Issues

Economic Prosperity:

Our community is reeling from the economic downturn that was instigated by the real estate meltdown. My first priority is to create jobs by enhancing our economic environment to allow our small businesses to prosper. The economy will not recover without our business’s expanding and creating jobs. We should create an environment that attracts and develops our local business sector, so they in turn create the jobs our community needs. We also must create greater accountability within government to be wise stewards of our tax dollars. Fueled by a real estate bubble, for many years the tax coffers of our government were full as the economy was artificially booming. However, in one short year after many years of a booming economy we "ran" out of money and had to rely on the Federal government to bail us out. We must return to the basic principles of responsibility to the legislative process and fiscal responsibility to government.

Healthcare Reform:

Healthcare is roughly a third of our States budget, yet little has been done to truly reform our healthcare system to lower costs, create greater access, and enhance quality in our community. Florida should lead the nation by being a true innovator in healthcare bringing real free market solutions to a highly regulated and price insulated segment of our economy. My experience over the last 13 years in a healthcare company, has given me good insights into real world reforms necessary for significant benefit for our citizens. We can create a system that enables transparency on healthcare service pricing and quality measurements that allow patients to make free market healthcare choices. We can encourage the insurance industry and employers to innovate insurance solutions that enhance HSA based alternatives that allow the patients to more freely participate in their healthcare choices.

Education:

I am passionate about our educational system because I am from a family of educators. My mother and two sisters are Dade County public school educators, my father a former college professor, and brother a high school headmaster. Students today will soon enter a global economy that requires competing for jobs around the world. We must transform our schools to a vision of innovation, knowledge and values. The bureaucracy and costs of administrating the "system" has sapped vital resources from of our classroom teachers. Power must be returned to our local communities and to our teachers. We must also address the root cause of why so many of our kids are failing in the classroom - we have removed character development and values as a vital component of our education system. Children without purpose or a sense of integrity that arises from a strong character, are left to flounder in a bureaucratically run school system. We must get back to the true intention of education: developing both knowledge and character.