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Prepared and paid for by the
Gary DeVaan Victory Fund.
Designed and created with
donated labor
Solutions for Minnesota!
***Find Your Polling Place Here***
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Issues With the world economy becoming more and more competitive, we must remember that the best investment in our future is education. Change is constant; in 50 years the United States is projected to be the third economy in the world behind China & India. Those countries educate more scientists, more teachers, more doctors, and more computer programmers than we do. After manufacturing jobs go service jobs, like help desk, customer assistance jobs, then perhaps your job or mine. We must make sure our children are ready to compete.
Here’s an example of how important education is to everyone, parents or not. One of the criteria the state of California uses to determine the amount of prison space it needs in its 10 year plan is the test scores of their second graders. If scores are low they determine they will need more prison space. Health Care costs are rising faster than wages and constitute the fastest rising business expense. Soon, many more Minnesotans will be without health care. Businesses need relief from these costs. Real relief in health care would be better than any tax cut. How can we compete with competitors around the world who do not have to pay medical insurance for their employees? General Motors pays an average of over $1500 per vehicle on health care. A $1500 price cut would make GM cars much more popular. Just think of the new entrepreneurs that would spring up if a new business owner didn't have to worry about basic healthcare for his or her family. Cutting 30,000 more Minnesotans off of MinnesotaCare is not a solution to our health care crisis. We must look into the real reasons health care costs are exploding and solve the root problems. I am encouraged by the bill Massachusetts recently passed and I think we can borrow from that plan. It was a bipartisan bill that mandates that every citizen have health insurance, similar to Minnesota’s auto insurance system. It makes employers who do not supply health insurance for their employees pay $295 per month for each of their employees who then should be able to afford insurance on their own. The bill also helps small business find affordable health insurance for their employees. Also last year, the Minnesota Medical Association organized a Health Care Reform Task Force. The Task Force issued a proposal: The Physician’s Plan for a Healthy Minnesota - The Health Care Reform Plan. I think these ideas, combined with the Massachusetts plan, could be something that can save health care dollars and provide health insurance to every Minnesotan.
The state can save money in the following ways:.
I will help enact reforms to make it easier for small business owners to obtain health insurance for themselves and their employees. Employers that have large employee pools are able to pay a much more stable and predicable rate for health coverage, or are able to self-insure their employees. By contrast, small and mid-size employers, particularly those with fewer than 50 employees, have a difficult time buying health coverage. They are too small to self insure, and because their pool of enrollees is not large enough to accurately predict rates, insurers and HMOs allocate a higher ratio for losses, thereby driving up health premiums. Consequently, only 48 percent of businesses which employ less than 50 workers offer health coverage. In contrast, 97 percent of businesses with more than 50 employees offer health coverage. An employer who buys group health insurance coverage should not have to assume the cost of catastrophic health care. An employer should be able to buy group coverage for healthy employees and, for employees with a catastrophic injury or medical condition, be able to buy them a similar policy from the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association (“MCHA”) – an assigned risk pool for policyholders who cannot obtain health coverage in the private marketplace due to a preexisting health condition. By allowing employers to provide a subsidized MCHA insurance policy, the burden of catastrophic health care is transferred from the employer to the broader society. Because MCHA only insures Minnesotans who have been denied health coverage due to an adverse health condition, MCHA loses money. Today, MCHA losses are paid by an assessment only on small employers and individuals who buy health insurance coverage. Meanwhile, employers that self insure do not participate in the assessment. The manner in which MCHA is subsidized should be reformed. The losses incurred should be spread out among all employers and all policyholders who have health coverage. By reapportioning the cost of catastrophic health care throughout society, we can alleviate the undue burden now faced by small to mid-size businesses. This is only fair, because all of society benefits when small to mid-sized businesses innovate and grow. During the 1990s, the Twin Cities metro-area gained over 350,000 people. Traffic volume doubled while road space increased by only 30 percent. Over the same time, growth in mass transit was negligible. Consequently, traffic delays and transportation bottlenecks are worse today than ever. According to the Texas Transportation Institute, the Twin Cities ranks as the 17th most congested region in the nation. The average commuter in the Twin Cities spends an accumulated 43 hours per year stuck in traffic. In 1982, the annual total delay per commuter was only 3 hours. As the Star Tribune noted, “Nowhere in the nation has traffic delay gotten worse faster over the last two decades than in the Twin Cities.” Traffic delays cost Minnesotans millions of dollars in wasted fuel and lost time. In 2003, Minnesota consumers wasted 37 million gallons of fuel waiting idly in traffic. Total delays cost Minnesotans $975 million. Traffic congestion also cost Minnesota businesses an estimated $300 million. As the President of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce commented, “Our members are very frustrated with traffic congestion. Not just moving their people, but moving their goods.”Another business leader voiced similar concerns, noting that, “While growth is good, out-of-control traffic gridlock erodes our quality of life and cripples commerce.” Transportation is the life blood of our economy. We must invest in more public transportation in the metro area, and roads state wide. We need to find new, faster, and less polluting ways of getting goods to market and employees to their jobs. Minnesotans do not want to spend hours idling down a road jam packed with their neighbors idling down the road. If elected I will:
