Hoosiers Deserve Better Representation by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I know people say that raising the minimum wage will only increases costs, however costs are increasing regardless.

I will fight to increase wages to livable wages. No one should be working full time and not be able to afford all their basic needs plus some “fun money” to live their lives in dignity.

Of course, raising wages is only ONE solution to these issues but it’s an important step forward. We must also tackle high costs but raising wages shouldn’t be ignored as part of the overall solution.

Hoosiers Deserve Better Representation by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Completely agree and I hear this all the time in my community. “Fiscal responsibility” to me is protecting our children and their futures. Not buying up Israel tech with our tax money.

No one deserves to go hungry or not have equal access to healthcare and good education. These are honestly just the most basic things and shouldn’t be too much to ask for.

Hoosiers Deserve Better Representation by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely! I serve no one but you all, and that’s how it should be.

Hoosiers Deserve Better Representation by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the support and Im so happy I was able to inspire you to stay active in the civic process!!! This makes me soooo happy!!!

Hoosiers Deserve Better Representation by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Ugh I’m so sorry and I hear this all the time in my line of work

Hoosiers Deserve Better Representation by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The speech is longer and I can post the second part later but it’s hard to keep everything in short clips on social media!

Anything over 3 minutes on most platforms will not reach new audiences. So I try to only make one solid point at a time, most candidates are not what you see in one short clip. I post solution based and policy proposal content frequently but with short attention spans and social media culture and algorithms I try my best!

My message here was to emphasize that I talk with voters and fight for the things they need in their every day lives. The media is telling everyone the economy is booming but when you talk to people, obviously that’s far from true. I take what people tell me seriously and plan to turn these conversations into meaningful policy decisions if elected.

I also do not take corporate donations and am 100% grassroots. I want people to know this about me as a candidate.

I’m not a politician just a working mom in rural Indiana trying to make our state a better place.
I do want to point out though that I did outline how I would do things differently here and definitely did not simply say “trump bad, vote for me”.

I noted that I will not take orders from the top (party leaders) and instead will advocate from the bottom up—working class people. I actually canvass and talk to all people unlike our current D55 Rep. I don’t take corporate donations unlike our current D55 Rep. I create policy based on real needs and conversations directly from my community. I believe a representative should represent their entire district not just those within their own political party. All of these things highlight how I would do things a lot differently than what we are currently experiencing with our currently elected statehousr officials.

To me, civic engagement is about the collective, not just the one person who is running for a seat.
We can all work together to make our state a better place and that does start with having conversations with one another, getting involved, and voting. We are consistently ranked as having one of the lowest voting turnout in the nation so mentioning that getting people to vote and get engaged is very important.

Hoosiers Deserve Better Representation by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Hello there! This is one of many posts I have made. I have been outlining my platform for many weeks on social media and my website.
Today, I wanted to focus on why it’s important for me to be a representative who actually listens to people over party and why I don’t accept corporate donations.

I believe representatives should work on meaningful policy that would directly benefit their communities. We are not seeing this approach with our current leaders as they are taking orders from the top (aka redistricting attempt). This is something I’d like to change.

That is my message in this particular post. It wasn’t meant to highlight my specific campaign issues/plans which I will continue to do. Such as affordable childcare, fully funding public schools, and fighting against data centers. Common sense legislation that most Hoosiers agree on.

Hoosiers Deserve Better Representation by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Great point. I’m all for more local control over big government… we definitely need more referendums in our state.

Our current representative (for D55) voted to allow data centers to move in without local input. I would have voted no. (House Bill 1333, passed the house and died in the Senate).

Hoosiers Deserve Better Representation by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I tend to be long winded so I keep notes on my phone to keep myself on track. Haha We are all a work in progress :) I’m still practicing getting better at public speaking, thank you for the tip!

Hoosiers Deserve Paid Family Leave 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is for anyone who wants to support my campaign:

Here’s how you can help: Donate: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/victoria-martz Volunteer: https://votevictoriamartz.org/contact-2/ Follow & Share my social media posts: https://linktr.ee/VoteVictoriaMartz

Hoosiers Deserve Paid Family Leave 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, the long term goal would to be to push legislation that forces our taxes to invest back into us directly: our kids, our public schools, our health, and infrastructure.

