Luke Quillen's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Luke Quillen has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2016 Political Courage Test.
South Carolina State Legislative Election 2016 Political Courage Test
| 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| I support following federal law when it comes to abortion. The reasons are this are multitudinous, but the biggest is that doing otherwise, especially considering how much SC has already restricted abortion access, will almost always certainly be deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Also, attempts to restrict abortion access by undermining federal law are altogether either misguided, unfair to the disadvantaged, or knowingly disingenuous to their cause. | |||
1) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing South Carolina's budget.2) State Spending: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: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 South Carolina'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 | ||
| Greatly Increase | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Environment | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Health care | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Greatly Increase | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Welfare | ||
| Slightly Increase | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Small business taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Sales taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | i) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| k) Do you support applying sales taxes to all online purchases? | |||
| I find none of these options to be viable solutions for balancing South Carolina's budget. The most productive, reliable, and long term solution to balancing our budget will come from restructuring government agencies into efficient bodies in managing tax-payer money and then investing in our citizens and our infrastructure, not from cutting essential functions of the government. | |||
| Post-restructurings of the government agencies that are tasked with managing the factions listed above, I support increased funding to all but welfare, corporate and personal welfare. | |||
| My policy regarding corporate taxes, and by and large most taxes, is that until current state practice that allows the most profitable bracket of corporations to pay less in taxes relative to the least, any change will either have little effect on revenue to the government, or be incredibly unfair to these smaller companies and put more of the tax burden on them. Basically, until the bigger corporations that came to South Carolina because of tax-incentives pay the same percentage in taxes as every other one else, I won't raise taxes on the corporations that didn't. | |||
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 | ||
| 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? | ||
| e) Both due to the fact that voter fraud is almost non-existent, and that government-issued identification costs time and sometimes money (and can put undue amount of strife on people for something that is their constitutional birthright), which is an undue burden for many who have little of either, I cannot support requiring voter ID laws under the current circumstances. | |||
| 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? | ||
| c) Do you support legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support delaying the seizure of assets by law enforcement officials until after a conviction? | ||
| g) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| 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? | ||
| 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? | ||
| e) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | |||
| No | f) Do you support requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test in order to receive benefits? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| h) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | |||
| Yes | i) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage? | ||
| j) Should employers be able to ask about applicants' criminal history before interviewing them? | |||
| Though typically seen as mutually exclusive, I support both "government spending" and "lowering taxes" as a means for promoting economic growth in very specific ways. For example (and I think it productive to think of both terms as investments), investing in a company that specifically qualifies as small by both lowering their corporate taxes, and providing them with capital incentives if they are in a qualifying industry, has the potential to not only promote that business's returns and the returns it provides back to the community and government, but also to produce jobs and growth in that industry. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from South Carolina high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | |||
| I support the concept of a national standard for education, although I do think the current prototype must be altered extensively. I support a merit-based pay system for teachers that is based on comprehensive performance that takes into account factors other than just the test scores of students. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| Yes | 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 South Carolina'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? | ||
| g) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| 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? | ||
| c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | |||
| Yes | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| 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? | ||
| 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? | ||
| 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? | ||
| h) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in South Carolina's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in South Carolina's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| No | d) Based on the religious beliefs of the owners, should businesses be allowed to refuse services to their employees and/or customers? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles: | |||
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