My name is Mike Weissman and I’m a resident of Aurora. I was elected to represent House District 36 in November, 2016 and re-elected in November, 2018 and 2020 and am currently serving my 3rd term as our state representative. It has been a great honor to go to work for the people of our district these past several years.I am proud to call Aurora my home because as Colorado’s most diverse city, Aurora reflects America as a whole. And I love living in Colorado because our state’s combination of outdoor beauty and cultural vibrancy is unmatched by any other. Like many Coloradans, I love spending time outside: working in the garden, running, hiking a new trail or mountain, or riding a bike along Arapahoe County’s trails and paths.
Our Colorado way of life includes spending time outside and not having to worry about clean air and safe water.
Unfortunately, Colorado ranks as one of the top states for the prevalence of scams that target seniors, veterans, and others. Shady business practices hurt consumers and also hurt honest businesses that treat people the right way. State laws should empower law enforcement as well as impacted individuals to seek redress against those who’ve done wrong through abusive business practices.
It has become more expensive just to get by in Colorado and wages are not keeping up.
Public safety must be evidence-based and use tax dollars wisely. We should invest in efforts that reduce recidivism, thereby improving public safety and giving former offenders a chance to re-integrate into society.
An adequately funded system of public education is one of the basic functions a state should provide. For too long Colorado has ranked in the bottom 10 states in K-12 funding, teacher pay, and the cost of higher education.
Government functions should be transparent and the campaigns and elections and that determine who our elected officials are should be too. There is too much money in politics and too much of that money is hard-to-follow “mystery money”. Voting should be as easy as possible for all eligible voters because elections are how we settle the hard policy questions in our society. And when people try to commit fraud on government services or contracts, thereby ripping off taxpayers, there should be consequences.
Healthcare remains too expensive and the details of healthcare costs and billing can be too opaque for many people. Healthcare and mental healthcare should be more affordable and easier to access.
Colorado is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis – in Aurora, prices have doubled or even tripled in some areas within the last ten years. It is increasingly hard for people to find housing – whether to own or to rent – and to stay in housing they already have.
Colorado is a popular place to live. Around 100,000 people have been moving to our state every year for the last 10 years, but our roads have not been keeping up. More and more of us are spending more time in traffic and less time with our families as a result. Transportation is also a large source of climate pollution emissions, and we have to make it easier for Coloradans to get around in “greener” ways too.
Colorado has a long tradition of military service. As the son and grandson of veterans I appreciate the sacrifices that men and women in uniform, and their families, make for our country. Our state laws can compensate veterans and their families for sacrifices in the line of duty and can help veterans re-integrate into civilian life once they have concluded their service.
When every person seeking work can find a job that pays a living wage, our economy will have fully recovered.
Colorado is fortunate that our economy is doing better than most other states – our state’s unemployment rate is below 5% and Colorado is consistently rated one of the best states in which to do business by industry publications. However, the economic recovery has not reached everyone equally. I support ongoing investment in education and job training programs so that Aurorans and all Coloradans can compete aggressively for the increasing number of jobs that require advanced skills.
All citizens – regardless of political affiliation – have the right to expect their government to operate in an open, efficient and transparent manner.
State government provides important services like funding education, administering social support services, keeping roads and transit infrastructure in good repair, and keeping workplaces safe and our environment clean and healthy. But our state must do whatever it does efficiently, on time, and on-budget (or better, under-budget). Colorado’s Transparency Online Project at http://tops.state.co.us provides a window into the state’s finances, and anyone can follow the state budget process each year via the Colorado General Assembly’s web site at http://www.leg.state.co.us.
I will not accept gifts or perks from lobbyists or others seeking to influence the political process. Coloradans have the right to expect that their public servants will always work for the public good without risk of conflict of interest.
For several years, many of Arapahoe county’s state senators and representatives have hosted public meetings several times each month in and near Aurora to take questions from constituents and to give updates on what is going on at the state legislature. If elected I am committed to continuing this tradition.
Colorado’s state constitution requires a balanced budget every year. Unlike Washington, D.C. and like most people and families, Colorado may only spend what it takes in a given year. I support using Colorado’s limited budget dollars to benefit our community’s and our state’s residents as broadly as possible – through things like investments in K-12 and higher education and basic healthcare services. I will oppose attempts by influential special interests to win large public subsidies or favorable tax treatment. Responsible individuals pay their fair share of taxes without special exemptions and it’s only fair that Colorado’s businesses do so as well.
