Regulating government

Increasing police accountability
Lawmakers sought to restore trust between citizens and law enforcement by passing legislation that established more police accountability and increased transparency. By immediately suspending any police officer who uses excessive force, prohibiting the use of deadly force, and requiring a preliminary status report to be completed within 15 days, not only will our communities be better protected but our officers can do their jobs more safely and effectively.

Establishing a minimum wage for inmates in state prisons
Inmates produce goods, such as state license plates, that the rest of use on a daily basis. The majority of these inmates are men of color, there for victimless crimes. They are paid between $0.75 to a $1.25 a day to do this work. Establishing a minimum wage for inmates would allow them to save money for when they are released, reducing recidivism and saving the state money over the long term.

National popular vote
Every vote should count and the delegate system we have today is outdated. If Connecticut joins the pact; we become closer to ensuring that there is no such thing as a wasted national vote.

Ranked choice voting
Another name for this is run-off elections. Instead of being forced to vote for the person you dislike the least, because you don’t want to waste your vote, you would be able to vote in order of preference.

Presidential disclosure of tax returns
The American public deserves to know who is leading them. For 40 years, this has been an accepted fact, but now it is clear that we will need to begin to regulate transparency.

Public option
Ninety-eight percent of funding that goes toward Medicare is paid back out for service. Compare that to 80 percent or less for private health insurers. Government does insurance very well; because there is no research and development necessary. We just need to collect the money, and divvy it back out. A public option would go a long way to reducing health care costs – an important goal when 50 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States stems from a health crisis.

State-owned bank
We can create a bank that is better aligned with our priorities for Connecticut by establishing a banking system that is owned, operated and controlled by the state. Not only will this increase access to capital for businesses, but it will spur economic development, and allow Connecticut to partner with local banks to help them grow and multiply.

No-excuse absentee ballots
Rather than forcing citizens to vote on a workday, we could implement an opt-out mail-in voting system. You would have weeks ahead of time to mail in your ballot, but if you want to vote at a ballot box you could also choose to do so. We would need less polling locations, there would be fewer lines, and it would cost less to have elections.

Increasing legislative pay
Legislators, representatives and senators are paid $28,000 per year, which has not increased since 2001. The people who are able to hold this job is severely limited, and attracts retirees and the independently wealthy. The number of working class individuals I have personally asked to run for office is now in the double digits, because working families cannot take the pay cut. What we are left with is a non-representative sample holding office.