The countdown to the August primary continues with WGVU’s Decision 2018 profiling the gubernatorial candidates. WGVU asks Republican Dr. Jim Hines three questions.
Q: What is your plan for expanding the state’s economy?
A: “First, we have to be sure that all of our graduates from high school can read, write and do simple math. We need to keep taxes and regulations and spending under control. We need to promote small government and I believe we need to avoid picking winners and losers and spreading the benefit out to everybody.”
Q: What is your plan for improving the state’s educational outcomes?
A: “I believe we need reading coaches right in the classrooms so that any one of us could come in and read to kids. We need a coordinated system that takes kids that are three and four years old all the way up to third grade. We need a teaching program like phonics that actually works in the classroom.”
Q: What is your plan for improving the state’s infrastructure?
A: “My number one priority are roads. We need to fix our roads and take every last dollar and any extra dollars that we have in the general fund and fix our roads. We need to use the $1.2 billion from the 2015 roads package and I believe .35% of our income tax, $875 million needs to be added each year to get our roads fixed.”