KEN STREMSKY'S NEW HAMPSHIRE PLAN The following plan for New Hampshire is a work in progress. I ran for the United States Senate from New Hampshire in 2002 and I received more than 2000 votes. I believe my New Hampshire plan will improve education in our state and strengthen our economy. My New Hampshire plan is a work in progress. People in other states may want to adopt versions of my New Hampshire plan in their states. If people in other states want to tell me about the problems in their states and what they hope will happen in their states, I hope they will e-mail me. EDUCATION I hope the New Hampshire Legislature will create and fund free education websites that anyone may use who has internet access. The free education websites would teach k-12 subjects, college subjects, and graduate school subjects. Mathematics, science, foreign languages, history, geography, music, art, and other subjects could be taught using text, audio, and video. The New Hampshire Legislature should allow businesses to deduct the full cost of a year's contributions to public k-12 schools from their state business profits taxes for that year. The New Hampshire Legislature should allow businesses to deduct 70 percent of a year's contributions to the University of New Hampshire in Durham, University of New Hampshire in Manchester, Keene State, Plymouth State, New Hampshire Technical Institutes, and other public colleges from their state business profits taxes from that year. The New Hampshire Legislature should tell the New Hampshire Supreme Court that the New Hampshire legislature has the power to decide what an adequate education is and the New Hampshire Supreme Court does not because this is a legislative function and not a judicial function. The New Hampshire Legislature should tell the New Hampshire Supreme Court that the New Hampshire Legislature has the power to decide how much money is spent on education and the New Hampshire Supreme Court does not because this is a legislative function and not a judicial function. The New Hampshire Legislature should tell the New Hampshire Supreme Court that the New Hampshire Legislature has the power to decide how money is raised to fund education and the Supreme Court does not because this a legislative function and not a judicial function. I hope that the New Hampshire Legislature will allow localities to use public money to send their students to private schools including religious schools because school choice will probably improve education. If the state legislature will not allow public money to go to private religious schools, I hope it will allow public money to go to private, non religious schools. The first amendment of the United States Constitution says that government does not have the power to prohibit the free exercise of religion. When the government requires people to pay for education and then does not allow people to use public money to send their children to religious schools, the government is inhibiting the free exercise of religion. I hope that the Federal Government will allow students, parents, and others to deduct the cost of sending children to public k-12 schools, private k-12 schools, colleges, universities, and graduate schools from their federal taxes. The State Legislature should consider eliminating tenure for public k-12 school teachers so that school districts are better able to fire teachers who do a poor job teaching. The State Legislature should have the sole ability to grant tenure for public k-12 school teachers. The State Legislature may want to pass a law which says that teachers have to obtain at least an 80 out of 100 on a competency exam for a subject for a teacher to continue teaching the subject. The State Legislature may want to pass a law which says that a student may not graduate from a high school in the state if the student has not received at least a C grade for a United Statea of America history course, at least a C grade for a World history course, and at least a C grade for a World geography course. I hope that the State Legislature will require students to get at least a C on an exam that tests their knowledge of the Art of War by Sun Tzu before they may graduate from a public high school or a public college in New Hampshire. I hope the State Legislature will increase funding for k-12 music and art programs because music and art programs increase creativity and logical thinking ability for many students. I hope the school year will be at least 200 days long for grades 7 thru 12. I hope that cooperative education will be part of many more schools programs. I hope that many schools will allow students to participate in after school activities to at least 5pm and then allow students to take buses home so that many parents will not have to worry about their children being home alone. Many schools might want to have programs similar to the Operation Enterprise program that the American Management Association runs for their students. Many schools might want to have junior R.O.T.C. programs. I hope that many grade schools, junior high schools, high schools, and colleges will post the class notes of teachers on the internet so that students and parents may view them. Many schools might want to videotape lectures and place them on the internet. I hope that many schools will improve their libraries, music programs, art programs, academic programs, and physical education programs. I hope that many schools will pay high school students to tutor grade school and junior high school students. TAXATION The State Legislature should say that local property tax rates may not be greater than a rate the State Legislature sets. The state property tax should be eliminated. The rooms and meals tax should not be greater than five percent. A lower room