Platform

Working on updates to this page. Please return soon to read about Manny's platform and ideas to support Farmington.

Property Taxes

One of the serious problems faced by people in property poor communities like ours is that when they retire and find themselves on a fixed income, they have a hard time keeping up with rising property taxes while their incomes remain level. They are often forced to consider selling the homes they intended to retire in, because they can't pay the property taxes. Working people also have trouble because the property tax rate can go up faster than any increase they may get in their wages or salaries. This puts local government officials in a bind. They know they need to raise more money in taxes in order to provide decent services, but they don't have the tax base to do that easily.  And they also know that increasing the property tax will put a strain on many of the citizens in the community.  A high tax rate, and a struggling school system also discourages younger families from moving in.
 

The state constitution says that the state is responsible for education. It does not say that local communities are responsible for education.  No local community has a law mandating public education. That is a state law. The State says how many days of school there must be in a school year. The State licenses teachers, requires that school districts provide superintendent services, and controls basic curriculum.  The State should pay for the public education it requires. This is no different from any other state responsibility.
 

The state must assume its responsibility. Cities and towns cannot create alternative sources of revenue . They cannot create a substitute for the property tax to fund education. The state has to do that. The important thing for the new legislature will be to find a new source of revenue that relieves property taxpayers but does not simply stack one tax on top of another. There is a way to do this. Whatever the new revenue source is, the law that creates it has to have written into it a provision that says the revenue from this new tax will be used to offset the property taxes paid by local taxpayers.

Climate Change 

We need to change the way we talk about the climate crisis. We have to say “our environment. Not the environment. “Ours” means we can live in. There will always be “an environment”. We don’t have to “save the planet”. The planet will be here. We have to save a planet we can live on. If we think that way, then we all may be more willing to take the steps needed to prepare for rapid changes. I will set out specific ideas of what we can do as a State on my website.