Business & Economy
A pro-growth, pro-jobs strategy to get our economy on track. Steven Hart's strategy includes cutting taxes for the middle class, protecting home ownership, promoting competitiveness, investing in small business, creating business investment incentives and cutting employer tax rates. Steven Hart will support job creation by investing in education, training and workforce development to create new high wage jobs. He will act to reform our unemployment system by strengthening community colleges and technical training to give displaced workers more choices to find their way back to productive and prosperous lives. Steven Hart believes that Entrepreneurs are the heart of American Innovation, growth and prosperity. They create the ultimate job security--a new and better opportunity. We must stop taxing our Entrepreneurs into submission.
State Budget Crisis
Our state government has utterly failed in its responsibility to confront higher living costs, the housing crisis and credit crunch hurting college students. Economic prosperity has been stymied by crippling tax increases and the growth of spending on social programs threatens our fiscal future. Our state requires immediate budgetary reform. Steven Hart has the right leadership and courage to make the right spending choices. He will act to eliminate broken government programs that do not perform. He will promote accountability and good performance from our state workforce. Steven will fight for budgetary reforms to stop wasteful spending and damaging tax hikes. Steven Hart will provide the courageous leadership necessary to control spending
Education
Steven Hart is committed to high standards and accountability, but he is also committed to providing the resources needed to succeed. He believes we should provide teachers with high quality professional development opportunities with a primary focus on instructional strategies that address the academic needs of their students and reward achievement. Our teachers must perform in today's technology driven environment. There should be an emphasis on standards and accountability. Our goal cannot be group averages. Instead, our focus should be to inspire every child to strive to reach his or her potential. Every public school child deserves a first-rate education. And too many of our schools are producing second-rate results. Some say all that’s needed is more taxpayer money, along with more prekindergarten and after-school programs. Others believe that the basic structure of the education system is flawed, and that fundamental reform is needed. You can put me squarely on the side of major reform. Parents ask only for safe schools, competent teachers and diplomas that open doors of opportunity. When a public school fails, repeatedly, to meet these minimal objectives, parents ask only for a choice in the education of their children. No entrenched bureaucracy or union should deny parents that choice and children that opportunity.
Illegal Immigration
Business-as-usual politics has prevented our General Assembly from addressing the important challenges facing our state. Steven Hart opposes taxpayer subsidies for undocumented immigrants. He will fight to remove the incentives to enter our state illegally such as free health care and public education. Steven will require state institutions to ask about a student's immigration status and will fight to enact laws banning undocumented students from receiving in-state college tuition rates and from receiving state scholarships and certain student loans. Steven Hart supports E-Verify, a federal pilot project to allow businesses to confirm the legality of their laborers, and sanctions against employers that hire illegal workers.
Veterans
Steven Hart believes we must ensure that all Veterans receive the benefits they have earned and the assistance they need from the start. He will fight to honor the service and sacrifice of our past and present veterans by fighting to expand access to health care. Steven believes we must provide support to ease the transition from military to civilian life by providing new education assistance and job counseling. Steven Hart will work to create and fund programs necessary to protect veterans and the families of our fallen heroes from financial loss.
2nd Amendment
Steven Hart believes that the right of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is a fundamental, individual constitutional right that we have a duty to protect. We have a responsibility to ensure that criminals who violate the law are prosecuted to the fullest, rather than restricting the rights of law abiding citizens.
Energy & Environment
Steven Hart is committed to clean, safe and affordable water. He will act to fully fund and enforce programs to protect and clean up our waterways and drinking water sources. Steven believes that Rhode Island should also harvest the benefits of clean energy and move beyond its dependence on polluting power plants. Steven will support renewable energy development to begin the transition to clean, safe, renewable energy sources like solar and wind power.
Ethics Reform
Steven Hart believes that people serving in positions of public trust must fulfill their duty with integrity and accountability. Rhode Island deserves and demands a government that serves the people, not itself. Most people believe that elected leaders are more interested in the perks and privileges of office than in public service, and that too often the special interest lobbyists with the fattest wallets and best access carry the day when issues of public policy are being decided. The people have been alienated from the process of self-government by the overwhelming appearance of their elected leaders having sold-out to the big-moneyed special interests. Steven Hart will fight for greater transparency regarding the official activities of lobbyists.
Promoting Adoption
In the matter Roe v. Wade decided on January 22, 1973, the United State Supreme Court held that state criminal abortion laws that except only a life-saving procedure on the mother’s behalf without regard to the stage of pregnancy and other interests involved violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects against state action the right to privacy, including a woman's qualified right to terminate her pregnancy. As a Catholic, Steven believes abortion is a sin and wrong. As a parent, Steven cannot imagine passing up the blessing and joy that children bring to our lives. As an Attorney, Steven has witnessed first-hand the deep moral dilemma women face when struggling with a crisis pregnancy and understands why adoption is not always an option. As Representative, Steven Hart will seek ways to promote adoption as a first option for women struggling with a crisis pregnancy. Steven will support funding for family planning and comprehensive sex education that teaches both abstinence and safe sex methods to help reduce unintended pregnancies.