Anne Nolan's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Due to a later filing deadline or other circumstances delaying entry into our database, Anne Nolan did not receive the 2012 Political Courage Test.
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.
Minnesota State Legislative Election 2010 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | a) Do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life? | ||
| b) Should abortion be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy? | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support sexual education programs that include information on abstinence, contraceptives, and HIV/STD prevention methods? | ||
| h) Do you support abstinence-only sexual education programs? | |||
| I support the Democrats for Life of America 95-10 Initiative, also known as the Pregnant Women Support Act, that would reduce abortions by 95% in ten years. See http://www.democratsforlife.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=48 My pro-life convictions are motivated by the personal experience of seeing my three children on ultrasound from heartbeat stage to full-term. | |||
1) State SpendingIndicate 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.2) State TaxesIndicate 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.3) Budget StabilizationIndicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Minnesota's budget.
| Slightly Increase | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Slightly Increase | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Environment | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Law enforcement | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Transportation and highway infrastructure | ||
| Slightly Increase | g) Welfare | ||
| Eliminate | h) Other or expanded categories | ||
| Slightly Increase | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Sales taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Yes | a) Tapping into Minnesota's "rainy day" fund | ||
| b) Issuing the early release of certain non-violent offenders | |||
| No | c) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| No | d) Instituting mandatory furloughs and layoffs for state employees | ||
| No | e) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| No | f) Privatizing certain government services | ||
| I would support greatly decreasing or eliminating wasteful tax expenditure programs such as JOBZ, which the Office of the Legislative Auditor found 19% of its recipients admitted they would have made the exact same investment without the tax break. We need to give our tax expenditures the same detailed scrutiny we give our budgeted expenditures, and we need to reform or eliminate the ones that do not work. We have relied far too much on top bracket tax breaks as a job-creation strategy. It hasn't worked, it isn't fair, and we can no longer afford it. It's time to stop. | |||
| According to the state of Minnesota's own Tax Incidence Study from 2009, most low and middle-income taxpayers are paying 11-12% of their income in total state and local taxes, but the wealthiest, thanks to 90's-era tax cuts that we can no longer afford, are paying much less. The top 5% of earners are paying just 9.7%; the top 1% are paying just 8.8%. I oppose any tax increases on low and middle-income taxpayers. They are indeed taxed enough already. Tax increases should come from those at the top who have benefitted the most and can afford it best. | |||
| I think we should require the state to use its own Shared Work plan as an alternative to layoffs. Shared Work allows an employer to cut hours instead of people, and then those affected can draw pro-rated unemployment benefits for the hours they lost. See http://www.uimn.org/sharedwork I'd also like to see the state redesign how state workers work. Catholic Charities of St. Paul/Minneapolis achieved big savings giving social workers thin-client laptops so they could work from anywhere. They saved 25% of their IT budget and an entire office building's worth of space. State government should look for similar redesign opportunities. | |||
d) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions to candidates for state government?