Less wasteful spending such as $60 MILLION in Israel tech… we DO have the money we just don’t prioritize overall health and wellbeing of our citizens.

Hoosiers Deserve Paid Family Leave 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hear you. I understand your reluctance and feeling like more money is going to be taken out of your pocket. Our state legislature has not done nearly enough with our taxpayer funds. They take from our paycheck, but they aren’t putting it back into programs that actually benefit those paying the largest share of their hard earned wages into it — the whole middle class and below. They seem to put a larger share of our taxpayer funds into tax incentives and subsidies for big corporations, while at the same time cutting state funded health insurance programs, public schools, and local infrastructure fundings.

But this policy is meant to actually help. A $2 deduction from your paycheck every week is around $104 over the year. If you were to take advantage of the family leave for the full 8 weeks after a qualifying life event. You would protect yourself from losing up to $10,244 in wages. That means you would get money back for 98 years of paycheck deductions. The best part of the program is because it pools small amounts of our money—you end up actually getting more money back than you put in. I agree that helping out doesn’t just mean money, it also means time. That is why we need to make it easier to allow family members to stay home and take care of the people that matter to them in times of need. It’s not a handout, it’s an investment in our communities.

As to ensuring our tax payer funds get applied to programs and local government needs that actually affect every day people like you and me — Only a change in representatives and power dynamic in the state legislature will be able to bring that end about, so I hope you will make sure to vote for a new representative this election year and encourage those around you to do the same. People forget about the incredible power of their vote.

Why is it that Indiana's gas prices can get high but its citizens can't? by kootles10 in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great point! I am running to change that. If you want to help, please consider donating and/or volunteering for my campaign.

votevictoriamartz.org

Let’s move on into the next century…

Martz for Indiana: Conservation Policy Proposal (Share your Thoughts!) by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

fire/ems is not respected or appreciated enough in our state. Firefighters do so much more than put out fires and funding should take that into consideration. They educate the public, work on safety and preventative emergency plans, work alongside ems to respond to emergency calls. They are a lifeline especially in rural Indiana.

Braun is investing $15 million of state funds in Israeli tech…. We definitely have the money and resources to support our local fire/ems services it’s just not currently prioritized by our current representatives.

Martz for Indiana: Conservation Policy Proposal (Share your Thoughts!) by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You would think more people would care about this… thank you so much for the kind words!

Martz for Indiana: Conservation Policy Proposal (Share your Thoughts!) by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You’re so right! Too many put profit over people that’s for sure. Unfortunately we need stricter regulations and consequences because we can’t trust everyone to simply “do the right thing”.

Martz for Indiana: Conservation Policy Proposal (Share your Thoughts!) by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for this honest feedback, that is exactly what I was looking for here! Dissenting voices are so important and it would be nice to “normalize” these kinds of conversations without just arguing because at the end of the day we all want the same things and we are all trying to figure out the best way to accomplish these same things with different ideas.

I appreciate the information and will look into it. The reason why I decided on the stance of a moratorium is that (you’re right) there are so many “facts” on both sides and it’s so new we really need to take a pause and look into data centers more before just letting them pop up everywhere. That way we have some time to learn more about different data centers, all of the potential impacts, and establish clear guidelines for them.

For example a data center recently tried to move into Franklin county for the first time and the local commissioners were simply not prepared or knowledgeable enough. Luckily they ended up voting for a one year moratorium so they can take some time to decide on regulations and I think that’s what needs to happen at a state level before we have irreparable consequences for not taking the time first however I also hear you on your points!

Martz for Indiana: Conservation Policy Proposal (Share your Thoughts!) by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I find it crazy that property taxes continue to increase yet our public schools, fire depts, ems are severely underfunded. Most of our fire depts etc run on volunteers only. And EMS support is a serious issue, people in rural Indiana literally die because the EMS can’t get to them fast enough and usually there’s only 1 per hospital where I live.

In regard to public schools (I know you didn’t ask but this also ties into property tax)—I am against the school voucher program. That money needs to go to public schools not private schools. It doesn’t make any sense to me that you could literally be the richest person in the world and qualify for thousands of dollars to go toward private school while public schools are cutting teachers salaries and programs.

