"Raised in a single mother household and spending most of my time on my papa's dairy farm greatly influenced the man I have become. I appreciate hard work, believe in accountability, understand sticking to a budget, and I detest cancel culture because it deters the evolution of self. I am a huge proponent of constant growth on all levels. That is why I am running. I believe that giving my time as a State Representative will allow me to grow as an individual and citizen of New Mexico."
LIST OF ISSUES
EDUCATION
Education is priority number one! Suppose we fail to remedy our underperforming school system and continue to neglect our children by providing them an educational experience that ranks 50th nationally. In that case, advancements to issues faced by this state, such as crime and business, will have a reduced impact.
The first component of repairing our broken system is putting the "LOCAL" back in our local school districts. Local control is of the utmost importance. Families should not be prescribed Santa Fe politics. Local school districts, elected by the community, should be dictating most of their districts' policies. Families have duly elected them in their community to act under the standards of that community. Southern New Mexico has different beliefs than the Eastern part of the state. The same can be said with Albuquerque and Santa Fe or any other section of this great state. A one size fits all approach is a big part of the problem. Moreover, different areas of Albuquerque have profoundly contrasting values, which brings me to the second pivotal issue in mending our failing school system.
We need to break apart the Albuquerque Public School district. APS is the 34th largest school district in the nation, representing 83,000 students. APS is too large to provide solutions to the children it serves. Breaking up APS should be a solution that both parties can get behind. It is always simpler to manage smaller organizational units; managing at scale is a heavy task. This can be fixed, and it should be fixed!
CRIME
New Mexico has unfortunately become a bastion of criminal activity. Led primarily by the misguided concept that places blame upon society rather than the individual, New Mexico, like other leftist-run states, has seen an egregious rise in violent and property crimes. Furthermore, the current system inefficiently grants funding to programs without effective monitoring to determine whether they genuinely provide results commensurate with their costs. It has expanded our prison system and, as a result, induced a significant expansion of government. Part of this expansion was and continues to be driven by the privatization of such institutions. Lastly, our community has been deceived by nefarious rhetoric that disparages our men and women in uniform.
So how do we combat this wave of violent and property crime plaguing our great state? First, we must reestablish respect for law enforcement. The hyperbole perpetrated on those protecting us is not only very dangerous to those individuals serving our community but also leads to a general deterioration of law and order. Additionally, we must be tougher on violent criminals, restore the concept of victims' rights, ascertain alternative methods to reform offenders when appropriate, and lower costs in managing our criminal justice system.
The state must vigorously prosecute violent crimes and adequately hold all others accountable. This shouldn't be an option; it should be the standard. Public safety is the core function of government. Citizens are entitled to a system that is consistent and that works properly.
We must do a much better job incorporating victim engagement, empowerment, and restitution into our justice system. Punishing criminals and holding them accountable is only part of the government's proper response to crime. It must also ensure that victims properly recover by arranging and making sure restitution is paid and making sure they are aware of available services to help them.
Prisons should be used to incapacitate violent offenders and career criminals. However, far too often, the current system utilizes this costly option to penalize nonviolent and noncareer offenders to the detriment of society when we should be holding them accountable through successful prison alternatives.
BUSINESS
Bureaucratic inflation stifles innovation and entrepreneurial endeavors. Government should play a limited role in regulating business. Many, if not most, businesses in this state are owned by independent operators. These independent operators are our family, friends, and neighbors. These individuals care about our communities more than Santa Fe politicos because they are our community. We need to make it easier for current businesses to achieve success and provide new businesses an opportunity to pursue the same. Small businesses create jobs, develop new technology and products, add to our state GDP, and make the nation less reliant on foreign trade. We need to embrace and embolden those that risk the entrepreneurial journey, not regulate them out of business. The limitation of governmental burden in concert with tax reform in this state will allow us to lower unemployment and raise pay for all working class New Mexicans.
TAX
Gross receipts tax (GRT) as currently compiled, has serious implications that affect all of us. From a purely societal standpoint, the GRT detracts health care providers from choosing to practice in New Mexico. For those practicing here, it disincentivizes them from accepting patients who rely on Medicaid for coverage. New Mexico has an extremely high rate of individuals on Medicaid. Unfortunately, Medicaid reimburses these providers substantially less than free-market participants such as private insurance or private pay patients. Furthermore, these providers must then pay GRT on top of the lower rates paid by Medicaid.
GRT also produces negative consequences for many other types of businesses by its pyramiding side effect, which has led to a patchwork of exemptions induced by various interest groups and business organizations that resented its implications on their industry. The current structure is not only penalizing but is also discriminatory to many that do not have a presence in Santa Fe.
An overhaul of the state tax laws will be a difficult task but one that needs to be undertaken all the same.
COMMUNITY
The pathological altruism of current leadership has led us down a very disturbing path. Just look at what is occurring in Albuquerque. The number of homeless individuals throughout the city is disheartening, frightening, and dangerous. The problem is only exacerbated by the continuation of failed policy that values political correctness over substantive responsiveness. We have to make material changes to how we approach this epidemic. Stabilization and eventual reversion cannot occur until we change from a goal of addiction maintenance to one of recovery.