VOTER GUIDE - League of Women Voters of Michigan Education Fund Michigan House District 26 November 4, 2014 General Election 2 Candidates for ONE 2-year term Duties: The Michigan House of Representatives shares responsibility with the Michigan Senate to enact new laws and amend or repeal existing laws. Qualifications: State Representatives may serve a maximum of three full terms. They must be at least 21 years of age and a registered voter in their district. There are 110 State House districts which are re-apportioned after each census. Questions: (625 character limit for each) 1. Priorities: What are your top three state legislative priorities? Why did you select them? 2. Education: The test scores of Michigan students, once among the highest in the country, have dropped, making Michigan one of the lowest achieving states. What measures would you support to improve educational results? 3. Economy: What should the state government do to strengthen the state's economy, reduce unemployment, and address the widening income gap? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Greg Dildilian, Republican Campaign Website: www.gregformichigan.com Occupation / Current Position: Self-employed, design - custom cabinetry and furniture. Education: BA Oakland University, Rochester, MI Qualifications / Experience: I have held executive level management positions and feel that my corporate experience lends itself to being an effective legislator. Our state has many challenges. It's going to take serious people who understands the challenges and are willing to work with others to make Michigan a great and prosperous place to live and do business. . Questions: 1. My top three state legislative priorities are: Education, Infrastructure and Public Safety. When our children are educated to their best abilities and our neighborhoods are safe and our roads and bridges are the best they can be, then businesses will want to do business in Michigan by opening corporate locations and creating jobs. Our children are the state's asset. Families make our community strong. Good roads lead to commerce. When we have open and free commerce, prosperity will return at all levels of our community. I want to be known as a state legislator that is accessible and accountable to my constituents. 2. I believe that our administrators and teachers must be accountable. I think districts must have more freedom to allocate their resources the way they see fit so that best practices can be created by individual district needs. Family must be encouraged to participate and must take on the parental responsibility. We must get out of the practice of just meeting standards. Each child is different and each child needs to be encouraged differently to ensure that their maximum potential is reached. 3. Our citizens have found themselves in the welfare line and not the job line. Our children move out of the state to other localities across the country and around the world because opportunity exists. Michigan was once the manufacturing capital of furniture, automobiles and agriculture. We find that global competition and competition from other states have made Michigan non competitive. An environment must be created so that business will expand and locate here. Tax reform is one way to improve the climate. New jobs equal new tax payers. Website: www.lwvmi.org E-mail: [email protected] Phone: (517) 484-5383 Copyright - League of Women Voters of Michigan Education Fund 2014 Page 1 Michigan House District 26 - General Election 2014 (Continued) Jim Townsend, Democrat Campaign Website: http://votejimtownsend.com Occupation / Current Position: State Legislator Education: MBA & Master of Public Policy - University of Michigan, BA History with Highest Honors - University of North Carolina Qualifications / Experience: Spent 22 years in public and private sectors, including serving as legislative director to U.S. Representative, Nita Lowey. Brand manager for Ford Motor Company’s U.S. minivan business, founder and executive director of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance and executive director of the Tourism Economic Development Council for southeast Michigan. Currently serving 2nd term in MI House of Representatives. Questions: 1. The economy remains the number one challenge facing Michigan, so my legislative priorities are focused on policies that have proven to work in other states. 1) Develop talent by investing in pre-K through college education. 2) Attract and retain talented people and entrepreneurs by providing loan forgiveness to college students who commit to staying in our state and policies that welcome all kinds of people to Michigan regardless of race, national origin, religion or sexual orientation. 3) Invest in mass transit and revenue sharing for communities so our cities can become more dense, walkable and attractive. 2. Michigan's per-capita investment in K-12 education is a fraction of what Minnesota spends. So it's not surprising that that the percentage of Minnesota students deemed college ready is nearly double that of Michigan. I support a Constitutional amendment to prevent the Legislature from raiding the School Aid Fund. We must also elevate the profession of teaching to attract the best and brightest by getting politicians out of the classroom and empowering the profession to establish the nation's highest standards via a state-chartered Bar of Teaching patterned after the learned professions of law and medicine. 3. Our decades-long policy of trying to grow the economy by shrinking the government via tax cuts has failed. Michigan continues to have one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation and our ranking on per-capita income has plummeted to 35th. What matters is not the size of government but how much and how well it invests in the people and places of our state. To grow the economy and reduce inequality we must invest in pre-K to college education, transportation and revenue-sharing for communities. To pay for these investments we must require the wealthy to pay their fair share by means of a graduated income tax. The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan national organization whose purpose is to promote political responsibility through informed and active participation of citizens in government. The League never supports or opposes any candidate or political party. Candidate responses are included as submitted and have not been edited except in cases where the replies have exceeded the stated word limitations. Spelling and Grammar were not corrected. The inclusion of candidates’ statements and opinions is solely in the interest of public service and in no way is to be construed as an endorsement by the League of Women Voters which takes no responsibility for any views or facts stated by the candidates. Website: www.lwvmi.org E-mail: [email protected] // Copyright - League of Women Voters of Michigan 2014 Phone: (517) 484-5383 Page 2