Bob Buckles, Jr.'s Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
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Bob Buckles, Jr. has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2016 Political Courage Test.
Utah State Legislative Election 2016 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| No | b) Should abortions be illegal after the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| Yes | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| Yes | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| No | f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| No | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
| No | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| While I believe there are situations where parental notification should not be required, it is desirable. Parental notification should be strongly encouraged and the minor should be required to provide reasons and document why they insist that their parents not be notified when parental notification is absent. | |||
1) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Utah's budget.2) State Spending:Indicate what state funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.3) State Taxes:Indicate what state tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.
| Yes | a) Tapping into Utah's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Decreasing funding for public universities | ||
| No | c) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| No | d) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| No | e) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Environment | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Welfare | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Small business taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Property taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | g) Sales taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | j) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Yes | k) Do you support applying sales taxes to all online purchases? | ||
| Tapping into the "rainy day" fund should not be done during an economic expansion, only during a recognized economic recession or other financial emergency. That is what it is for since Utah requires a balanced budget. In general, the budget should be balanced by ensuring that enough revenue is generated through taxation to pay for all approved programs and other liabilities. Eliminate discretionary programs entirely if there is no will to raise taxes. Items c-e listed above should only be done in extreme financial emergency and should be followed by immediate action to increase taxes or eliminate programs. | |||
| Utah's number one state problem is insufficient K-12 education funding. Though more funding for other categories would be sensible, the additional revenues required to get Utah education to a reasonable level will make it difficult to increase spending much on other categories even when desirable. | |||
| I say "greatly increase" for several categories because this survey did not have a "moderately increase" option. Gas/Oil taxes need large increases to address our underfunded roads program and to stop diverting funds from education. The need to greatly increase spending on K-12 education (Utah is last in per pupil spending) will require major revenue increases and income tax is probably the best way to raise the revenue, though I would consider any other option that is effective and directed at those who can afford to pay more in taxes. | |||
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
| Yes | 1) Individual | ||
| Yes | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| Yes | 3) Corporate | ||
| Yes | 4) Political Party | ||
| Yes | b) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| While I don't expect any effective limits on political contributions with current politics, another option is to prevent any anonymous contributions to any organization making political statements. If corporations and wealthy individuals are entitled to paid for "free speech", they should at least have to accept that the speech is identified back to them. I do not support photo identification because it has historically been used as a tool to prevent citizens from voting more often than fraud has occurred when it is not used. | |||
| No | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders, such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| No | e) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support delaying the seizure of assets by law enforcement officials until after a conviction? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support requiring that crimes based on sexual identity/orientation be prosecuted as federal hate crimes? | ||
| While I am opposed to capital punishment, that is because it is not applied consistently, has resulted in the execution of innocent people, and is generally not an effective deterrent. I would be willing to consider some exceptions such as terrorism. I strongly support life without parole for violent criminals as a more cost effective and appropriate response. Prosecuting minors as adults should only occur based on careful review of circumstances. Seizure of assets may be appropriate but we must require return assets if prosecution does not go forward and reparations for seizures are appropriate. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| No | e) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | f) Do you support requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test in order to receive benefits? | ||
| No | g) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | h) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| Yes | i) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage? | ||
| No | j) Should employers be able to ask about applicants' criminal history before interviewing them? | ||
| No | k) Do you support transferring control of some federal lands in Utah to the Utah state government? | ||
| Several yes/no questions in this category are misleading. I support some government spending, lowering taxes some in certain situations, and reducing some government regulations to promote growth. But all of these must be looked at in context of actual impact to the economy, impact to health and safety, and impact to revenues required to fund the government. I do not believe we should pay unemployment benefits for more than 6 months, but I believe that the government should provide minimum wage work after that if no other employment is available. The criminal history issue effectively makes felons unemployable. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| No | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| No | c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | ||
| No | d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Yes | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Utah high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| I believe professional educators, not politicians, should determine Common Core Standards and moderate national testing should be done to allow parents to determine if their children's performance is better or worse than average. I support a limited (5% or less) number of charter schools as laboratories to try new ideas which should then be brought back into the mainstream public school system. Merit pay for teachers often leads to personal favoritism or tends to punish teachers with poor students, not improve teacher performance. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support state funding for improvements to Utah's energy infrastructure? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support increased regulations of the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry? | ||
| Though I support state aid in development of renewable energy, it should be focused on developing technology and infrastructure that will become commercially viable, not subsidized forever. Fracking almost certainly needs more regulation, with a careful balance of caution to avoid irreversible damage while not killing an industry that provides new energy sources. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| I recognize that there is very little support for gun-control legislation or a reduction in guns in Utah and it is not one of my priorities. Unfortunately that means that a lot of people will have guns, some of which are designed to kill a lot of people quickly. We will have many unnecessary gun deaths due to suicides, accidents, and domestic abuse homicides, with little benefit in terms of personal safety. We will also have many more police shootings because the police must assume that those they come to arrest will be armed and dangerous. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| We need to make major changes to our health care system, but are not ready to do it politically. The Affordable Care Act has problems, but saved the employer based health insurance status quo, and was really a very conservative compromise. In the short run, there is probably no option but to improve the ACA. Better alternatives would be "Medicare for all" or a collection of privately managed health insurance plans that compete nationally, are regulated nationally, with individuals paying for coverage through the federal tax system with progressive rates based on income. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Utah's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Utah's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Though I support anti-discrimination laws, I also recognize they are poor tools for addressing discrimination. Our goal should be to educate everyone to accept diversity in general and treat people as business associates, rather than members of our tribe or outcasts. To paraphrase Adam Smith, it is in the public market place where you are judged by your goods and services that the Jew, the Muslim, and the Christian can work together. That public market place should be free of discrimination for sexual orientation, gender, race and ethnicity as well. | |||
| My top priorities are increasing funding for K-12 education, expanding Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act, and increasing the minimum wage. Increasing education funding will require additional revenues through a combination of increased property taxes and income taxes. Medicaid expansion will have little cost to Utah because most of it is funded by the federal government and the remainder will be offset by cost reductions in unpaid medical bills and economic stimulus. A reasonable increase to the minimum wage will have no cost to the state and economic benefits will outweigh the costs to business. |
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