Dick Franson's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
Inferred Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, but Vote Smart inferred this issue based on the candidate's public record, including statements, voting record, and special interest group endorsements.
Unknown Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, or we could not infer an answer for this candidate despite exhaustive research of their public record.
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Other or Expanded Principles & Legislative Priorities are entered exactly as candidates submit them. Vote Smart does not edit for misspelled words, punctuation or grammar.
Dick Franson refused to tell citizens where he stands on any of the issues addressed in the 2012 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests from Vote Smart, national media, and prominent political leaders.
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 Local Executive Election 2001 National Political Awareness Test
The Political Courage Test asks candidates which items they will support if elected. It does not ask them to indicate which items they will oppose. Through extensive research of public polling data, we discovered that voters are more concerned with what candidates would support when elected to office, not what they oppose. If a candidate does not select a response to any part or all of any question, it does not necessarily indicate that the candidate is opposed to that particular item.
Local Budget: Indicate the funding levels you will support for the following general categories.Local Taxes: Indicate the tax levels you will support
| Greatly Increase | a)Education (K-12) | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Environment | ||
| Greatly Increase | c) Low Income Housing | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Law Enforcement | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Transportation and Highway Infrastructure | ||
| Greatly Increase | f) City-wide Mass Transit System | ||
| Greatly Increase | g) Revitalizing and Redeveloping Downtown Neighborhoods | ||
| Greatly Increase | h) Water and Sewer Infrastructure | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Workforce Development (job creation/training program) | ||
| Greatly Increase | Other | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Business and Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) E-Commerce/Internet sales taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Hotel taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Parcel taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Sales taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Use taxes and fees | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Vehicle taxes | ||
| i) Other | |||
| Homeless Veterans | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning crime.
| X | a) Enact or enforce city ordinances designed to curb gang related violence. | ||
| X | b) Inform communities when a convicted sex offender moves into the community. | ||
| X | c) Ban the use of racial profiling by law enforcement officers. | ||
| X | d) Support programs that provide job training and placement services for at-risk youth. | ||
| X | e) Prosecute as adults, youths accused of a felony. | ||
| X | f) Require that crimes based on gender, sexual orientation, or disability be prosecuted as hate crimes. | ||
| g) Other | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning education.
| X | a) Encourage private or corporate investment in public school programs. | ||
| X | b) Increase local funds for school capital improvements (e.g., buildings and infrastructure). | ||
| c) Endorse teacher-led voluntary prayer in public schools. | |||
| X | d) Support posting the Ten Commandments in public schools. | ||
| e) Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any participating schools (public, private or religious). | |||
| f) Support charter schools where teachers and professionals receive authorization and funding to establish new schools. | |||
| X | g) Restructure local school districts to make the system more manageable for administrators. | ||
| h) Other | |||
Employment: Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning employment.Affirmative Action Which of the following agencies should take race and sex into account when making employment decisions?
| X | a) Provide low interest loans and tax credits for starting, expanding, or relocating businesses. | ||
| X | b) Increase funding for existing job-training programs locally that re-train displaced workers or teach skills needed in today's job market. | ||
| c)Other | |||
| Yes | a) Public college and university admissions | ||
| Yes | b) Public employment | ||
| Yes | c) State contracting | ||
| d) Other | |||
Environment: Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning the environment.Growth: Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning growth.
| X | a) Require cities to fully compensate citizens when environmental regulations limit uses on private land. | ||
| X | b) Support funding for recycling programs. | ||
| X | c) Encourage allocating federal funds to assess and clean up abandoned and underutilized Brownfield sites. | ||
| d) Other | |||
| X | a) Provide tax credits, low interest loans, or other incentives to businesses to either revitalize or maintain downtown business districts. | ||
| b) Encourage cluster development or open space zoning that divides land into large lots and allows development on only a portion of the land while conserving the remainder as open space. | |||
| X | c) Purchase available land within the city for public parks and recreation. | ||
| X | d) Development of a long range growth plan that advocates patterns for newly developing areas that promote a balanced mix of land uses. | ||
| e) Other | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning health issues.
| X | a) Ensure that citizens have access to basic health care through managed care, insurance reforms, or government funded care where necessary. | ||
| X | b) Provide health education to the community on diseases such as Aids, Cancer, and Tuberculosis. | ||
| c) Provide sterile syringes to intravenous drug users. | |||
| X | d) Other | ||
| Health care for all ameicans is a must. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning welfare issues.
| a) Maintain current time limits on welfare benefits. | |||
| X | b) Increase access to public transportation for welfare recipients who work. | ||
| X | c) Provide childcare for welfare recipients who work. | ||
| X | d) Redirect welfare funding to faith-based and community-based private organizations. | ||
| e) Other | |||
| My top prioity if elected::*propose building 1,000 units of senior housing, as well as 500 units of low rise homes in Minneapolis. I would jaw-bone tjhe federal government to give us the funds. *I will seek enabling legislation to build a casino DOWNTOWN. The revenue accrued could be used for improving K-12 education and affordable housing programs. |
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