This is an issue that has waited on the back burner for a long time. Minnesotans are waking up to the importance of alternative energy, and how fragile the environment truly is. Our efforts need to be directed to alternative transportation & fuels. However, anything we can do for the environment is a good investment. In Minnesota, water is our most valuable resource. Any proposal that protects water deserves serious consideration. I will be the exception. We can make improvements to the environment and secure energy independence from Middle Eastern oil. The federal government is taking us in the wrong direction, and it is up to the states and local communities to push environmentally friendly policies that can be shared with the nation. Minnesota must be a leader in green technology. This will be good for the environment and good for the economy.
These actions will create new environmental industries and create new high paying jobs. Many Republicans will criticize this as more government regulation. The environment is a public resource that every citizen has ownership in. A few individuals who happen to be making money at the expense of our environment cannot hold the rest of us hostage. We must identify the activities we do every day that impact the environment negatively and change them to give Minnesota and the world a cleaner and healthier environment. Minnesotans know we have to start implementing some of the new technologies that have been on the drawing boards for the last 30 years. With our troops abroad and fuel cost skyrocketing, we need to move alternative energy technologies to market. Most of our efforts will be about transportation, but alternative electrical generation is also very important to relieve our dependence on foreign energy. If elected I will:
Minnesota’s economy is supported by the middle class. The foundation is our Education, Healthcare, Environment and Transportation. Working Minnesotans, however, have seen some hard times lately. The middle class has been asked to accept less from our schools, less from our health care, and less from our law enforcement & our security. Our jobs are asking us to do with less; market fluctuations and competition have been shrinking our income in relation to the cost of living. We are paying more in taxes and much more in fees for our services, yet we are expected to accept less. I don’t believe this is what has made Minnesota a great state, or what the citizens of Chanhassen & Chaska deserve. If elected I will:
A strong economy with a diversity of industries is good for everyone, from the wealthiest entrepreneur to the working single mom. I want to help create a dynamic economy with new industries and new opportunities for everyone. The best way to move the economy is to make middle class Minnesotans feel like they have some extra money in their pockets. The working people of Minnesota are one of our greatest economic assets, but the middle class is shrinking. We all do better when we ALL do better. The trend of moving the tax or “FEE” burden onto the working families of Minnesota must be reversed. These fees are an additional burden on the middle class and reduce the effectiveness of the programs that are designed to help these taxpayers. When these programs are cut, they have a real impact on working middle class families. Unfortunately the tax burden in Minnesota has moved from a progressive tax system to one where the wealthy are paying less for the infrastructure of our state than the middle class and the poor. We need to move the tax burden off of the middle class. The real problem is that more poor and middle class families pay more of the sales tax than the wealthy. Minnesota’s Taxes: Who Pays and How Much If elected I will:
I know wealthy families pay large amounts of taxes each year and many of them support non-profit organizations out of the kindness of their hearts. The fortunate families I know are happy to invest in the education, environment, and health care that all Minnesotans deserve. Illegal immigration is the symptom of a larger problem. Clearly there is a depressed economy in Mexico and Latin America, with no middle class, and no hope for many people. Here we have opportunity and jobs, low wage jobs but better than what is available in Mexico. The United States has to encourage Vicentes Fox and other Mexican leaders to give their people a reason to stay home. They must invest in small business and the middle class in Mexico. Part of the solution is to enforce existing immigration laws that outlaw hiring of illegal workers. Employers seeking to save few bucks by driving down wages and sometimes paying less than minimum wage, are the source of the problem. To me this is a fundamental issue of justice and fairness. The religious leaders of America are right in saying “Stop blaming the Immigrants”. They are only trying to make a better life for their families. It is a form of entrapment to lure these people over the border with jobs and then to punish them for doing something you or I might do in the same situation.
