Issues

Priority Issues
The following are issues that I have made my priority:

Strengthening Our Economy

Healthy Lives

Quality Education

Our Natural Resources

Transportation
Strengthening Our Economy
No one needs to tell Colorado families that our economy is struggling. Many companies are cutting jobs while the cost of gas, food, and health care climb higher and higher. We all need to work together to make our economy work for all Coloradoans again.

Creating New Jobs through a New Energy Economy.
While businesses throughout Colorado have struggled, our community has continued to benefit from new jobs created as part of our new energy economy. This year, Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc., one of the nation’s fastest growing wind power companies, decided to locate its corporate headquarters right here in our district. Also, right next door in Louisville, ConocoPhillips will soon be opening a new research and development center for renewable energy technology. As we continue to promote new energy, we will continue to attract good-paying jobs that will provide a long-term foundation for our local economy. I co-sponsored a law to create the Governor’s Energy Office that will coordinate our state’s efforts in this important field, and I will continue to work with Governor Ritter to make Colorado the best state in the nation to develop clean, renewable energy.

Making Small Business a Big Priority.
Small businesses are the backbone of our local economy and our community could not succeed without them. As a long-time owner of a small business, I understand the challenges that an economic downturn can present. That’s why I co-sponsored a law that lowered business personal property taxes for over 30,000 Colorado small businesses to help provide a much-needed boost to the bottom line for business owners.

Expanding Economic Opportunity through Higher Education.
To keep our economy growing, we must fully support our universities and colleges so that our children are able to compete in the global marketplace and we can continue to attract and retain companies that provide good jobs right here in our community. Unfortunately, as family budgets are squeezed with the rising cost of gas, food and health care, we must find ways to make attending college more affordable without sacrificing the quality of our higher education programs. I co-sponsored a law that will help make college textbooks more affordable and voted to increase funding for the Colorado Department of Higher Education. I look forward to working with Governor Ritter to provide a major boost to scholarships in our state that will lower the cost of higher education while easing the budget strain on our colleges and universities.

Holding our State Government Accountable.
As taxpayers, we all own a part of our state government, and as the Vice Chair of the State Legislative Audit Committee, I will work to make sure that we all get a good return on our investment. When we make our public services and programs more efficient, everyone wins. As your representative, I will keep working hard to make sure our government policies make sense and make wise use of taxpayer dollars.

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Healthy Lives
Every Coloradoan should have access to quality, affordable health care. Unfortunately, medical costs keep going up while money for health care becomes harder to find. However, there’s a lot we can do to improve our current system using the resources we have.

Lowering Costs through Healthier Living and Prevention.
- Personal Responsibility. Each of us has the power and responsibility to take action to maintain a healthy lifestyle. By eating right, exercising, and getting our recommended screenings and check-ups, we can all reduce the cost of health care and make our lives more enjoyable.
- Maintaining a Healthy Environment. Contaminants in our air and water harm the health of everyone in our community. Every step we take to clean up our environment is also a step toward better health. I sponsored a law to allow patients to turn in their unused, unexpired medications back to their pharmacist so that they could be re-dispensed or donated to patients who may not be able to afford them. This also prevents medications from going down the drain and, eventually, into our water supply.
- Using Immunization to Prevent Cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates that cervical cancer will cause almost 4,000 deaths among women in the United States this year. For the first time, doctors have developed a vaccine that is capable of preventing most forms of this cancer before they begin. I sponsored a law to make the cervical cancer vaccine available to more women and to increase public awareness of this life saving tool.
- Preventing injuries. I sponsored a bill to require children under the age of 18 to wear motorcycle helmets to prevent traumatic brain injury. After years working in the field of brain injury, I know the lifetime costs of a brain injury are millions of dollars and often times this expense is bourne by the taxpayer after the insurance runs out. Preventing injury is much more cost effective than the long term care.
Creating New Programs without New Taxes.
- New Cures through Cord Blood. Doctors have found that the blood inside the umbilical cord after a child is born can be used in groundbreaking treatments for leukemia, lymphoma, and other life-threatening diseases. So I sponsored a new bill that will use private funding to increase awareness and collection of cord-blood donations. 80,000 new moms will now have the opportunity to donate this cord blood for life saving treatments and research.
- Using Gambling Revenues to Fight Gambling Addiction. Gambling Addiction can destroy lives and tear apart families. Gambling addicts have the highest suicide rate of any addiction. For this reason, I sponsored a bill that will dedicate some of the money generated by the casinos in the state to fund educational programs to train therapists to treat gambling addicts and to provide counseling services to gambling addicts in Colorado.
- Income Tax Check off for Breast Cancer Research.
  I sponsored a law that added a check off box on Colorado income tax forms to allow taxpayers to contribute to breast cancer and women’s reproductive cancers education. This has made it easier for Coloradans to learn what the symptoms are for these life threatening cancers and promote early detection. Cancer impacts thousands of women, as well as men, in Colorado every year.
Lowering Costs through a More Efficient System.
- Increasing Transparency. One of the best ways to reduce the costs in our health care system is to make sure that we all have access to as much information as possible about our insurance health plan options. I sponsored a bill that will require the Division of Insurance to set up an easy to use website that will allow Coloradoans to compare the different health care plans side by side, access complaints filed against each plan as well as report cards comparing each plan and be informed of the commissions earned by insurance brokers who sell health plans. This way, we can see more information about where our health care money is going and which type of coverage is best for each of us.
- Improving Services for Coloradoans with Autism. While one out of every 169 children in Colorado will be diagnosed with Autism, our state has lacked a comprehensive approach to provide services and support for people with Autism and their families. I sponsored a bill that will bring doctors, state department staff, individuals with autism, other experts, and family members together to improve and streamline Colorado’s approach to help make our state a leader in the treatment of Autism.
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Quality Education
Quality education from preschool through college is the key to building a robust local economy and providing opportunities for success for all Coloradoans.

