Issue Position: Key Positions

Issue Position

Natalie has drawn upon her strong financial background to make fiscal responsibility in state government a priority. To address the state's budgetary challenges and help reduce wasteful spending, Natalie sponsored legislation to eliminate health care for retired politicians. She kept a promise to make sure tax dollars are spent more wisely and voted to cut lawmakers' pay, including her own. A taxpayer advocate, Natalie supports making it illegal for former politicians charged with a felony from receiving a state pension.

Natalie understands that local residents are struggling and that state government should be working to help small and medium-sized employers in our region grow and create jobs for local residents, not giving handouts to large corporations. She will continue to review the state budget line by line to restore the state's fiscal health, eliminate unnecessary expenses and give homeowners property tax relief by fighting for legislation to freeze property taxes when home values decline.

As a mother, Natalie understands the importance of strong schools. Putting herself through college while working, she understands the importance of affordable college tuition, student loans and financial planning for college. During her first term in office, Natalie fought proposals to cut state assistance for schools and passed budgets that increased education funding by hundreds of millions of dollars.

To help protect our children and families from harm, Natalie supports mandatory 30-year prison sentences for convicted child sex abusers and she will work to increase penalties on sexual predators who contact children over the internet.

After hearing local parents tell tragic stories of how heroin took over their children's lives, Natalie sponsored a law to develop a program designed to teach students about the dangers of the drug, and she supported a measure to gather input from parents, law enforcement officials, medical professionals and concerned community members to help craft comprehensive legislation to combat heroin use. Natalie will continue working with state and local law enforcement to increase penalties on heroin dealers who put our children's lives in danger.

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