. I'll do everything in my ability to make sure schools have everything they need to do the best job they can.
Honestly, I do not know much about this process and cannot comment on it until I learn more about it.