Making a Wise Investment in Early Childhood Education.
- According to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, every dollar invested in preschool education will return over seven dollars in value back to society in the form of higher economic productivity and lower criminal justice costs. Early childhood education does not simply benefit our young children, it benefits us all. I proudly supported legislation to provide preschool and full-day kindergarten classes to 25,000 new children, and I will continue to work to expand our early childhood education programs and the rewards they bring to our state.
Expanding our New Energy Economy through Higher Education.
- Colorado is moving steadily toward a new energy economy that will bring economic growth, high-quality jobs, and technological breakthroughs to help with our escalating energy costs. Our universities and colleges will be at the center of this process by providing the ideas that will move our economy forward and the skilled workers to put those ideas into action. However, if higher education becomes too expensive for Colorado families to afford, some of the best and brightest minds may never make it in the door. For this reason, I co-sponsored a law that will help make college textbooks more affordable and voted to increase funding for the Colorado Department of Higher Education.
Creating Great Schools for Great Kids.
- Recruiting and Retaining Quality Teachers and Principals. The tireless work of Colorado’s educational professionals provides the foundation for all of our educational successes. We need to have a excellent teacher in every classroom and excellent educational leadership in every school to provide all children the educational opportunities they deserve. I co-sponsored laws that will expand Colorado’s efforts to recruit and retain quality teachers and create a Colorado principal academy to train educators for excellence in school leadership.
- Building Excellent Schools Today. We cannot provide an excellent education for all children without providing excellent schools for all children to attend, which is why I voted for new legislation that will provide up to $1 billion for school construction and renovation without increasing taxes. This assistance will provide a safe, modern learning environment for thousands of students who would otherwise attend class in outdated, or even dangerous, facilities.
- Caring for Student Health. For Colorado students, health problems almost always create educational problems. By caring for our children’s health, we can provide them the best opportunity to learn. Beyond working toward providing access to quality health care for all Colorado children, I have co-sponsored laws to expand wellness education in Colorado schools and provide more students a healthy school lunch.
- Providing the Tools for Educational Success. It is not enough to simply ask our students and teachers to work hard, we must also give them the right tools to work successfully. I sponsored a law to bring experts from many fields together with individuals with autism and their family members in order to improve educational and other services for those with autism. I also co-sponsored a bill to ensure that students’ educational progress will not be hindered simply because he or she is absent when CSAP tests are administered.
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Our Natural Resources
With skyrocketing gas prices affecting families every day and the threat that climate change poses to our Colorado way of life becoming more and more clear, there has never been a more important time to focus on our natural resources and how best we can use and protect them.

New Energy for a New Future.

