1. What are your three top priorities?

1. Healthcare coverage for every Mainer in the form of a "single payer, universal" program.

2. Protection of Maine's local resources, such as the environment, farming and small business. Support sustainability.

3. Advocate for legislation that will increase the number of educated and well trained young people in Maine. This includes support for public schools and college.
2. The past few years, Maine Housing Authority has utilized the HOME Fund (Housing Opportunities for Maine) to help finance fundamental programs as loans for first-time homebuyers, housing for people who are homeless, affordable rental housing, home repair, and housing for people with special needs. The Fund also helps finance programs that makes homes safer for children and makes homes accessible for people with disabilities. Over the last two years, the legislature has considered taking money from the HOME Fund in order to balance the budget. If elected, would you support the protection of the HOME fund? If so, what other ways would you suggest balancing the budget?

Yes, definitely protect the HOME fund.
To balance the budget, consolidate government administration.
3. A major concern among young people is the rising cost of health care. 17,000 more Mainers are now uninsured since HMOs first arrived in Maine.  State-funded health care programs like MaineCare is facing consistent cuts, while publicly financed heath insurance like Dirigo, has a current freeze on new applicants. Many First World countries have supported comprehensive health care systems that cover every person with health care. Within the United States, states like Massachusetts and Maine have taken steps towards universal, comprehensive health care coverage. Would you support state legislation for universal single payer health care in Maine?

Yes. My view are similar to those of the Maine State Nurses Association.
4. It seems that every month there is another recall or concern about children's toys or consumer products.   The fact is that Maine families are exposed to hazardous toxic chemicals found in the consumer products that we use everyday. Toxic chemicals in the environment are among the causes of critical health problems that can be prevented. What would you do to help Maine ensure that hazardous chemicals in everyday consumer products are replaced with safer substitutes?

Setup a task force with a combination of environmental professionals, health professionals and representatives from the business community to collaboratively develop policy that will keep hazardous products off the market without negatively effecting business.

5. The State of Maine is currently a participant in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an innovative project geared toward cutting global warming emissions by establishing a cap-and-trade system for power plant emissions.  Do you support Maine's participation in RGGI? Would you support the establishment of an economy-wide cap-and-trade program in Maine that would cut greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors (i.e. transportation, commercial and residential heating, etc.)?

Yes I do support.
We do need to continue to reduce the cap amount over time.

Yes, I do support controlling emissions from all other sources. We do need to be careful of the effect on individual consumers, such as home oweners.
6. The Maine Department of Transportation estimates that it faces a shortfall of more than $2 billion to simply maintain the existing transportation infrastructure. What, if any, funding solution do you support: (yes or no)

a) LD 2019, An Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Governor's Task Force on Funding Passenger Rail, which would secure funding for transit by dedicating a portion of revenues from general fund sources like meals and lodging, sales tax, and car rental fees?

b) Using Maine Turnpike Authority funds, which are currently dedicated to highway maintenance and expansion, for all transportation projects, including transit?

c) Raising car rental fees to subsidize transit?

6a. Please detail other funding options you might propose or for which you might advocate:

Advocate for a regional local option sales tax that can be used to invest in regional transportation systems.
Use federal transit funds that are flexible to invest in transit instead of adding to Maine's road infrastructure. It is important to have well maintained roads, however we should put our investment into transit.

7. With the state facing a $200 million revenue shortfall in the current biennium (a projection that may change when April receipts are tallied).  Do you support increasing the sales tax in order to avoid balancing the budget entirely through program cuts? If you do not support a tax increase of any kind – and given that “enhanced government efficiencies” will provide only very modest savings if any at all -- which programs do you propose to cut and by how much?

I support adding an extra penny on the sales tax during times of shortfall. When revenues do pickup the extra penny can come down.
8. As municipalities continue to provide what are increasingly expensive public goods (like education, police and fire protection), what is your plan for controlling growth in property taxes while maintaining these fundamental government services?

Local option sales tax for transit, meals and lodging tax to support police and fire.
9. The Opportunity Maine program will allow students who graduate from any Maine college or University, and continues to live, work and pay taxes here, to be reimbursed for student loan payments through a state income tax credit or an employer tax credit. Projections show that in ten years, this strategy could cost the state as much as $55 million annually, but the return on that investment is conservatively estimated at $75 million in new state and local tax revenues and decreased social expenditures. If elected, will you commit yourself to protecting this long-term economic development strategy, without any reduction in the credit’s size or availability?

Yes, I will protect Opportunity Maine as it is an important investment in Maine's future.
10. Portland schools are seeing less funding from the state due, in part, to increasing value of residential and commercial property. Although property valuation is a measure of taxable resources, it is not necessarily a good indicator of the ability of taxpayers to meet the funding needs of our schools. What are your thoughts on how to balance local and state contributions to school costs?

The cost of living in a municipality needs to be considered in the school funding formula.
11. What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of the state's new school district consolidation law, particularly as it affects Portland?

The strength of the initiative is future savings through administrative consolidation.

The challenge of the consolidation legislation is the ambiguity of the referendum process.
12. Given Mainers’ struggle to balance work with family care responsibilities would you support: (yes or no)

a)  Paid sick days to full and part-time workers
b)  Paid family and medical leave
c) Legislation that allows workers to request flexible work schedules without employer retaliation

Paid sick days to full and part-time workers, Paid family and medical leave, Legislation that allows workers to request flexible work schedules without employer retaliation
13. Do you support current Maine law (22 M.R.S.A. § 1502), which allows minors to consent on their own behalf for health care including contraceptive counseling, mental health care and substance abuse treatment?

Yes. As a registered nurse, who has worked in child and adolescent mental health, I do support the current law as it is important for this population to get care they need without the consent of their guardians.
14. Currently seventeen states fund abortion care for poor women on the same or similar terms as other pregnancy-related and general health services in their state-run Medicaid program. Maine’s Medicaid program only covers abortion care when the life of the pregnant woman is at risk or she is the victim of rape or incest. Would you support funding abortion care for women covered by Medicaid in Maine?

I do support the funding of abortion care for women covered by Medicaid.
15. There is a significant move in Europe, Alaska, and Southeast Asia toward the independent certification of fisheries as sustainably-harvested.  In effect, consumer demand for sustainable fisheries is moving faster than regulatory bodies to save fisheries from overfishing. New England is behind the rest of the world in this regard; Maine has no independently certified fishery. Would you support a similar move toward independent certification in Maine?

Yes I do support independent certification for sustainability. Certification can be a benefit in marketing this product.
16. What do you see as the biggest challenge for Maine fisheries over the next five years? Biggest opportunity?

The biggest challenge is the depleting stocks of fish and increasing government fees on fishing companies. Another challenge is that our state policy is not consistent with the regional laws concerning lobster by-catch. We need to repeal the lobster by-catch law or get other states to establish the same law in order to gain consistency.
17. Do you favor creating a path of citizenship that allows undocumented immigrants to come forward and begin the process of permanent residency and then legal citizenship?  (yes or no)
Yes