House District 4, Maureen Stapleton

Maureen Stapleton
Democrat
State Representative
Wayne County
District 4

Why are you running for office?

Serving as State Representative would be an extension of my 25 years of public service experience as a former teacher and local government administrator

What is the biggest problem facing Michigan residents today and how would you solve it?

On the surface, the biggest issue is the need for jobs. Massive layoff and migration of jobs out of this state have been devastating to our economy. When you look below the surface, it seems to me that we must insure that our k-12 education system and our post secondary institutions are preparing people to take newer economy jobs as we attract them. Our k-12 system in this state is in crisis. It is not funded appropriately nor are our standards ensuring that our young people are competitive. K-12 school funding is tied to property tax revenue which in recent years has seen a decline. One suggestion would be to look at reworking our tax revenue system for more stable streams of income and use those to fund K-12 and place property tax revenue in the general fund to be used for general fund purposes.

What's a better solution: finding revenue or cutting costs to meet Michigan's public education budget? How would you do it?

Both. In the past we could stick to such party lines, with stereotypical democrats using taxes to fund additional or needed services and stereotypical republicans talking less government which spurs additional business development and increased revenue. We can no longer use these types of lines to find solutions to our problems. State government must quickly conduct an efficiency study, department by department to ensure that we are running government as efficiently as possible and thereby find ways to cut costs. However, we cannot cut our way out of the issues we have as a state. So we must find ways to find additional revenue, but not on the backs of people and not before we review government operations and determine which services are truly a priority.

What's the best way to create jobs for Michigan residents?

Small businesses are the way of the future and the major employment engine of our state. Small business development and supportive programs that help small businesses to succeed are the keys to job development in this state.

After you leave this earth, what will they say about you?

She was a public servant who cared about people and government and worked to help both!