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News: Primary Election 2008 Preview
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Primary 2008Return to the list of candidates. Charles JohnsonAge: 71 Residence: Greenville Occupation: Retired educator, former state representative Q: How do you plan to balance Greene and Pitt counties’ needs with the needs of Wayne County? A: I do not see a problem with balancing the needs of Wayne, Green, or Pitt counties in that I believe each compliments the other. I will work with the elected officials from each county to push their respected agendas. Should differences arise I would work with these leaders to come to a compromise to benefit the district. Q: How can the state help the counties/regions in terms of economic development, farmland preservation, water resources? A: The state already has programs in place to address economic development, farmland preservation, and water resources. I would work to expand the resources of each to help meet the rising needs in each of these critical areas. Q: Will you continue Medicaid relief? A: Yes, My fundamental belief is that Medicaid should be a federal program first and a state program second. Q: Will you raise the gas tax? If not, how will you pay for transportation needs? Will you pledge to not push secondary road maintenance responsibilities onto the counties? A: My position on the gas tax is to continue the present moratorium as is. We need to push harder to get as many road projects started and completed sooner to reduce the ever rising cost of road building. Tax money held in highway trust funds does not earn a high enough interest to offset rising cost associated with road building. I am committed to keeping secondary road maintenance as a state obligation. Q: Will you lower state income taxes? A: Providing for the overall needs of the state requires us to take a very careful look at anticipated revenues coming in. Should our economy project favorable revenues I think we should provide tax relief to assist our citizens. Q: With the state experiencing surpluses in recent years, how will you deal with the likely deficits as the economy continues to go south? A: Our legislators face the problem each session of balancing the budget regardless of the economic status of our state. Legislators in the past have risen to the task of providing a balanced budget and they will work hard to continue this obligation regardless of the situation. Q: How do you plan to deal with the rapidly overcrowding of the state's prisons and county jails? A: Our first obligation to our people is to keep the hardened criminals off the streets. But we need to increase our efforts to assist the lesser defenders with their rehabilitation and assist them to make the transfer back into being into being a productive citizens. Q: What can be done to help counties deal with school facility financing? A: The education committees in both the state Senate and House need to make school facility financing a higher priority and review the progress we have made with funding received from the lottery. Q: What message do you want to take to Raleigh about eastern North Carolina? A: Eastern North Carolina is an integral part of our state and as such contains assets that can be used to promote our state. Our most important asset is our people, and with nurtured assistance eastern North Carolina can become a bustling hub for our people to live and work. Our climate, our environment, our health care , and waterfront property give eastern North Carolina advantages people long for. |
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