Joseph Lavrenz's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Joseph Lavrenz did not provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2024 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests from Vote Smart and voters like you.
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.
Wisconsin State Legislative Election 2018 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| I really feel that instead of preventing abortion, we should be preventing unwanted pregnancy through education and affordable contraception. In that scenario, I feel like the majority of abortions would be due to health issues or horrible violence like rape. For that, abortions should be performed in the safest way possible. | |||
1) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Wisconsin's budget.
| No | a) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions? | ||
| No | b) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees? | ||
| No | c) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients? | ||
| Yes | d) An income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Increasing taxes on the wealthiest would help to spread the wealth to a vast majority of the population. By increasing the taxes on the higher brackets, we could even lower the impact to middle and lower income families. I wouldn't want to reduce salaries or layoff anyone unless there were no other choice. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support any limits on campaign contributions to state candidates? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| No | d) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Photo ID has been proven time and again to be a burden for low income voters which is not fair. If it could be adjusted to account for this, I would look at it again. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes? | ||
| Yes | c) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| I feel like state and local police can be used to assist with federal immigration law cases but should not be the primary enforcers of the laws. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | b) Do you support lowering state taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | c) Do you support reducing state government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test in order to receive benefits? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage of Wisconsin? | ||
| No | g) Do you support offering state tax incentives to attract businesses to Wisconsin? | ||
| Lowering taxes causes consolidation of wealth rather than promoting economic growth while increasing wages always ends up growing the economy by infusing more money into the system. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support adopting federal education standards in Wisconsin? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| No | c) Should immigrants unlawfully present in the United States who graduate from Wisconsin high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| I think all of our schools should be held to the highest standards. I do feel like immigrants should be about to go to schools but I'm not sure what to think about the in-state tuition if not a resident or citizen. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support state government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing state funding for clean drinking water initiatives? | ||
| Good air and water are important safety issues and the government should be very active in providing that. Renewable energy is the future and aiding in that development makes sense to me. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | c) Should teachers be allowed to bring guns into the classroom? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a license be required for gun ownership? | ||
| I don't think arming teachers is the answer to school safety. I do think a license and training for specific arms makes sense but I also think that your hunting license can cover some of that requirement. | |||
| Yes | a) Should the state government increase funding for treatment facilities to combat opioid abuse? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support Medicaid expansion through Wisconsin's health care programs? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support legislation that grants citizens the right to choose to die through euthanasia? | ||
| No | e) Do you support eliminating religious exemptions for vaccinations? | ||
| Until we're able to get health coverage through our tax system, we'll need to go the route of forcing purchases. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Wisconsin's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Wisconsin's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support greater efforts by Wisconsin state government in closing the pay gap between men and women? | ||
| Discrimination is discrimination, none of it should be allowed based on things you can't control. The fact a pay gap exists is very sad to me, we need to fix it. | |||
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