I have always supported a woman’s right to choose, and I will continue to do so. This difficult and private decision is between a woman, her physician, and any family or clergy she decides to include. Government should not intrude in private health care decisions or add to the burdens a woman faces when making difficult reproductive choices. Being catholic, I understand the repulsion of abortion to people of faith and people who are concerned about the morality of this issue. I will listen respectfully to any honest discussion or effort to reduce the number of abortions in this state and this country. However, outlawing this legitimate medical procedure is the wrong way to do it. Eliminating abortions is an important issue to me. There are many tools available to the public sector to reduce the number of abortions. I believe we can make abortion safe, legal and RARE. I believe we must provide prevention first. It is essential for Minnesota to take steps to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STDs). These steps include:
There is enough research to conclude that if abortion would be made illegal, that the rate of abortions would stay about the same or even increase. They would just be performed by unlicensed, unsafe exploiters of women in an unfortunate situation. Marriage confers a broad set of legal rights, responsibilities, and privileges that includes everything from joint tax returns and health benefits to adoption and family decision-making in times of crises. Same-sex couples in committed relationships should not have to fight for the legal protections that married couples enjoy. If elected, I will:
The State of Minnesota should not discriminate in the application of laws regarding committed relationships. The amendment would outlaw any kind of civil unions, shared property or adoption rights that many homosexuals enjoy today. We should not constitutionally discriminate against any single group in this state. NO. I do not believe stadiums are a wise investment for Minnesota. When the Chaska Cubs need a new place to play ball, I will endorse an investment in a new ball field. The difference between that situation and the Twins & Vikings, two corporations, are that the owners of the Twins & Vikings can afford to build stadiums on their own. I cannot justify subsidizing a company in no financial hardship, and no real potential economic repercussions for the state, if we fail to subsidize them. Vikings & Twins are valuable resources for our communities, but they are not so valuable that the state should make the size of investment that the owners are demanding. There are things that the state should do if these corporations decide to build stadiums; the state should build the roads & infrastructure to the new building. When it comes to the Gophers, with tuition having risen 82% in the last 5 years, we have many better places to invest hard earned tax dollars when it comes to the university. I would rather build a walking route, a bridge or a tunnel, to the dome from campus than build a new stadium. Improve transportation to the stadium on game day. There are so many other things we could invest money into that would be cheaper and provide other community benefit. It is now apparent to nearly everyone but our leaders that the war in Iraq was a colossal mistake. While Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator, we have been able to stomach other brutal dictators who were our allies and Saddam has been one of those in the past. Iraq played no roll in 9/11 nor did it have any weapons of mass destruction. The war was an immoral pre-emptive war of opportunity, not a war of last resort. Now we have learned it was a war planned well before 9/11, an attempt by the Bush administration to control that region of the world. If elected, I will, to the full extent of my ability, encourage a systematic withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, and discourage any further engagements in the region, unless American security is truly threatened. |
Endorsed by