and meals tax may increase tourism to New Hampshire as well as encourage more New Hampshire residents to eat out. The business profits tax should not be greater than five percent. A lower business profits tax will encourage businesses to expand in New Hampshire and come to New Hampshire. The business enterprise tax should be eliminated. New Hampshire should not have capital gains taxes and estate taxes. New Hampshire should not tax dividends and interest from savings accounts. New Hampshire should only have an income tax if the people of New Hampshire vote for the tax and the rate of the tax. If New Hampshire has an income tax in the future, I hope it will not be greater than two percent. The New Hampshire legislature should ask the voters to choose between a one percent income tax rate, two percent income tax rate, three percent income tax rate, and a four percent income tax rate in September 2003. The tax that receives the most votes would be posted on the ballot in November. If the income tax rate that is voted on in November receives more yes votes than no votes, New Hampshire gets that income tax rate and the rate may only be increased if New Hampshire voters vote to increase the tax rate. If more people vote no than yes, New Hampshire does not get an income tax. I hope New Hampshire will only have a state sales tax if the people of New Hampshire vote for the tax and the rate of the tax. If New Hampshire has a sales tax in the future, I hope it will not be greater than two percent. I think a state sales tax would hurt people on fixed incomes and people who do not make much money the hardest. A state sales tax would probably discourage many people from Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire from buying products and services in New Hampshire. The New Hampshire legislature should allow people to vote for a one percent sales tax rate and a two percent sales tax rate in September 2003. The tax rate that gets the most votes would be voted on in November 2003. If the sales tax rate voted on in November 2003 receives more yes votes than no votes, New Hampshire gets that state sales tax rate and that sales tax rate may only be increased if New Hampshire voters vote for that tax rate. If more people vote no than yes on that state sales tax rate, New Hampshire does not get a state sales tax. HEALTH INSURANCE I hope that the residents of New Hampshire will be offered more individual health insurance plans in New Hampshire. More companies would probably want to sell health insurance in New Hampshire if the State Legislature does not mandate what has to be covered by health insurance plans. If consumers alone have the power to decide how much coverage they want and the types of coverage they want, more companies will probably be willing to sell health insurance in New Hampshire. More companies might be willing to offer group health insurance to their employees if the State Legislature passes a law that says that a company that offers group health insurance policies that meet requirements the State Legislature sets to all the company's employees in New Hampshire including part-time employees in a year does not have to pay a business profits tax greater than three percent. Doctors and hospitals may reduce their prices if the State Legislature passes Tort Reform that limits the liability that Doctors and hospitals have for medical malpractice. If the State Legislature says that a medical malpractice liability award may not be greater than an amount the State Legilature sets, the cost of medical malpractice insurance may decrease. Amendment Eight of the United States Constitution says excessive fines shall not be imposed. I believe that many liability awards have been excessive fines. I believe Congress has a constitutional responsibility to set liability award limits. More pharmacies might be willing to participate in the Governor's discount prescription drug program for seniors if they do not have to pay business profits taxes greater than three percent in a year the pharmacies participate. The State Legislature may want to offer the Governor's discount drug program to people of all ages living in New Hampshire and say to pharmacies that give discounts on drugs to people of all ages that year that the pharmacies do not have to pay a business profits tax greater than two percent that year. The State Legislature may want to buy drugs in bulk from Canadian companies and then sell the drugs to people living in New Hampshire. I hope the Federal Government will allow people to deduct the full cost of health care expenses especially health insurance expenses from their federal taxes. TOURISM New Hampshire might want to advertise its tourism industry a lot more than New Hampshire does now throughout the United States of America, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT New Hampshire might want to advertise a lot more than it does now the benefits of operating businesses in New Hampshire throughout the United States of America, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. PAY OF ELECTED OFFICIALS I believe that if people in the state of New Hampshire wants the best people to run for elective office, localities and the state of New Hampshire need to pay elected officials decent wages. Quality people are not likely to run for elective office if they are paid poorly. State representatives and state senators should be paid at least $30,000 a year. Mayors and Aldermen should be paid at least $30,000 a year. I doubt property taxes and government spending would be as high in Manchester, New Hampshire as they are now if more quality people ran for Aldermen positions in Manchester, New Hampshire. Elected school board members should be paid at least $30,000 a year. One of the main reasons why