William Fleming's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
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William Fleming has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2015 Political Courage Test.
Virginia State Legislative Election 2015 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Regarding b): My PhD wife says that 3 months is sufficient for a woman to decide on her own. An abortion after the first trimester should be legal if it is medically advisable due to problems that could not be detected during the first trimester. Regarding e): I'm not experienced with the situational issues, but I expect that requiring notification could cause problems if the pregnancy was due to a family member. g) It is my understanding from conversations with people at women's clinics that public funds are currently not used for abortions. | |||
1) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Virginia's budget.2) 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.3) 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.
| No | a) Tapping into Virginia's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Decreasing funding for public universities | ||
| No | c) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| No | d) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| No | e) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| Slightly Increase | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Environment | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Slightly Increase | g) Welfare | ||
| Slightly Increase | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | d) Small business taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Sales taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | i) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | j) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| I would review current tax breaks to special interests and eliminate some or many of them to bring additional revenue into the state budget. Reforms would include sun setting existing and future tax breaks, conducting a "cost benefit" analysis of tax breaks, and setting a cap on the total value of tax breaks similar to what is done with bonds. The budget should not be balanced on the backs of employees or valuable services. Reference: http://hamptonroads.com/2013/01/virginians-shoulder-billions-each-year-tax-breaks | |||
| I would use additional revenue obtained by eliminating tax breaks to special interests to increase funding for education, health care, and environmental programs. I would maintain status of law enforcement by cutting the populations of non-violent felons currently in prison and using the money saved to provide improved state-wide training of law enforcement, including improved training in race relations and the use of force. I would increase transportation and infrastructure funding using non-General Fund revenues, although it might be possible to use some funds from tax break recovery for infrastructure. | |||
| I would eliminate many of the existing tax breaks to special interests and use the additional revenue to improve revenue to the Treasury of Virginia. These existing tax breaks are estimated to be around $12 Billion or more and equal about the amount of money left in the budget. By decreasing tax breaks and bringing in the resulting additional revenue, I expect that small business and corporate taxes, income taxes for lower income families, and middle income taxes can be decreased. Regarding j): I would increase income taxes on high-income families, but try not make it look greedy or onerous. | |||
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? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Regarding e) A government-issued photo identification should be provided for free by the Commonwealth. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | c) Do you support legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| Regarding a) The use of capital punishment should be restricted but should not be ruled out for some heinous acts for which evidence of guilt is overwhelming. Regarding c) I do not support continuing to incarcerate people for small amounts of marijuana, but I do not think that possession should be considered "legal" in the same sense that it is legal to possess a hamburger. I am not in favor of recreational use of marijuana. Regarding e) if state and local police find someone the person should be turned over to federal immigration officials, not enforced directly. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | g) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage? | ||
| Regarding b): lowering taxes should not be done at the expense of services that benefit the common good such as education, safety, and health care. Regarding c): I support necessary and valuable regulations and making regulations easy to follow and cost-neutral as possible. Regulations that people complain about often originate from local & state governments. Regarding e) I support improved services by the VEC to enable unemployed to find work by benefit of resume and job search databases. Regarding f): For example, I would support would be a sustainable energy Feed In Tariff to promote solar energy. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Yes | 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 Virginia high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| Regarding a): I support the concept of educational standards but do not feel that the current program is effective. Regarding b): The support of "merit pay" depends on the metrics used. Regarding e): I support in principle the use of state funding for public charter schools. Regarding f): I support student loans at the bank discount rate similar to that promoted by Elizabeth Warren. I recommended this to Sen. Kaine in Jan 2013 before she submitted her bill in 2013. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| 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 state funding for improvements to Virginia's energy infrastructure? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support increased regulations of the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry? | ||
| One of the things I would like to do is establish a Virginia Independent System Operator non-profit entity similar to the California Independent System Operators (CISO), which has been successful in California. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| The first four words of the Second Amendment are: "A well regulated militia being necessary". It does not say and unregulated militia. When I was in the U.S. Army we were issued weapons with serial numbers and were required to return the same weapon back. Regarding c): Concealed carry should not be open-ended. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| No | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| No | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| No | f) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| I am in favor of a so-called "single payer" program similar to extended Medicare. This would be a system similar to that promoted by Bernie Sanders. I feel the current system using commercial health insurance companies largely enriches private insurance companies. Regarding c): Interstate insurance compacts would tend to create monopolies and promote price fixing. I would prefer to get away from the use of corporate health insurance. Regarding e): I would prefer that individuals pay into universal Medicare. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Virginia's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Virginia's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| d) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| 1. Reduce the influence of powerful special interests on the government of the Commonwealth of Virginia so that our state government works for the people of Virginia, not special interests. 2. Establish a Virginia Independent System Operator entity to empower farmers, companies, and small businesses to install solar and other sustainable energy facilities and get paid a fair price for the energy they produce. 3. Allow Medicaid expansion and use some of the money to build medical, dental, and mental health clinics in the state to serve all Virginians. 4. Eliminate special interest tax breaks. |
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