SPENDING--- The County Needs to LIVE WITHIN ITS MEANS while meeting our responsibilities to our citizens needs.
I am a fiscal conservative with a capital C. . Government MUST live within its means and MUST face the hard choices in budgets just like our citizens have had to in their personal lives. .
I have a proven conservative record! However, in NH we have always believed that the more locally taxes are raised and spent, the more wisely. Your tax bills have four categories::
municipal, school, state wide education , and county. The largest is for the school tax and the smallest is usually your county tax. Whether large or small, your taxes should be spent wisely.
But some of those county responsibilities are unpredictable and can quickly be larger than budgeted, even more important to have wise fiscal management to adapt and make adjustments while STILL meeting the needs of our citizens.
HEALTH CARE ACCESS--Long term care needs.
The best way to keep the cost of healthcare down is to simplify the healthcare system. A bureaucratic-controlled healthcare system puts bureaucrats in charge of personal health decisions. Medical decisions should be made by doctors and patients, not faceless bureaucrats. The poorest of the working class are often too “wealthy” to qualify for public insurance and too “poor” to afford subsidized employer insurance. Fran believes the federal government should expand the availability of health credits, which allow eligible individuals and families to receive tax credits to cover much of the cost of health insurance. This would shift people into employer-sponsored insurance. She fought for competition in health care to lower costs as well as for Medical Savings Accounts during her time in the NH House. Fran does NOT support the creation of nationalized health care.
VETERANS
While the Veteran's Home in Tilton is NOT a county faciiity, it helps fill the needs of our elderly v ets. During much of Fran's serving in the NH Legislature, she had the honor to have the NH Veteran’s Home in her legislative district. Both her mom and dad served during WWII and they instilled in her a great respect for the men and women who serve to preserve and protect our freedoms.
As a member of the committee that oversaw the veteran's home budget—Fran made sure that our NH Veterans got the funding they needed. I co-sponsored legislation to add 100 new beds to the home and our veterans are now getting excellent service in that new wing. Fran helped raise over 50,000 dollars over four years by helping organize a benefit golf tournament to fund the purchase of modern electric beds for the veterans at the home.
Because of Fran's role on the Finance Committee, she was briefed by the NH Air and Army guard on their role in our defense and Fran has flown with them on training missions a number of times. She is a proven fiscal conservative but doesn't mind properly funding our veterans and our defense network. Her service on the Finance Committee gives her the broadest level of understanding a legislator can have on the multiple areas that impact the daily lives of our citizens. Fran worked hard and long hours to become as expert in as many areas of state government as possible.
