At a debate held in Shirley last Thursday, Jen Benson and Kurt Hayes, candidates for state representative in the 37th Middlesex District, touted the experience they would each bring to the position.
In her opening remarks Benson said that when she ran for the Lunenburg School Committee six years ago, her goal was to “regain the trust of the community in the schools and to create a budget system that was transparent and open to the people.” She said that for the Lunenburg school budget, waste and inefficiency would not be tolerated and “everything would be open for examination.” She said she wants to bring that experience to work in the Massachusetts State Legislature.
For his part, Hayes cited 20 years of experience as a facilitator at IBM as qualification for working in the Legislature. He said that “Beacon Hill is broken” and that his experience as a facilitator could help bring people together to make Massachusetts work. He told the audience that “working at IBM, a company of 400,000 workers, is demanding, challenging, and political.”
Throughout the debate Hayes asserted that Massachusetts is “going to become Michigan if we don’t clean up Beacon Hill and do away with special interests.”
Voters at the debate challenged the candidates on a number of issues, including what their priorities would be as legislators. One audience member asked the candidates, “If elected, will you hold other positions?”
Hayes replied that there are legislators who have other jobs and that his priorities would be family, Legislature, and IBM.”
Hayes said IBM would allow him to have flexible hours to take care of Legislature business. “What really matters is if something happens at home,” he said, adding that his wife is at home and can take care of family tasks as needed.
Benson said, “I believe that to do right by this district will take my full time and energy.” She said that she will have regular office hours across the district and will meet with anyone who has an issue. “I am fortunate to have a very supportive husband who works out of the home and can be there for any family emergencies,” she said.
Other residents asked the candidates about their positions on the ballot initiative that will appear on the November Massachusetts ballot, proposing to gradually eliminate the state income tax. Benson said that if this question passes, “these buildings [the library and nearby municipal buildings] will probably be closed, state aid will be reduced, and Proposition 2½ would not allow you to raise property taxes to make up the difference.” She added, “The loss of approximately $12 billion would adversely affect everyone here, especially our seniors and children, so I am against it.”
Hayes said that he supports an income tax rollback to 5 percent, which, he said, would yield approximately $700 million to taxpayers and which could be offset by examining the budget and removing that amount of waste.
Asked if he supports taxpayer subsidized tuition for illegal aliens, Hayes replied that he does not support tuition for illegal aliens.
Benson said she supports tuition for students who have come through the Massachusetts school system, have passed MCAS, have registration cards, who are on the road to citizenship, and will promise to pay taxes back by staying in Massachusetts for some number of years. She views this plan as a way for Massachusetts to retain college graduates in-state.