public education in this country is a mess and the dropout rate is so high is because many quality people do not want to be poorly paid school board members. GAMBLING I hope that gambling will only be expanded in New Hampshire if the people of New Hampshire vote for expanded gambling and the type of expanded gambling they want. If the people of New Hampshire vote for New Hampshire not participating in lotteries and not having lotteries, that lottery tickets will not be sold in New Hampshire. I believe people who are at least 18 years of age have the right to ruin their lives via gambling. MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE I hope that the City of Manchester, New Hampshire will eliminate parking meters on Elm Street so that downtown businesses will be better able to compete with businesses on South Willow Street. The City of Manchester, New Hampshire should not require people to put money in parking meters after 6pm. The City of Manchester, New Hampshire should not require people to put money in parking meters on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. The City of Manchester, New Hampshire will expand bus service and have bus service to at least 10 pm. Bus service will benefit downtown businesses and help more people attend events at the Verizon Wireless Arena. The City of Manchester might want to place a $2 ticket surcharge on each ticket sold at the Verizon Wireless Arena to help the city pay for the arena. SMG which manages the arena and has the website www.smgworld.com could receive a portion of the surcharge if the City of Manchester signed a contract with SMG that does not allow the City of Manchester to place a surcharge on tickets. The City of Manchester might want to allow people to roller skate and ice skate in the Verizon Wireless Arena for an hourly fee. The City of Manchester might want to see if a professional basketball team might want to have a minor league basketball team call the Verizon Wireless Arena home and play games against other minor league basketball teams in the Arena and charge people to watch the teams play. The City of Manchester, New Hampshire will give the Manchester City Library a lot more money so it may be open on Sundays from 10am to 8pm and be able to buy a lot more books, magazines, newspapers, and computers. I hope that the City of Manchester, New Hampshire will allow parents to use public money to send their children to private schools including religious schools. If the City of Manchester, New Hampshire can not send to children to private, religious schools, I hope it will still allow parents to use public money to send their children to private, non religious schools. The City of Manchester, New Hampshire should encourage at least one large supermarket and at least one large movie theatre to do business on Elm Street by giving them reduced property tax rates. Manchester, New Hampshire VERIZON WIRELESS ARENA AND CITY OF MANCHESTER The City of Manchester, New Hampshire may want to hire some competent, ethical attorneys and competent, ethical accountant to help the City of Manchester create a Verizon Wireless Arena Corporation that will own the arena and the income the arena generates. Common stock that pays dividends, preferred stock, and bonds that mature at different times could be sold in the arena. The City of Manchester could stay the majority shareholder for the time being. SMG which currently manages the arena and the website www.smgworld.com could be a minority shareholder and minority bond holder. The City of Manchester, New Hampshire should be able to use the money it obtains from sales taxes to reduce property taxes instead. The City of Manchester, New Hampshire's liability should only be the stock and bonds that it owns. The City of Manchester, New Hampshire should make sure that the Verizon Wireless Arena has a decent Board of Directors who will choose executives for the Verizon Wirless Arena Corporation. The Verizon Wireless Arena may want to allow people to pay to roller skate in the arena and ice skate in the arena. UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF NEW HAMPSHIRE I hope that the New Hampshire legislature will give more money to the University System of New Hampshire. I hope the University of New Hampshire at Manchester will offer more courses in Economics and offer a BA in Economics and a Masters in Economics in Manchester, New Hampshire. I hope the cooperative education programs at the schools that are part of the University System of New Hampshire will be greatly expanded. NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE I went to Charlotte Avenue Grade School, and Spring Street Junior High School. I graduated from Nashua High School in 1988. The City of Nashua, New Hampshire may want to pay some top high school students to tutor other high school students, junior high school students, and grade school students. The City of Nashua, New Hampshire may want to encourage Holman Stadium to host a women's professional softball team and a women's professional baseball team. The City of Nashua, New Hampshire could share in the proceeds. A League of Their Own which discusses the glory days of professional women's baseball is one of my favorite movies. I hope that professional women's baseball will be played in many ball parks in the United States of America. The City of Nashua, New Hampshire may want to encourage male and female rugby teams to play at Holman Stadium and allow them to sell tickets to the events. The City of Nashua, New Hampshire could share in the proceeds from the tickets. The City of Nashua, New Hampshire should tell the Nashua Public Library to allow candidates to use the Nashua Public Library Theatre for Meet the Candidate when the candidates are running for