Brian Caskey's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Brian Caskey has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2020 Political Courage Test.
North Carolina State Legislative Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support legalizing abortion when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| I believe that women are entirely capable of making their own reproductive decisions. | |||
| No | a) In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions? | ||
| Yes | b) In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| I am generally in favor of reduced taxes, and in fact, in the town of Mills River, where I am a councilman, we reduced property taxes at my suggestion last year. In North Carolina, however, the General Assembly has reduced corporate taxes below a sustainable level. This has caused shortfalls in other areas, and so the social safety net for the majority of North Carolinians has not been funded properly. We have drastically cut unemployment insurance, teacher pay, per-pupil spending, and other services -- even while killing programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit, which encourage hard work. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a limit 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? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support automatic voter registration? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the removal of foreign citizens from state voting rolls? | ||
| Voter ID seems like a good idea until you try to implement it. Many people do not drive, and have no need for a driver's license. Many people who live in retirement facilities do not have current identification. What the voter ID requirement actually does is disenfranchise large groups of people, and that should not be the goal of state government. | |||
| No | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| No | b) Should an individual under 18 accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the use of private prisons in North Carolina? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the prosecution of hate crimes as felonies? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support requiring state and local law enforcement to publicly disclose use-of-force data reports? | ||
| The 'Raise the Age' initiative will prevent older youths from automatically being charged as adults in many crimes. This passed the NCGA and is a great step in the right direction -- it will reduce the school to prison pipeline and reduce the probability that non-violent offenders will become lifetime felons. Additionally, our law enforcement agencies are overburdened with social issues, and it's time to review our priorities. Police have better things to do than deal with homelessness and drug addiction and mental illness -- those are social issues and should be handled by social workers. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support lowering state income taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | c) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test in order to receive benefits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage of North Carolina? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring employers to provide paid family leave? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19? | ||
| Careful use of economic incentives is an excellent way to encourage industrial and entrepreneurial growth. As far as the minimum wage is concerned, it's long past time to pay North Carolina's workers a fair wage. A full-time worker will work 2,000 hours a year, roughly, and at $7.25 an hour that equates to a little over $14,000 per year. That's unfair and unethical. We must raise the minimum wage, as other states have done, and allow people to have the dignity of a decent paycheck. | |||
| No | a) Do you support adopting federal education standards in North Carolina? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing teacher salaries AND/OR benefits in North Carolina? | ||
| Yes | d) Should immigrants unlawfully present in the United States who graduate from North Carolina high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| Teacher pay is a key to recruitment and retention. You will hear a lot of fuzzy math being used by those in the General Assembly when it comes to teacher pay, but the only statistics you really need to know are these: in 2007, a rookie teacher earned $36,598 per year (in today's dollars). In 2020, a rookie teacher makes $35,000 per year. So the earning power of teachers has decreased over the last 13 years. It's time to pay teachers like the professionals that they are, and give them the respect that they deserve. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing state funding for clean drinking water initiatives? | ||
| One of the major projects that I've gotten passed in the town of Mills River is the installation of solar panels on all town-owned buildings. Capturing solar energy is the most passive, least impactful, most efficient means of generating electricity, and it has reduced our reliance on the grid by 77%. I have solar panels on my home, as well, and there are things that we can do to look forward instead of backwards. The majority party in the NCGA, at present, does not have the imagination or the political will to combat climate change -- let's fix that. | |||
| 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 after passing gun safety training? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a license be required for gun ownership? | ||
| I own a licensed handgun and I am trained in how to use it. I also believe that the Second Amendment is there for a reason and I believe that citizens have a right to own handguns and rifles. That said, I do not think that weapons belong in classrooms. I believe that background checks, red flag laws, and other methods should be used to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them. | |||
| Yes | a) Should the state government increase funding for treatment facilities to combat opioid abuse? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support Medicaid expansion through North Carolina'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? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support eliminating religious exemptions for vaccinations? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19? | ||
| Expanding Medicaid will cost the taxpayers in NC absolutely nothing. It is a win-win proposition. Medicaid is income-based, so if someone can't work, or won't work, they already qualify. If they are working hard to provide for their families, however, they will quickly work themselves out of coverage and into the health insurance 'gap.' Expanding Medicaid will provide coverage to over 635,000 North Carolinians, it will create 37,000 new jobs, and create $4B in income by 2022. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in North Carolina's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in North Carolina's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support greater efforts by North Carolina state government in closing the pay gap between men and women? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support local governments having the authority, without review by state authorities, to remove certain memorials or monuments from public property? | ||
| I find it hard to believe that in the year 2020, we are still having conversations about equality. The efforts by right-wing radicals to determine who is 'equal' and who is not are disgusting. We must decide what kind of society we want to live in...do we want one where we have different castes, different levels of equality? Or are we all truly equal under the law? We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. Let's live up to those words. | |||
| My legislative priorities include forcing corporate polluters to clean up after themselves. For too long, corporate entities have been allowed to buy votes in the State House and Senate, and escape the penalties that should be attached to polluting our drinking water and clean air. In 1973, North Carolina proclaimed itself to be the 'Great Trails State.' It's time to invest in multi-modal transportation in every community that wants it, and to encourage public health while investing in an amenity that encourages economic investment. | |||
| My top legislative priority is expanding Medicaid, and I think we can do that on the first day of the new session in January. This can be done at a net zero cost to the taxpayer in North Carolina. We must also remedy the catastrophic situation with unemployment insurance and also with teacher pay. We can pay for these things simply by adjusting the corporate tax rate to a reasonable level. |
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