Laura Manriquez: “I Can Lead Our CommunityForward”
LauraManriquez, a nurse with years of community involvement, is making a secondattempt at this seat. Manriquez said she’s running because “I know I can leadour community forward.”
Her toppriorities are economic growth, education and health care. She said she’d pressfor local economic development such as light rail and the emergence of Milwaukee as a freshwaterhub. She also supports transitioning local industries into the green economy.
To spur thelocal economy, Manriquez said she would work to establish more economic talkswith governments abroad that are willing to purchase products made in Wisconsin. She alsosupports tax breaks for small businesses that hire more workers.
Oneducation, Manriquez said she’d work to establish an equitable funding formula.“The school funding formula statewide must be reformed,” she told the Shepherd. “Our system of education atMPS must get past the idea of ‘Viagra-demics’ and focus on academics or losethe total trust and confidence of the taxpayers.”
Manriquezsaid she does not support lifting the cap on the voucher school program butwould not oppose small increases in the program “as long as parents demand itfor their children.”
She said shewould address the state’s health care problems by maximizing federal healthcare resources to reach the state’s most needy residents.
She said agood way to reduce the state’s budget deficit is to “decrease funding theincarceration of nonviolent criminals by establishing more cost-effective andless costly means of accountability for nonviolent offenders.” On this topic,Manriquez is an expert. She was chair of MICAH/WISDOM’s Treatment Instead ofPrison (TIP) program for nonviolent offenders with substance abuse problems.
Anotherrevenue-generator could come from multinational corporations, Manriquez said,by making them pay long-term royalty fees for research and development productsthat originated in the state’s public universities.
In additionto MICAH/WISDOM, Manriquez has been involved with the Good Jobs and Livable NeighborhoodsCoalition, the Democratic Party and Esperanza Unida.
For moreinformation about Laura Manriquez, go to www.facebook.com/VoteManriquez.
Angel Sanchez: America Needs to Get Back to Work
AngelSanchez represented the city’s South Side in the Milwaukee Common Council from2000 to 2004. He owns a home-improvement business and rental properties and hasworked as a substitute teacher in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).
Sanchez saidhis three signature issues are education, jobs and health care. He said hisexperience in MPS has helped him to understand the struggles of teachers andfamilies. To curb classroom disruptions and ease teachers’ workloads, Sanchezwould like to change the school day so that it starts at 7:30 a.m. and ends atnoon.
“Then, allthe kids who don’t want to be there, they can leave,” Sanchez said. “All thekids who do want to be there can stay after and go to the library or getinvolved in sports. It gives faculty time to run errands. The only way we’regoing to keep our faculty alive, fresh and energetic is by them being wellrested and physically fit.”
He saidlocal businesses should be more connected to students by employing them afterschool or mentoring them. Sanchez would like to see more job training forstudents.
“There’s ahuge gap right now between the students and the business community,” Sanchezsaid.
He said thatit’s hard to do business in Milwaukee,and he’d like to utilize the economic development background he gained whileserving as alderman to help entrepreneurs launch new businesses.
“We need tohold some big type of conference where we get feedback from the businessesthemselves as far as proposals they have,” Sanchez said. “I think allbusinesses should contact their local elected officials or at the state [level]and say, ‘This is what I want to do.’ The business community, they create jobs.Americaneeds to get back to work.”
Sanchez saidhe’s angry about high health care costs and supports more preventative healthprograms.
“We need tosolve this issue with health care,” Sanchez said. “It’s the runaway trainthat’s taking everyone to the cleaners.”
For moreinformation about Angel Sanchez, go to sanchezforstaterepresentative.com.
JoCasta Zamarripa: Fighting for theDistrict’s Fair Share
JoCastaZamarripa is a community outreach coordinator for Planned Parenthood ofWisconsin, and has worked for Equality Wisconsin,9to5, the Southside Organizing Committee and Fair Wisconsin. Zamarripa said she is letting thevoters define her signature issues.
Topping thelist is property taxes, which are set by local units of government. Zamarripasaid she’d work to lower them by increasing the amount of state shared revenuesent to Milwaukee,which has been flat for years.
“I want togo [to Madison]and see who I can work with to fight for our fair share of shared revenue,”Zamarripa said. “When I say our fair shareof course in the 8th AssemblyDistrict, but also Milwaukeeas a whole. Why are we not getting that amount that we used to get a decadeago, 15 years ago?”
Zamarripasaid she would fight for more funding for police and fire departments and workproactively with the community to prevent crime through better education andjob training opportunities.
“It’s toughout there,” Zamarripa said. “Youth and adults should be enhancing theirknowledge and skills all the time. Job training programs have to exist if wetruly want to make a commitment to crime prevention. We need to give our youthalternatives to crime.”
Zamarripasaid she supports “public dollars for public schools,” but also respects theparents who send their kids to taxpayer-funded voucher schools.
“Voucherschools are not going anywhere,” Zamarripa said. “What I’m asking for is moretransparency, more accountability. Just like our public schools need to beaccountable, the same thing has to happen with voucher schools.”
Zamarripasaid she’d work to balance the state budget by ensuring that the state collectsdelinquent tax money and also requiring big businesses to pay their fair shareof taxes.
“There cannotbe any tax shortcuts for big businesses,” Zamarripa said. “They have to paytheir fair share like the regular working people in this district.”
For moreinformation about JoCasta Zamarripa, go to forwardwithjocasta.com.
