The Issues
Smaller, Less Expensive, Less Intrusive Government
Bigger government costs the taxpayers, consumers and businesses more money. More regulations, restrictions and laws inevitably make living our lives and doing business more expensive and cumbersome. Compliance and reporting requirements make the products and services that we buy more expensive as a result. Government needs to stop telling us how to live our lives and what to do at every turn. It’s time we stop looking for government to solve every problem, and to stop thinking that problems will get solved if we just throw more money at them. We need to look at every program that is being funded by taxpayers to see if they are effective and worthwhile. If they are not, then we need to defund them or replace them with programs that work. We need to stop rewarding failure and start rewarding efficiency, excellence and productivity.
Against Any State Income Tax or State Sales Tax
New Hampshire already has enough revenue being generated through property tax and other fees. The State needs to quell its growing appetite for spending and use the money from its income streams more efficiently. The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough money. The problem is that we are spending it in the wrong areas, or spending it inefficiently. Our current tax burden will not be lowered by adding on new taxes which are bound to go up in the future. We only need to look at the surrounding states, like CT, to see that property taxes did not go down by adding in an income tax or sales tax on top of property taxes, in fact, their tax burden now is the highest it has ever been and continues to spiral out of control. We will always advocate for more efficient use of your State and County tax dollars. We fully support maintaining “The New Hampshire Advantage” because it is why people move here, work here, do business here and vacation here. We need to be prudent with our State Budget just like every New Hampshire family that deals with their own family budget.
Unapologetically Pro Second Amendment
We believe in the right to bear arms and the right to protect oneself and one’s family. We don’t believe that more laws restricting gun ownership do anything to deter crime or stop violent acts. Gun control only helps criminals by disarming everyone else. Every heinous mass murder was perpetrated by someone who broke many laws in the first place, so one more law will not matter, nor will it prevent these horrific crimes. Statistics prove that places with more gun control laws have more gun crime, and places with less gun control laws are safer. Furthermore, when horrific acts like Newtown or Parkland happen, it is always the people who did not pull the trigger that are punished with bans and other harsh and ridiculous restrictions. That to me is not only unfair, but immoral. There are other effective solutions to gun crime and mass shootings. Banning firearms, restricting firearms use and requiring more registration or reporting are not effective solutions.
Pro Liberty and Pro Freedom
Our State Motto is “Live Free or Die”. It’s not just a motto, but a way of life; a mindset. It’s no surprise that we are one of the freest States in the Union ranking high on personal and economic freedom. We will work to keep it that way. We should all celebrate the notion of being free to follow our dreams, to pursue happiness and to live our lives as we deem fitting. We believe that adults can manage their lives without the State telling them what is best for them at every turn. This doesn’t mean that anyone can do anything they please. We understand that actions have consequences, and that we should do no harm to others as we pursue our own paths in life. We also want to insure that the rights of people are not infringed or removed. We should continue to help each other in our communities, to foster harmonious and cooperative environments and to support local enterprise and free expression of ideas. Granite Staters are an independent and thoughtful lot. We should encourage creativity, competition and free markets. We should celebrate our successes and learn from our failures. That is the New Hampshire way.
Supports Veterans and Those Who Serve Our Communities
The people who have served our country in the past, those who currently serve our country, and those who work tirelessly in our communities to protect our lives and our property are special people who deserve our thanks and praise. They are our friends and neighbors, and the backbone of every community in the Granite State. These are our local heroes that help to make New Hampshire stay the number one safest place to live in our country. We should give them our support and our help when they need it as well. We support our police and first responders that keep our communities safe.
Pro Business and Local Community
Both Judy and Michael are on the board of the Acworth Village Store. We know the challenges small businesses face. When business is allowed to flourish, and as a result the economy grows, you have a healthy economic environment for business owners, workers and consumers. Free markets and competition make for growth, innovation, and more jobs. New Hampshire has a vibrant and growing economy with low unemployment. We will fight any legislation that would seek to suppress and hamper our continued growth and recovery. We should keep business taxes low so that more businesses make New Hampshire their home base. We must address the high costs of utilities in New Hampshire as those high costs hurt businesses, non-profit institutions, families and individuals. Additionally, our small local community businesses are of great importance and should be nurtured and encouraged. We do not need to tie them down with higher taxes, fees, and other onerous requirements.
