Issues

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 The average price of health care in the United States increased by 3.2% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). We need to fight these increases with common sense solutions. The ACA subsidies that expired and the Big Beautiful Bill (not so beautiful in my opinion) will take nearly a trillion dollars from Medicaid (Factually). Healthcare is a personal issue for me. I have a 10-year-old granddaughter that’s a diabetic. Barring some miracle, she will need affordable insulin for the rest of her life.

•  I would introduce a bill to cap insulin at $30.00 a month. 
• I would sponsor a bill that would allow the State of Arizona to negotiate cheaper drugs with Canada saving as much as 70% on drugs

Arizona has a Medicare Buy-In program known as AHCCCS or Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. It is.  Medicare Buy-In program, often referred to as a Medicare Savings Program. It is a state-run initiative that pays Medicare Part A and/or Part B premiums, deductibles, and coinsurance for low-income eligible individuals. It helps seniors, people on disabilities, and low-income individuals to save on medical costs. When the effect of the Big Beautiful Bill starts to happen the state will have to do something to make up for the lack of funding from the federal level. We will have to negotiate for lower premiums.

Water is one of the most critical matters in this state. Water issues are very complicated in Arizona.  However, here are a few of my common sense solutions:

a.  Toilet rebates – Old toilets can take as much as 50% more than new

toilets

b.  Landscape ordinances for new developments – outside water use can take up to 1/3 of the water use in a household

c.  Landscape ordinances for public right of ways

d.  Modernize plumbing – old plumbing can cause a lot of leaks and loss of water; cities need to upgrade their old plumbing. Helping cities get grants to replace old pipes would be a priority

e. Wastewater ordinances to reclaim water

f. Rainwater collection

g. Increased rates can reduce water use for landscaping

h. More oversight

i. More attention to the issues in Northern Arizona

A vote for Sandy is a vote for a candidate that is:

•  pro-free speech
•  pro-free religion
• pro-choice
• pro-education

As a veteran myself I understand the work our veterans do for our country that's why I support the Property Tax Exemptions for veterans

To combat rising housing costs I support Governor Hobbs' Arizona first plan, which includes:

•  The Middle Class Tax Cuts Package, which puts more money in the pockets of Arizona families. Includes increased standard deduction, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and an additional $6,000 deduction for seniors over 65.
• The proposal of the creation of the Arizona Affordability Fund to help working class families pay their utility bills, weatherize their homes to lower energy costs, and build more affordable housing units.
• The Housing Acceleration Fund, to help affordable housing developers access low cost financing to build thousands of new housing units.  

To add this plan, I would support limiting corporate purchasing of housing. This would add to the number of homes available for individual home buyers.

To fight the rise of rent in Arizona I support:

i. Rent control

ii. Rent subsidies

iii. Incentives to increase supplies to alleviate competition

One of the first things I would do is introduce a bill to require everyone to run a Clean Elections campaign. Statewide and legislative candidates have an option to use a fund setup by the State of Arizona. Depending on what position they are running for each candidate must collect a certain number of $5.00 donations from constituents to show that they have grassroots support for their campaign. When they qualify, they get a certain amount of money from the Clean Elections fund. The money for that fund comes from fines collected by the state and a small amount of donations. When they get Clean Elections funding, they can’t take PAC money or corporation donations. They can get a certain amount of money from individuals, but only $220.00 per individual. I believe that requiring everyone to run clean would take dirty money out of elections and get better people into elected positions. For more information, please see the article linked in my works cited.

 Arizona has two big problems with funding our public schools First, Arizona is 49th in spending on students in public school. While it has increased, it’s still over $5,000.00 less than other states with a base of $5113.26 per student. The other issue is ESA (Arizona Empowerment Scholarships) vouchers which allow parents to get a portion of their children’s public school funding when they opt out of public schools. It’s usually between $6,000.00 to $9,000.00 per student that is available. Close to 1 billion dollars is taken from the budget each year for ESA vouchers and there is absolutely no oversight. According to Save our Schools a whopping 20% of all purchases are not allowable purchases under ESA rules. Save our Schools and the Arizona Education Association have introduced legislation to reign in the program by capping the income at $150,000, not allowing for automatic renewal, making participants to give back funds left over at the end of the school year, and tracking spending more closely. However, in three years the legislature has yet to pass anything meaningful. There’s a growing movement to take the issue directly to the voters by getting it on the ballot. I support this initiative and future plans to reign in vouchers. See SB1305, SB1306, SB1691, and SB1692 to get more information about the bills introduced by the legislature.