Scott West's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Scott West has refused to provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2016 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests from Vote Smart and voters like you.
This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
South Carolina State Legislative Election 2012 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| No | b) Should abortions be illegal after the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| Yes | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| Yes | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| No | f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| No | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
| No | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| i) Other or expanded principles: | |||
1) State Spending:Using the key, indicate what state funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.2) State Taxes:Using the key,indicate what state tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.3) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing South Carolina's budget.4) Public Pensions:To mitigate South Carolina's public pension shortfall, do you support:
| Greatly Increase | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Slightly Increase | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Environment | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Greatly Increase | g) Welfare | ||
| Slightly Increase | h) Other or expanded categories: | ||
| Greatly Increase | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Sales taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | j) Other or expanded categories: | ||
| Yes | a) Tapping into South Carolina's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| No | c) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| No | d) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| No | a) Reducing benefits of current state employees? | ||
| No | b) Ending the Teacher and Employee Retention Incentive (TERI) program for future employees? | ||
| No | c) Reducing cost-of-living adjustments for current and future employees? | ||
| No | d) Requiring state employees to work longer before retiring? | ||
| No | e) Increasing employee contributions by current and future employees? | ||
| No | f) Preventing employees from factoring unused sick and vacation days into benefit calculations? | ||
| Apply selected revenue enhancement recommendations of the 2010 Taxation Realignment Commission (TRAC) Report: close loopholes for commercial products, services and vehicles. Institute a corporate flat tax to establish level of taxation without special exceptions for business. Regularizing and leveling the corporate tax code ensure an effective revenue stream for the state while reducing the influence of corporate donations over politicians. | |||
| Corporate Flat Tax, to raise effective corporate tax rate without exceptions. | |||
| Set state revenue targets which are sufficient to fully fund state services, reduce the level of tuition at state colleges and build cost of living increases into state employee salaries. | |||
| State employees already contribute toward their pensions and should not be burdened by the state's failure to ensure adequate revenue from taxation. The state could achieve these goals by implementing the recommendations supported by the State Retirees Association of South Carolina found here: http://www.srasc.org/Positions.aspx. | |||
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
| Yes | 1) Individual | ||
| Yes | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| Yes | 3) Corporate | ||
| Yes | 4) Political Party | ||
| Yes | b) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Create state funding for political campaigns via a voluntary contribution on the state income tax form, providing funds to ballot qualified candidates abiding by voluntary spending limits. Establish free advertising for political candidates on South Carolina Educational Television. Eliminate the straight ticket device, which limits voter choice and discourages competition. | |||
| No | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders,such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| No | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| No | e) Should a minor who sends sexually-explicit or nude photos by cell phone face criminal charges? | ||
| No | f) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| Forty years of criminalization have done nothing to alleviate the abuse of drugs as a social and health issue. The drug war has simply increased the profitability of the drug trade while not significantly reducing the use or availability of illegal drugs. South Carolina should emulate the actions of Colorado, California, Oregon and other states in decriminalizing recreational drugs, such as marijuana, and treating drug dependence as a health issue. A fuller discussion is found here: http://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/marijuana-law-reform. | |||
| No | a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | b) Do you support efforts to increase limits on unions in South Carolina? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | e) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support increased spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| South Carolina has taken a punitive approach to unemployment insurance, exploiting a presumption that many people are fired for cause, while ignoring the employer's inducement to keep insurance rates low by falsely reporting terminations. Provide unemployment insurance for all filings and adjust insurance rates accordingly. Ultimately, a national unemployment benefit agency is necessary to ensure equitable and sustainable system. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| No | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| Yes | c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | ||
| No | d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | ||
| No | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Yes | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from South Carolina high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| Public schools require a revised formula that equitably funds on a per-child basis while providing revenue stability from year to year. South Carolina should return the basic funding formula based on property tax evaluations to provide state-wide system funding. Sales tax revenue, which forms the basic source of funding today, should only be used as a supplemental source. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
| No | c) Do you support opening South Carolina's waters to offshore drilling? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support state funding for improvements to South Carolina's energy infrastructure? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| South Carolina politicians of both major parties are unduly influenced by monopolistic state utilities. The passage of the Base Load Review Act (BLRA) in 2007, ratepayers have been saddled with pre-paying the uneconomic nuclear commitment of the SCE&G and Duke. I will oppose the unfair burden BLRA places on the people of South Carolina, and work to limit the production and storage of nuclear waste in the state. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| No | c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| No | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| No | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
| No | d) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| No | e) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| Only a national single-payer insurance system can adequately control costs and provide insurance to every person in the nation. Until national insurance is implemented, I support the state's full participation in health care exchanges authorized under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In particular, South Carolina should participate without restrictions on insurance for women's reproductive services, including abortion. | |||
| No | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| Yes | b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to form civil unions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in South Carolina's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in South Carolina's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| South Carolina is overdue to recognize hate crimes by statute. I would support the enactment of a hate crime law covering race, religion, gender and sexual orientation, based on legislation already adopted in other states. | |||
| South Carolina legislators must commit themselves to ensuring the health, education, welfare and freedom of state residents through enactment of a moral budget. 1. Provide an adequate level of revenue to fully fund the state's social services comes through: establishing a consistent, flat and fair corporate tax; eliminating loopholes for taxes on services and removing the $300 cap on vehicle taxes; restoring the property tax element to the state school funding formula. 2. Use improved funding to freeze and roll back tuition increases at state public colleges, which have risen above the rate of inflation for 12 years. 3. [...] |
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