Pro Parental Rights
We believe that parents/guardians know what is best for their children. We will oppose any piece of legislation that intends to undermine a parent’s right to choose for their child or be informed with regard to their child. No minor child should be treated, evaluated or tested for something in school or a clinic, or receive medical treatment or procedures, without an informed parental consent. Parents need to take back their right to control the education, health and upbringing of their own children. They must not abdicate those responsibilities or allow themselves to be marginalized by “experts”.
Supports Educational Choice
There are many ways to educate a child. Parents should be able to choose programs and methods that they know will work best for their children and their lifestyle. A child’s education can come in the form of public, private, charter, homeschool or perhaps some other model. We’ve already seen so many innovations in remote and hybrid models of learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Education delivery is not, and should not be, a “one size fits all” program. All parents, together with their children’s input, should be free to decide their own path. Education funding can be a complicated, emotional and sticky issue, but we must find solutions that allow parents to choose what works best for their children, and provides sensible and realistic spending on education. No child should be stuck in an education model that is inadequate or does not work for them. We must make sure that education funding formulas in New Hampshire are reasonable and adequate and work for our schools, our students and our taxpayers. We believe that education funding should follow the child and be utilized in the best interest of every child in New Hampshire. Public education is an important part of every community’s budget and should not be short changed, but we must also demand that funding is being used efficiently, sensibly, and effectively to help our children achieve all that they can be.
Pro Agriculture and Pro Environment
New Hampshire is a beautiful and productive state. We must do what we can to encourage farming and agricultural production, so that everyone can benefit from locally produced food in our state. New Hampshire Farmers know how to best care for and utilize the land, and it is in their best interest to do so. They understand the concepts of sustainability and being stewards of the land. As members of the NH Farm Bureau, and Judy as Chair of the Environment and Agriculture Committee in the NH House, we hear and understand the issues facing our farmers and food producers. We are am adamant that we should not make their life more difficult with more regulations and restrictions. They need to be able to successfully grow their enterprises, make a living, and be able to pass their farms onto their children instead of selling off their land for house lot parcels, or other development, in order to pay their bills. We believe we all have a stake in properly caring for our land here in the Granite State, but we must also temper efforts to conserve with reasonability and prudence. We support studying the recycling streams in our State and coming up with better plans for municipal waste management and composting. As far as renewable energy development in our State, we definitely need a diverse portfolio of energy production in our State in order to provide lower cost electricity and fuel to our citizens. We support renewable energy development, as long as it does not make the price of energy more expensive for everyone else on the grid or need to be subsidized by taxpayers. On another point, we do not believe in the expansion of State or Federal Government control of property in order to conserve it, nor should they dictate how it should be used and who can use it. State and Federal land grabs are bad policies which deprive people of private property rights and deprive local municipalities of tax revenue.
About NH Abortion Law
New Hampshire’s abortion laws are reasonable and protect viable healthy life in the third trimester. Abortion is legal and permitted FOR ANY REASON through the first two trimesters – that’s 6 months (24 weeks) – and legal in certain circumstances such as a fatal fetal abnormality or risk to mother’s health, in the third trimester. According to the CDC, only 1% of abortions are performed after 21 weeks, so New Hampshire’s law restricting abortion after 6 months (24 weeks) is not an infringement on women’s reproductive choice. NH laws are not extreme! New Hampshire’s law is very similar to laws in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and many other states, including California! Interesting to note that in most European countries, abortion is generally permitted within a term limit below fetal viability (e.g. 12 weeks in Germany and Italy, or 14 weeks in France and Spain), and they also permit exceptions to allow abortion later in the pregnancy. The longest term limits in Europe – in terms of gestation – are in the United Kingdom and in the Netherlands, both at 24 weeks of gestation. The majority of New Hampshire voters agree with, and support, the law that New Hampshire has in place. Our laws give women a full 6 MONTHS to make an informed decision regarding abortion. We believe our current laws are reasonable, and we are not seeking to change them.
Against “Out of State Influence”
It is not to the benefit of New Hampshire residents when out of state millionaires or other moneyed interests come to our State House and push legislation that we do not need or want. They usually buy support and work through state wide organizations to push for laws that are not inherently “New Hampshire” ideas and somehow try to sell them as New Hampshire “grassroots”. More often than not they are a solution looking for a problem. No millionaire or moneyed interests from out of state should be telling us how to run business here or telling us what our laws should look like. Just because some other State does something does not mean New Hampshire should too.