PRIORITIES

If we’re going to work for you, you need to know what we stand for.

1. We stand with women and their right to make their own reproductive decisions. The government should never be involved in those decisions. We need to:

  • Roll back those extreme restrictions on abortion, and protect health care providers, who shouldn’t be punished for practicing their professions to keep women safe.

2. We stand for fairness in taxes. We can’t do away with property taxes. Our local schools and fire and police and emergency services count on them. But the state can:

  • Help fund public school buildings and infrastructure using Legacy Fund income, living up to our responsibility in the North Dakota Century Code

  • Freeze property taxes for low income seniors over 65 so they don’t get priced out of their homes as values increase

  • Make the existing low income “cash back rebate program” automatic, without people having to wade through online forms and apply every year. Over half of our seniors who are renting are cash burdened. Let’s help them out.

 

3.  We stand for workers and small businesses. If we want a bigger and better workforce, we need to welcome everyone. That means we need to:

  • Expand housing options, with incentives for developers to renovate and build housing in small towns and to fill in missing middle housing in urban areas

  • Help pay down student loan principles for those who commit to living and working in North Dakota

  • Make sure we have safe and affordable childcare by subsidizing the salaries of childcare staff, which will help the bottom line of both parents and providers

  • Reduce our workforce accident rate from one of the highest in the country to one of the lowest.

4. We stand for public education. The importance of educating the next generation in this state can’t be overemphasized. So let’s:

  • Provide school lunches for all of our kids

  • Keep tax dollars for use by public schools, not for private schools with vouchers

  • Support teachers and librarians rather than banning books and putting government in the role of censor

  • Stop cuts to higher education and provide enrollment incentives to keep our campuses competitive with other states  

 

5. We stand for Ag and Energy. We need to support these top North Dakota industries so they stay relevant and weather changes. We have our work cut out for us to:  

  • Become more self-sufficient by building our own North Dakota production and processing facilities

  • Harvest our resources wisely, while we protect the environment. We can look at our success with the lignite coal industry as an example.

  • Look out for our coal and oil workers and communities as these industries see changes in the energy landscape

  • Keep ahead of the curve on new technologies and applications coming that will change our economy and how we live.

 6. We stand for strong families and healthy communities. In order for our families to succeed we need to:

  • Get serious about mental health care and treatment for addictions

  • Encourage state innovation that improves access and increases the providers and facilities

  • Work with insurance companies to expand coverage so people get the help they need.