Q: Would you support a tax increase for education? Are there any other needs that merit a tax increase?
A: No. The governor and state Legislature must demonstrate fiscal discipline and responsibility in spending existing revenue. Florida's revenue collection has increased nearly 10 percent each year without raising taxes. We must pay close attention to tax and budget reform.
Q: What action must be taken to tackle crime in Florida? How will it be paid for?
A: Citizens believe that we should abandon past practices that focused on blaming society for a person's criminality and return that responsibility to the individual criminal. Florida spends less than 6 percent of our $38.3 billion budget on criminal justice -- this includes law enforcement, prosecution, defense, incarceration and treatment. I am not prepared to ask the taxpayers to pay additional taxes for a government service which should have been provided with previously collected tax dollars.
Q: Do you think laws and regulations designed to protect the environment go too far by restricting business activities and individual property rights?
A: We must accept the sacred responsibility for passing on our air, water and food resources to our children in as pure a form as possible. Sometimes laws and regulations are beyond common sense, and we must be fair and just in protecting our environmental resources and the constitutional rights of private property owners.
Q: What is your stance on abortion? Do you support the proposal of some state law enforcement leaders to create a 30-foot buffer zone around Florida abortion clinics?
A: I am a Republican for choice. I do support parental/guardian/judicial consent for minors. I support informed consent for all procedures, and patients must be fully informed of the inherent risks, dangers and side effects of surgery. I also support the proper regulation and monitoring of abortion facilities. Florida already has a law, which I supported, creating a 30-foot buffer zone around abortion facilities.
Q: Do you support school choice? Why or why not?
A: I support freedom to choose within the public education system, and I am willing to listen and learn from (scheduled) public forums on this issue. Funding alone is not the total answer to improving the quality of public education. We must decrease administrative bureaucracy and return control to our parents, teachers, students and principals at the local neighborhood school. I do not support a voucher system at this time. I will support charter school initiatives.
Q: What is the single most important action the Legislature can take? How will you be able to accomplish that?
A: Strengthen the incentive for accepting individual responsibility and maintaining the family support structure. I will examine each proposed law with this in mind and evaluate each proposed law according to its contribution to, or detraction from these goals.
Q: Are you satisfied with the current structure of water-management districts -- appointed board members and oversight by the state Department of Environmental Protection? Do you favor interdistrict transfers of water from North Florida to Central and South Florida?
A: No. The water management districts have been given too much authority, which makes them unaccountable and unresponsive to taxpayers. No, I do not support the interdistrict transfer of water via an aqueduct system from North Florida to Central or South Florida. Diverting water from one part of Florida to another will only serve to circumvent the pricing mechanism which allows shortages, like those South Florida is experiencing, to be corrected through higher consumption costs.
Click for data on opponent: Robert J. Denson
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