Local communities need the tools, resources, and flexibility to make wise decisions tailored to your unique needs for public health, education, land use, and other issues. As a state legislator, I will work to:
- Listen to people, ensuring your needs are considered and respected throughout the legislative process.
- Provide resources and support to help your community make great decisions about the challenges you face.
- Collaborate with people, towns, and counties to identify how and when the state can help address local needs.
I will increase trust in an effective, open legislative process by:
- Using legislative power in moderation.
- Respecting and upholding the balance of power between the people, judiciary, executive, and legislative branches.
- Collaborating with people, both in the majority and minority, to find fair solutions that meet the needs of as many people as possible.
- Following open, transparent processes like the independent redistricting commission approach to find fair policies that balance conflicting priorities.
- Providing transparency into all decisions. If a decision cannot stand up to public scrutiny in the light of day, it’s a sure sign that it’s not a good decision.
Let’s build a collaborative model for responsible growth where developers work with communities to understand and meet your community’s vision, goals, and needs. I will encourage responsible growth by:
- Encouraging collaboration between community members, employers, government officials, and developers.
- Giving communities the flexibility to effectively plan for and coordinate development efforts locally.
- Limiting the duration of entitlements so that as communities needs and plans evolve due to changing circumstances, the entitlements can evolve or revert as appropriate.
- Balancing costs, risks, and rewards of development fairly across stakeholders so that current residents are not unfairly burdened, cities and counties have the resources they need to provide infrastructure and services to meet the new demand, and developers can earn a fair profit for their efforts while paying a fair share of the costs and risks.
To ensure that we continue to have plenty of water to meet our needs now, and our kids’ and grandkids’ needs in the future, we have the responsibility to be wise stewards of our water. I will help to manage our water resources for both immediate needs and long-term sustainability by:
- Continuing the momentum from the last legislative session’s initial great efforts to address the Great Salt Lake and other water needs.
- Collaborating locally, using guidance and best practices from the state and other parts of Utah.
- Providing support to transition to crops that work well in short growing seasons with less water use.
- Encouraging farmers to use techniques that conserve water and improve soil quality.