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Age: 55 Occupation: Community Engagement Specialist; Former Mayor of Twisp Town of residence: Twisp Party: Republican
What can the state do to get more affordable housing?
We need a multi-pronged approach that would encourage new construction and/or renovation of all types of housing prices. We will need to increase housing inventory to effectively resolve the issue of affordability.
We can no longer only focus on housing solutions for the very low-income because wage earners in the service industry, teaching, agriculture, manufacturing, and small businesses are now finding housing unaffordable in many of our communities.
We need to encourage working families to keep working and staying in our communities; to do that we need to actively pursue multi-pronged approaches like raising the maximum earning thresholds for housing eligibility, while also providing incentives to encourage private sector investments in new construction and the renovation of existing vacant housing. Instead of proposing mandates to impose urban westside solutions to local housing problems that only serve to increase red-tape and administrative cost, we should instead encourage local innovation and collaboration. I have personally worked with organizations that have been successful in forming innovative partnerships to find local solutions to fit our communities’ needs without compromising neighborhoods or our way of life. I would like to see more creative approaches to the housing crisis because one-size does not fit all.
How should the state fund roads in light of the declining gas tax revenues?
For a decade, I have been involved in regional transportation planning in Okanogan County and am passionate about the need to fairly consider the cost of properly maintaining our roads and bridges. Replacing the gas tax is not a simple issue to fix and recent ideas to potentially use a simple Road Usage Charge (RUC) calculation appear to disproportionately and unfairly burden eastern Washington rural residents. Rural residents are typically more dependent on driving to get from point A to B (since we lack other forms of reliable transportation systems) and tend to have further distances to travel to get to critical services and amenities than urban residents.
Calculating only by RUC would naturally place a greater burden on eastern Washington drivers despite the fact that western Washington residents may literally be on the road longer idling in traffic. Further exasperating the situation is that lower-income folks, unable to afford electric vehicles, would have a higher cost burden (at least for the shortterm) until other options are found. Without a simple fix, we will need strong experienced representation on this matter for the people of the 7th District to ensure that we can arrive at a fair and common-sense solution.
What is your most important issue?
My top priority is to begin working in collaboration and civility with all members of the legislature to contribute to a healthy and functioning political system in Washington State so that collectively we can immediately focus on the task of addressing the many complex issues impacting our communities today, which include: ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our communities impacted by wildfire and other emergencies, as well as the issues of fentanyl, mental illness, and the housing crisis. Additionally, we need to ensure that historic industries like agriculture are supported in addition to encouraging the development of new industries and economic opportunities for businesses in the district.
There are many important issues today and it is my hope that if elected, I will have the opportunity to leverage my experience, skills, and established relationships in Olympia to be a strong voice for the people of the 7th legislative district.
