Linda Small's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Due to a later filing deadline, a lack of contact information, or other circumstances delaying entry into our database, Linda Small was not directly invited to take the 2014 Political Courage Test. Linda Small is still welcome to submit the test at any time.
This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
Pennsylvania State Legislative Election 2012 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? | ||
| I am truly "pro-life." We must ensure quality jobs, health-care, clean air and water are available for all. The "unborn" children should be able to enter a world without global warming's devasting dustbowls, extreme weather and rising seas. By 2050 the US will have a permanent dustbowl in the southwestern states if we don't stop using polluting oil and coal. Sea level will be a foot higher and rising. Going to renewable energy creates jobs, lowers energy costs, cleans the air. Stopping global warming is pro-life. Trusting women to make their own reproductive decisions is "pro-life." | |||
1) State Spending:Using the key, 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.2) State Taxes:Using the key, 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.3) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Pennsylvania's budget.
| Greatly Increase | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Environment | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Health care | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Greatly Increase | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Slightly Increase | g) Welfare | ||
| Eliminate | h) Other or expanded categories: | ||
| Slightly Increase | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Sales taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Other or expanded categories: | ||
| Yes | a) Tapping into Pennsylvania's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| No | c) Reducing or eliminating public worker collective bargaining | ||
| No | d) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| No | e) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| No | f) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| Yes | g) Stricter enforcement of the "use tax" | ||
| PA highly subsidizes corporations at the expense of taxpayers, small business, and clean air and water. Eliminate the $2.9 billion in subsidies to oil, coal and gas corporations. Use the $ to restore funding for education and lower property taxes. Eliminate loopholes and deductions which corporations use to avoid taxes, and invest that money in PA's crumbling infrastructure. Infrastructure spending maintains the roads, bridges and water systems we depend on, and maintains thousands of good paying construction jobs. Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies allows renewables to compete, cleaning air and water and helping avoid the worst of global warming. | |||
| 3/4 of PA corporations don't pay ANY Corporate Net Income Tax due to loopholes. They get an advantage over small businesses, and they don't contribute a fair share even though they use services. Eliminating loopholes gives PA a more fair revenue stream and funds to lower property taxes and propertly support education and medical care for children and working adults. Small businesses, the true job creators, will be able to compete on an equal footing. PA should stop funding corporations and expecting jobs to "trickle" down. The current giveaways to corporations unsustainably shifts taxes and cuts to the middle class. | |||
| There are many different programs that throw taxpayer money at corporations, cutting funds available to invest in our future. The PA legislature and Gov. Corbett have kept their annual pay raises, and have not volunteered to cut their own salaries by one penny. Before we even think about cutting our neighbor's salaries or jobs, we must eliminate the corporate subsidies and corporate welfare. If it comes to cutting state employees salaries, benefits or pensions, the legislature and Governor should take significant cuts in salary, benefits and eliminate their annual pay raises. | |||
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? | ||
| Voter fraud at the polls is so rare that Attorney General Corbett, now Governor of PA, prosecuted no cases of it. The voter ID bill allows absentee ballots to be cast without photo ID. A Republican representative admitted the point of the bill was to help elect Mitt Romney. Over a half million voters don't have the ID needed to vote as of now. Voter ID expands the very government red tape its authors claim to hate. A major reform PA needs now is an independent commission for redistricting. Voters should choose politicians, not politicians choose voters. | |||
| 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 decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | |||
| e) Should a minor who sends sexually-explicit or nude photos by cell phone face criminal charges? | |||
| No | f) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| d and e should be decided based on the facts of the case and the age of the minor. | |||
| a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | |||
| Yes | b) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| d) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | |||
| Yes | e) Do you support increased spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| Regulations are often helpful to the private sector. Clean air and water regs are important for all of us. More alert inspectors and enforcement of exisiting regulations would have prevented some of the recent oil and mining disasters. Regulations that don't work or are outdated should be eliminated, of course. Financial incentives for job creation should go to small businesses and renewable energy and efficiency companies. The 150 year old oil industry should not get any tax dollars. Corporations like Shell, who made more in profit last year than PA's budget, should not get taxpayer money to expand their businesses. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | 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 Pennsylvania high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| Details of merit pay matter. Rewarding teacher achievement is important, but measures of a good teacher must be careful. There is a strong parallel between family income and student achievement. Any system which does not take into account the student's situation and support students needing help will punish good teachers. Examples include students struggling with homelessness, or students dealing with sexual abuse. Teachers can't be expected to produce great standard test scores from these students without support. Before merit pay, PA should follow the systems which align high school starts with teens body clocks. Later starts=better achievement, lower costs. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sleepless-in-america/201102/do-later-school-start-times-really-help-high-school-students | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| 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 increased regulations on hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" in the Marcellus Shale? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support a statewide impact fee on drillers at the local level? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support state funding for improvements to Pennsylvania's energy infrastructure? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| PA is the world's 18th largest economy. Our energy policy matters. The most recent science shows global warming is MANMADE, it's happening faster than predicted and with worse effects. Going to renewables and efficiency will create jobs, lower energy costs in the long run, clean our air and bring the economy into the 21st century. It will avoid the huge costs and misery of increasing wildfires, dustbowls, flooding rains and rising sea levels as much as is possible. NOW is the time to act. We can't stop all of global warming, but we can stop making it worse. | |||
| a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | |||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Should municipalities be able to enforce stricter gun laws than state law? | ||
| Yes | d) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | e) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| I support reasonable restrictions, such as on automatic weapons. Those with a history of domestic abuse, certain mental illnesses or convicted felons should be restricted from owning a weapon. | |||
| 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 requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| No | e) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| The most cost efficient and best care delivery system is a single payer system. I support the current health care law as a giant step forward to lowering health care costs, insuring more people and lowering the deficit. The elephant in our economic room has been the unrelenting rise of health care costs, both directly in insurance costs, and indirectly in the costs of untreated illnesses and costs for treating the uninsured. We must join all of the other industrialized, first world nations in having a coherent health care system which ensures its citizens can get treatment without bankrupting themselves. | |||
| No | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| Yes | b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to form civil unions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Pennsylvania's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Pennsylvania's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| End $2.9 billion in PA annual subsidies to oil, coal and gas corporations. Use the money to fund public education and lower property taxes. Cut corrupt corporate money from politics, let small businesses and renewable energy companies create jobs. Get real about manmade global warming, start a WWII style mission to invest in solutions like solar, hydro and wind. Ensure we educate people with the skills to meet the challenge. Don't fund oil and coal polluters which are making the problem worse, and don't waste tax dollars by building in ways that ignore the negative effects of global warming. |
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