Missouri Senate, 30th District: Norma Champion, Republican

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Norma Champion, Republican|ret||ret||tab|

Champion has served 10 years in the legislature and five years on Springfield's City Council. |ret||ret||tab|

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What is your plan to get the state budget back in line?|ret||ret||tab|

"The same plan I've been trying to get passed for the last five years the performance-based budget bill. It is a responsible way of knowing what we're spending on our programs, how they're working and then being able to set priorities."|ret||ret||tab|

How it works: "For every program, you set goals. You measure what you put into that program and you measure the outcome. Not only do you find waste and inefficiencies in the department, but you find which programs are working. It's a matter of long-term planning."|ret||ret||tab|

On transportation, she said, "MoDOT still has to work on its credibility. The Commission may need to be set up on a more bipartisan system. I think the (Prop B) package was way too big to take to the voters. We're going to have to cut it down to a repair budget for roads and bridges for about five years. We may have to look at a public/private partnership on toll roads and we may have to look at some kind of bonding. I just don't think we can ask the voters at this time."|ret||ret||tab|

What is your plan to stimulate Missouri's economy?|ret||ret||tab|

"What stimulates the economy is to give people discretionary money to spend. We need a good economic development program that will be very friendly to businesses, particularly small businesses. |ret||ret||tab|

"We need to look at all of our different tax credits (and) our tax structure. We can look at the tax base and make sure it's fair. We regulate businesses to death and tax them. We've got businesses on the edge of the state that can move 20 miles away and come out financially ahead. We're losing more jobs than any other state right now" due to the large number of manufacturing jobs here.|ret||ret||tab|

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How will you address the rising cost of health insurance and its impact on small businesses?|ret||ret||tab|

"I would like to see businesses provide a medical savings account and several possibilities for (health) insurance so a person has some options. Then an employee can decide and not just have a one size fits all (plan).|ret||ret||tab|

"Health insurance is a huge problem. We need to keep government, lawyers and insurance brokers/companies out of the doctor-patient relationship. We're going to lose doctors in our state if we don't do some tort reform. Their liability insurance is multiplying rapidly."|ret||ret||tab|

by Eric Olson|ret||ret||tab|

SBJ Reporter|ret||ret||tab|

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