For decades our energy policy has relied almost entirely on fossil fuels. This overdependence on non-renewable resources, many of which are controlled by groups outside of Colorado or outside of the United States, has left us vulnerable to the dramatic increases in energy prices that we see today. Colorado has an opportunity to be a leader in the new energy economy that will not only reduce pollution and carbon emissions, but will also help to grow new green industries that will provide jobs and economic growth for years to come. I co-sponsored a law to create the Governor’s Energy Office that will coordinate our state’s efforts in this important field, and I will continue to work with Governor Ritter to make Colorado the best state in the nation to develop clean, renewable energy.

Protecting our Colorado way of life.

Colorado is known throughout the world for its natural beauty and there is nothing Coloradoans love more about our state than our ability to get out and enjoy the majestic mountains and plains just beyond our own back yards. However, we now understand if we continue our current practices, we will also continue to threaten the natural resources that we cherish. Climate change is a global problem, but it if we fail to act, we will feel its effects right here in Colorado. Increasing temperatures will not only threaten wildlife and shrink our forest lands, but will also increase the risk of devastating wildfires. Likewise, warmer temperatures will accelerate snowmelt and make it even more difficult to provide water to our homes and farms. We must take real action to decrease our carbon emissions and develop a new, sustainable way of life. That is why I co-sponsored legislation to advance new solar technology in Colorado that will provide substantial electricity with zero emissions. I also co-sponsored laws that removed restrictions on people’s ability to take direct action by installing renewable energy features on their property and authorized local governments to finance and construct clean renewable energy systems.

Of course, to fully protect our state’s natural heritage, we need to do more than simply take action against climate change. We must also make sure that none of our interactions with nature will destroy our children’s ability to enjoy the same Colorado we have today. At the General Assembly, I co-sponsored a law to help ensure that the oil and gas companies that profit from extracting Colorado’s resources do so in a way that minimizes long-term damage to our land and our wildlife. I also co-sponsored a law that allows the Colorado Water Conservation Board to preserve the water in our streams and rivers, which provide the lifeblood to Colorado’s natural habitat.

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Transportation
As a member of the House Transportation Committee, I know that investing in Colorado’s transportation system is crucial to growing our economy and sustaining our way of life.

The Quiet Crisis

In January 2008, the Governor’s Transportation Finance and Implementation Panel delivered sobering news to the people of Colorado. Between 1990 and 2006, there was a 60 percent increase in the use of state’s highways, while the purchasing power of the main source for transportation revenue, the fuel tax, has steadily decreased. As a result, the state has fallen behind in maintaining and improving the roads and highways we drive on.

Unfortunately, postponing the upkeep of our transportation system has only made the problems worse. As time goes on, projects become more expensive, our roads become more congested, and—most importantly—traveling becomes more dangerous. As a state, we must act together to find new ways to turn this situation around and make our transportation system an asset rather than a liability.

Increasing Federal Responsibility

In July, the Brookings Institution released recommendations for the future to ensure that areas in the Western United States, including Colorado, are able to prosper. One of the key components of this plan is making sure that Colorado has a steady, supportive partner in the federal government. Colorado must work together with the federal government to secure financial resources and technical assistance necessary to maintain and improve our infrastructure. Colorado’s streets, highways and mass transit systems are used by Americans from all over the West and throughout the United States. The federal government must step up in its responsibility to Colorado, and I will do my part to help make sure that happens.

New Ideas and New Strategies

We now know how vulnerable our current transportation habits are to fluctuating energy prices. Many Coloradoans are currently suffering from the dramatic increase in gas prices, which can be hard to escape in our system of large cars, long commutes and few alternatives. While we reinvest in our transportation system, we must also make sure that we are smart in our approach. We must provide real alternatives through buses and trains that conserve energy and lower the cost of transportation, while still serving as a safe and convenient way to get from point A to point B. We must plan out our neighborhoods to provide shorter commutes, more bicycle lanes and more places to walk instead of drive.

Finally, we must all realize that a large part of the responsibility for providing safe, efficient and affordable transportation lies with each of us. We must all examine our habits to see where we can decrease trips and increase efficiency by working together within our communities. Many of the best solutions, such as carpooling, telecommuting and using our transit system, will only be successful if we all take the time to figure out we can make them work with our own lives and schedules. By creating a new transportation system that uses less energy from fossil fuels, we will all save money by being less vulnerable to massive price spikes that are beyond our control.