Education is both the foundation of active citizenship and economic success later in life. Unfortunately Colorado ranks near the bottom of all 50 states in terms of per-student investment in K-12 education. I support increased funding to K-12 education that so that students can benefit from up-to-date books and other instructional materials and so that schools can hire enough teachers to keep class sizes reasonable. Setting goals for both teachers and students is important but measuring progress toward those goals with excessive standardized testing that takes time away from teaching and learning is the wrong approach.
Education has long been a key to opening doors and increasingly an advanced degree is the gateway to better-paying jobs. But unfortunately Colorado ranks near the bottom of all 50 states in per-student investment in higher education (as well in K-12 education), with students and families being forced to make up the difference. Cumulative student debt in the United States now exceeds $1 trillion; this is a burden on millions of current and former students, a barrier for millions of would-be students, and a drag on our economy.
Fortunately Colorado allows “Concurrent Enrollment,” through which high school students to earn a two-year associates degree or pursue a technical training program at the same time as they are earning their high school diploma. (Read more about these programs at http://www.cde.state.co.us/postsecondary/concurrentenrollment). In the most recent year for which data is available, 19,000 students statewide, including more than 3,000 at the Community College of Aurora, took advantage of concurrent enrollment. In addition, Colorado’s “guaranteed transfer” makes it possible in most cases to transfer credits earned in a two-year degree program at a public college or university in Colorado to a four-year degree program. Especially when combined with Concurrent Enrollment, this makes it possible to earn a four-year degree in less time and at less cost. (Read more about guaranteed transfer at http://highered.colorado.gov/Academics/Transfers/Students.html).
I support creative programs like these to allow Colorado students to get the education they want and the job skills they need while keeping student debt to a minimum, and I support attempts to make sure all students know about and can take advantage of these opportunities.
I strongly support keeping our beautiful state safe and livable for current as well as future generations. Keeping Colorado’s environment clean makes economic sense too. According to the Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Colorado alone is home to about 12% of all outdoor recreation companies nationwide and outdoor recreation creates over 100,000 jobs and $10 billion in economic activity in Colorado. Our mountains, canyons, rivers and forests are known beyond as well as within Colorado as amazing places to hike, camp, hunt, fish or float, and we should keep it that way.
Buckley Air Force Base is within District 36 and is a major employer within Aurora. More than 10,000 people work at Buckley and many tens of thousands of Buckley retirees live in the Aurora area. Buckley’s economic contribution to the local economy was more than $800 million in 2014.
For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, America was the promised land to the oppressed and dispossessed citizens of other nations. But in the 21st century our immigration system has become politicized and bogged down, withholding opportunity from those who need it most and severing family ties.
This is not who we as a nation have been, and it is not who we should be today. Nearly all Americans and all Coloradans are the descendants of people who immigrated to the United States at some point in our history. Now as in the first days of our country’s history, people come to the United States from other parts of the world to seek greater opportunity for themselves and their children – often while fleeing extreme poverty or oppression.
Aurora in particular is a community of immigrants – 133 different languages are spoken by students who attend Aurora Public Schools.
Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus” on the base of the Statue of Liberty celebrates the “lamp beside the golden door” that was Ellis Island. But until the United States Congress gets serious about fixing our immigration policy, millions of people will unfortunately remain in the shadows.
Many, even most, residents of HD 36 live within an HOA – a homeowner’s association. There are more than 300 HOAs in Aurora (out of more than 8,500 statewide), according to data from the State of Colorado. Although these associations can provide useful services like grounds maintenance, some HOAs do not operate transparently, leading homeowners to have extremely negative experiences. Over the years I have attended many community meetings on different subjects in Aurora and I’ve never witnessed larger crowds than when the topic was HOAs.
In the last ten or so years the Colorado legislature has created some new protections for homeowners, such as preventing an HOA from interfering with the First Amendment rights to display an American flag or a political sign or from interfering with your rights as a property owner to landscape your home in a certain way. Since 2010, Colorado has an “HOA Information and Resource Center” that can be a useful resource for some HOA-related issues (https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/hoa-information-and-resource-center).
I support the rights of homeowners to use and enjoy their property without undue interference from HOAs. Like any governmental or quasi-governmental entity acting under color of law, HOAs must act responsibly.
The Colorado Way of Life means enjoying equal rights regardless of your identity and being able to live your life free from government interference or identity-based harassment.