Working to Make Massachusetts Great Again

Jobs:  Everything starts here. When people have jobs, they come off of unemployment, start paying payroll taxes, buying things, and are able to keep their homes. Yet leadership on Beacon Hill continues to make Massachusetts unfriendly to small businesses by overtaxing and over regulating them. In Northern Worcester County, we see this every day as jobs and sales happen on the other side of the border. 

As State Representative, I work with local leaders and business owners to ensure that we support the businesses we have and attract new ones to our area. I continue to work on Beacon Hill to fight to make Massachusetts attractive again by lowering our corporate tax rate, sales tax rate, and income tax back to their previous levels. My #1 priority is trying to ensure sure that the citizens of our district have good paying jobs.

Taxes:  It seems that tax freezes are never as "temporary" as they are claimed to be in Massachusetts. As State Representative, I continue to advocate to permanently roll back the income tax rate to 5%, and the state sales tax rate to 5%. You voted over 10 years ago for lower taxes, and I continue to ask others to respect your wishes. Make no mistake though, special interest groups want more of your money. There is currently a proposal to raise the state's income tax rate to 5.95%, deliberately ignoring your wishes. Others want a graduated income tax. I will continue to fight against both of these proposals and look to find efficiencies in our existing state budget. We do not need more revenue, we need to spend less and do it better.

Education: I serve as the ranking minority member of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, and fight for our children to have an affordable, quality, public education. Also, as the husband of a teacher, and having spent time teaching history myself at Gardner High School, I know that our kids and their teachers are the best in the country. In order for our children to better compete in an ever increasing global marketplace, they will need to keep abreast of the latest technological advances happening around the world. Many of our students currently in first grade will end up taking jobs that haven’t even been invented yet. As your State Representative, I continue to work with parents, teachers, administrators and legislators to seek ways to lower costs while providing our children the tools, technology, classrooms, and teachers that inspire them to succeed and have a safe and secure future.

Change in Ownership is Good: For over 80 years the Yawkeys of the Red Sox thought that you could win the World Series by signing sluggers near the end of their careers to mash the ball over the Green Monster and beat teams 9-8. It took a change in ownership with John Henry, and a new philosophy with Theo Epstein based on pitching and defense to win those 2 World Series. I can remember Patriots games not being broadcast due to low attendance. Bob Kraft bought the team and they have sold out every game since, and won 3 Super Bowls. The Celtics got new owners, and they won a title too. The last time Beacon Hill experienced an ownership change was in 1955. Currently the Democratic Party controls over 80% of Beacon Hill. No one party has all the answers, so one party should not control all of the power either.

It’s your Government, not theirs:  The people of our district are never afraid to email me or stop me and ask a question or give me their opinion on an issue. I'm glad that we have such knowledgeable and passionate citizens here, and look to their input to help shape my decisions as their Representative. I endeavor spending every day working as your advocate on Beacon Hill, not someone else’s. If you have questions, send me an email. We may not always agree, but if someone has a better idea, I’m always willing to listen to it. Our problems are too great to be solved by one party alone. However, I can’t do it alone; I need your help and support.