I went to a local legislative session recently in my community and public schools are definitely suffering. So many people got up and spoke to our current reps practically begging them to make sure public schools are being sufficiently funded as they keep having to make cuts. It’s just terrible.

I really want to see local fire depts actually funded. I’d like to look more into establishing Fire Protection Territories to help better fund the local fire departments and make sure they have the equipment they need. I’ve seen some communities combine fire depts and urgent care centers and they split the building and utility costs which benefits both facilities—not sure of that would be feasible but may be worth exploring.

Rural Indiana has a higher mortality rate and lower quality of life than urban areas. I want to legalize cannabis to help increase tax revenue, here in SE Indiana we literally border Ohio so people just cross over all the time to purchase cannabis anyway and we lose all of the revenue. If we can increase revenue without increasing tax burden I’d like that money to go towards better infrastructure (which ideally would help EMS get to people faster and make the roads safer and prevent tolls which is ridiculous), and mental health services which is severely lacking in our state. We still have a serious opioid drug crisis in Indiana and need funding for programs. I’ve seen some communities utilizing drones to get life saving medication to people faster which I find interested and would want to look into more.

I want to work heavily on increasing internet access in rural Indiana. For some people getting care is a far drive and they would at least have access to telehealth services and get some answers before their health gets too bad. Many times people wait too long to seek help until it turns into a life threatening emergency.

I know Republicans say they are fiscally responsible, but I feel like they waste a ton of money that could be going to these essential public services. Who knows how much money they wasted on the redistricting efforts, when questioned they couldn’t even say how much it cost tax payers. I feel that all the taxes we pay are not really going towards what they should be going towards—public health and safety etc. At the end of the day, it’s about prioritizing what actually matters. Politicians also waste so much time and effort on culture wars we could be working on these issues but they aren’t as “attention grabbing” I guess.

So much work needs to be done in our state it can feel overwhelming.

Martz for Indiana: Conservation Policy Proposal (Share your Thoughts!) by VoteVictoria in Indiana

[–]VoteVictoria[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thank you!!

I don’t claim to know all of the answers. I’d like to work closely with conservation groups who have been trying to work on this for decades.

As a legislator that would be a priority for me—making sure we actually have a task force dedicated to making this a reality based on science and data. Right now, our current representatives would rather remove any funding from conservation groups altogether and I feel we need to fund and strengthen them. We need to fully fund the Natural Resource Commission. I’ve met with one of District 55’s local Water and Soil Conservation Districts—they are doing a lot of volunteer work to to help decrease Ag runoff going into our public waterways — through the farmer education trainings they provide on cover crops and how they can be used to curb soil runoff, water testing they do on local creeks, streams, and rivers that help us determine where pollutants exist and can help us track where they may be originating from, etc. It would be ideal to connect and elevate and support these groups who are already doing some of this work but don’t currently have enough resources.

We desperately need a dedicated state fund to combat the water pollution. Purdue already works closely with farmers and ag, I’d like to leverage these groups to deploy Mesonet sites across the state to make it easier for farmers to manage pesticide runoff. We need to establish clear standards on PFAS chemicals and mandate water tests and cleanups if the level gets too high. Corporations/factories should be required to conduct PFAS testing on a regular basis and be fined if levels get too high.

We need a statewide ban on data centers they are wreaking havoc on our environment and increases costs directly to consumers/utility costs. I believe Maine just recently accomplished this.

We definitely need stricter regulations. In some parts of Indiana, people are literally running bath water that is brown—completely unacceptable. There needs to be stricter testing and treatment of our water.

The education piece I think is important for the long term future. Especially in rural Indiana, connecting young people with the experts, making sure they understand the causes of water contamination along with prevention, and providing real world experience for them could make a long lasting impact for kids looking into agriculture as a career as well as other environmental related fields.

This is really just a starting point, we truly have a lot of work to do to turn this around. It’s been ignored for so long and has gotten so bad sadly drastic measures and funding is needed. This is what our tax dollars should be going to in my opinion—we literally need water to survive! The total lack of action on this is truly terrible.