Making Our District BetterMore Jobs: The District 40 “Workforce Connector” Plan
As your State Representative, I will push for the “Workforce Connector” plan. This plan is all about creating good-paying jobs right here in District 40. It will help local people get connected to the fastest-growing jobs in Louisville, like:
- Healthcare (taking care of people)
- Logistics (moving things)
- Advanced Manufacturing (making things with new technology)
My main idea is to use state money to help local groups give training and extra help. Many people in our area are poor and face problems like not having money for childcare, not having a driver’s license, or having old mistakes on their records.
Instead of just job training, the state money will pay for:
- Job Skills: Working with local schools to offer fast classes for jobs like Nurse Aide (CNA), Warehouse Robot Helper, and Truck Driver (CDL prep).
- Removing Problems: Paying for important things like childcare help, bus or ride money to get to work, and legal help to clear up old, minor crimes. This makes things fair for everyone.
- Help for Local Businesses: Giving special tax breaks to District 40 businesses that hire people who finish the program and promise to pay a starting wage of at least $18 an hour and offer health insurance.
Fairer Rules: The District 40 “Community Investment” Approach
District 40 needs a justice system that focuses on helping people, fairness, and keeping us safe, instead of just putting people in jail. My plan is the “Community Investment” model. This means we move money away from building more prisons and put it into local help and opportunities.
A big first step is to stop treating cannabis (marijuana) like a serious crime. The current rules unfairly target some communities. I will push for laws that:
- Stop treating possession as a crime right away, making it just a small fine.
- Clear the records of people with past minor cannabis crimes so they can vote and get jobs.
- Make cannabis legal and regulated for adults. The tax money we get (which will be millions!) will go straight into District 40’s public schools, mental health services, and job training—that’s the heart of the Community Investment plan.
I also want to push for Smarter Sentencing to end rules that force judges to give long jail times for minor crimes. We must also support Cash Bail Reform so being poor doesn’t mean you stay in jail, and we must fully pay for public defenders (lawyers for people who can’t afford them) and re-entry programs to help people after they leave prison. This plan is about smart prevention to build stronger, safer neighborhoods.
Homes First: The District 40 Stable Neighbors Initiative
In Louisville, people without homes are in a housing crisis, not a character crisis. My Stable Neighbors Initiative is based on the “Housing First” idea. This plan makes getting people into a safe, permanent home the most important thing, without making them prove they are sober or have a job first.
My work in the state government will focus on three things:
- Stop Making Poverty a Crime: We need to get rid of state laws that punish people for being homeless, like the ban on street camping. Putting people in jail doesn’t solve homelessness.
- State Money for Housing: Louisville needs its own state fund for Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). I will create this by adding a small fee on big business real estate sales. This PSH plan has a 98% success rate in keeping people housed and saves money by reducing hospital and police calls.
- Helping Local Groups: I will fight for more state money for local heroes like St. John Center and the Coalition for the Homeless. They help people with things like health counseling, job readiness, and getting ID cards—which is the key to staying stable once they have a home.
Good Health for Everyone: The District 40 “Health Equity Act”
No one in District 40 should be kept from getting good healthcare because of where they live or how much money they make. I will champion the “Health Equity Act” to make sure everyone in our community can get care that is easy to access and affordable.
My main focus will be on protecting and growing Medicaid, which helps many of our neighbors. I will strongly fight against any rules that try to add difficult work requirements or big fees that could cause families to lose their coverage.
The Health Equity Act will also focus on:
- Mental Health Help: Pushing to fully pay for local mental health centers and making sure insurance companies cover mental health care the same way they cover physical health care. We need to put counselors in our schools and community centers.
- Filling Doctor Gaps: Offering rewards and help with student loans for doctors, kids’ doctors (pediatricians), and dentists who open practices in the parts of District 40 that don’t have enough healthcare. This makes a check-up a quick trip.
- Cheaper Medicine: Fighting drug companies by supporting rules to limit the cost of very important, life-saving drugs like insulin.
Making sure everyone has good, affordable healthcare is not a bonus; it is a basic human right and a smart way to make our whole district stable and healthy.