| a) Do you support a state constitutional amendment mandating a retention election system for all judges? | |||
| No | b) Do you support limits on the number of terms for Minnesota governors? | ||
| No | c) Do you support limits on the number of terms for Minnesota state legislators? | ||
| Yes | 1) Individual | ||
| Yes | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| Yes | 3) Corporate | ||
| Yes | 4) Political Party | ||
| Yes | e) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| I am not a supporter of term limits. I believe the voters already have the power to term-limit any legislator by voting him or her out of office. For those voters who do support term limits, however, I would like to point out that I am challenging a two-term incumbent who is seeking a third term in the Legislature. | |||
| 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) Should the possession of small amounts of marijuana be decriminalized? | |||
| d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | |||
| e) Should a minor who sends sexually-explicit or nude photos by cell phone face criminal charges? | |||
| f) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | |||
| Yes | g) Should all funds raised from the sale of seized property be turned over to the state general fund? | ||
| The answers I've left blank are blank because my response is "it depends." It depends on the details of the actual legislation. For example, decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana would have to include pretty strict safeguards to avoid the sort of free-for-all that California has seen in the wake of decriminalizing medical marijuana. And adding immigration enforcement to the responsibilities of state and local police could actually make the police's job more difficult by increasing immigrants' reluctance to report crimes. So these are questions where the actual details of the legislation make a huge difference in whether they're wise. | |||
| a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | |||
| No | b) Do you support expanding gaming at race tracks? | ||
| No | c) Do you support public funding for construction of a new Vikings stadium? | ||
| 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? | ||
| No | f) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support increased spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| h) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | |||
| We need to tighten up our business subsidy accountability law and implement certain minimum requirements for business subsidy criteria. We shouldn't allow a community to set its criteria so low that it can subsidize a Dairy Queen to create one minimum-wage job. (This was actually done in Caledonia, MN. See http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/accountable_development/reform1.cfm) We also need to coordinate our economic development programs with our transit planning. We should encourage job creation that's accessible by public transit and close to quality child care. For more on transit-oriented development, see "Making the Connection: Transit-Oriented Development and Jobs" http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/makingtheconnection.pdf And we need green jobs! | |||
| a) Do you support national education standards? | |||
| b) Do you support alternative pathways to teacher licensure? | |||
| Yes | c) Do you support requiring public schools to administer high school exit exams? | ||
| d) Do you support using a merit pay system for teachers? | |||
| Yes | 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 Minnesota high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | |||
| For the items I've left blank, my answer is "it depends on the details of the legislation." I support national education standards, but I don't support No Child Left Behind - it seems designed to make more schools fail every year. Alternative pathways to licensure and merit pay schemes can be done well or badly, depending on how they're designed. I've been endorsed by Education Minnesota, but we don't agree on every issue. For example, I am a big supporter of charter schools; I served two years on the school board of Stride Academy, where my children go to school. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
| No | c) Do you support lifting the state moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support providing financial incentives to farms that produce biofuel crops? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support state funding for improvements to Minnesota's energy infrastructure? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| Yes | g) Should mining companies be required to provide financial assurance to cover the estimated cost of environmental impact before starting operations? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| In biofuels I'd like to see us move toward using non-corn, non-food crops like switchgrass, and we should use incentives to encourage that. I'd also like to see us create green jobs building equipment for wind and solar power generation. We should aggressively invest in reducing the state's environmental footprint because not only will it reduce greenhouse gases, it will save us money in the long run. And if redesign of buildings is done right (more natural light, etc.), that'll help the people who work there be more productive, which will also save us money. | |||
| a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | |||
| Yes | b) Do you support requiring background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| c) Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns? | |||
| d) Do you support requiring a license for gun possession? | |||
| The items I'm leaving blank depend on the details of the legislation - and on what I hear from constituents who live in my district. If I'm elected, I would very much appreciate hearing from constituents when gun legislation comes before the legislature and hearing how the proposed legislation would affect them. | |||
| 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? | ||
| d) Should individuals be required to purchase health care insurance? | |||
| No | e) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| No | f) Do you support legalizing physician-assisted suicide in Minnesota? | ||
| g) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | |||
| The items I'm leaving blank I would answer "It depends." For example, I would support legalizing medical marijuana only if there were strict safeguards included that would prevent the sort of circus California has seen in the wake of similar legislation. | |||
| Yes | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| Yes | b) Should Minnesota allow same-sex couples to form civil unions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support state funding for stem cell research? | ||
| No | d) Do you support state funding for embryonic stem cell research? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support the state's use of affirmative action? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Minnesota's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Minnesota's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| h) Other or expanded principles | |||
| My first priority is getting Minnesotans back to work. I advocate expanding and promoting Minnesota's existing Shared Work program, which gives employers an alternative to layoffs. I support the immediate passage of a bonding bill to take advantage of the current low cost of capital investment projects and create jobs. I think we should put strict standards on job-creation subsidy programs like JOBZ and make sure that taxpayer money goes to create good-paying jobs. My second priority is bringing Northstar Commuter Rail all the way to St. Cloud, and fixing its schedule so that it is accessible to transit-dependent people. |
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