Governor, United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, and President of the United States of America and the events are free and open to the public. The Manchester City Library allows meet the candidate events. Political speech is one of the most important types of speech protected by Amendment One of the United States Constitution and I am surprised that the Nashua Public Library is being allowed to forbid political speech in the library which is a publicly owned facility. It may be illegal for the library to forbid Meet the Candidate events because the library obtains public funding. The City of Nashua, New Hampshire may lose lawsuits in the future if the policy is not changed. I agree with the Telegraph Editorial in the June 9, 2002 issue on page F-2 that has the title "City should pursue Pennichuck study" because if a study is not conducted I think the residents of Nashua will greatly regret that a decent study was not done. BUSES I hope Vermont Transit will offer bus service between Manchester and Nashua at 7am, 8am, 9am, and 10am. I hope that Vermont Transit will have a bus that goes from Nashua to Manchester at 8pm. I hope that Concord Trailways will offer bus service that goes from Manchester to Portsmouth and bus service from Portsmouth to Manchester. I think it is ridiculous that for a person to get from Manchester to Porstmouth by bus that the person has to from Manchester to Boston and then Boston to Portsmouth. Concord Trailways may also want to have bus service from Manchester to Durham and bus service from Durham to Manchester especially on Saturdays during football season. Asking people to run for elective office. I e-mailed the following letter to many college newspapers. OP/ED I hope many people will run for elective office in 2003 and 2004. I ran for United States Senate from New Hampshire in 2002 and I received more than 2000 votes. I am running for President of the United States of America in 2004. My website is http://www.geocities.com/kstremskyforpresident If you are not willing to fight for civil liberties who do you think will fight for civil liberties. If you are not willing to make sure that Congress fulfills all its Article One, Section Eight War making responsibilities who do you think will. If you are not willing to make sure that our country has great public school k-12 systems and great private school k-12 educational systems who do you think will. If you are not willing to fight for affordable college educations who do you think will. If you are not willing to fight for affordable health care and affordable prescription drugs who do you think will. If you are not willing to fight for good paying jobs who do you think will. If you are not willing to fight for clean water and clean air who do you think will. If you are not willing to fight for a solvent Social Security system and a solvent Medicare system who do you think will. I hope that our country will elect many people that love our Republic like Cincinnatus loved the Roman republic. CAESAR AND CINCINNATUS History might have turned out very differently if Julius Caesar had been one-tenth the man that Cincinnatus was. A great book about Julius Caesar is Caesar: A Biography by Christian Meier. The following quote about Julius Caesar comes from page 23 of Executive Qualities written by Joseph M. Fox. "The mind of Caesar. It is the reverse of most men's. It rejoices in committing itself. To us arrive each day a score of challenges; we must say yes or no to decisions that will set off chains of consequences. Some of us deliberate; some of us refuse the decision, which is itself a decision; some of us leap gradually into the decision, setting our jaws and closing our minds, which is sort of a decision of despair. Caesar embraces decision. It is as though he felt his mind to be operating only when interlocking itself with significant consequences." Caesar's Doctor The following excerpt is from pages 400 and 401 of The Portable Machiavelli edited and translated by Peter Bondanella and Mark Musa. The excerpt is from The Discourses by Niccolo Machiavelli. "For example, when Minutius, the consul, and his army were beseiged by the Aequi, Rome was so filled with the fear that the army might be lost that they decided to appoint a dictator - the last resource in any difficult situation. They selected Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus who at that time was on a small farm that he worked with his own hands. The event is celebrated by Livy with these golden words: "This should be heeded by all who disparage every human thing in comparison to riches and who have no use for honor or skill unless wealth flows in abundance." Cincinnatus was plowing his little farm, which was not longer than four jugers, when the legates of the senate arrived from Rome to advise him of his election to the dictatorship and to show him in what danger the Roman republic found itself. He put on his toga and went to Rome, where he gathered together an army and went off to free Minutius; after defeating and despoiling the enemy and freeing the consul, he forbade the besieged army to take part in the pillaging, saying these words to them: "I do not want you to take part in the pillaging of those by whom you were almost despoiled." He took the consulate away from Minutius and made him a legate, saying to him: "You will remain in this rank until you learn to know how to be consul." And he made Lucius Tarquinius his master of horse, who fought on foot because of his poverty. And so it is evident that poverty was honored in Rome, and that for a good and valiant man like Cincinnatus four jugers of land were enough to support him." MY COMMENTS I have read elsewhere that Cincinnatus gave up power and went back to his farm when he believed his leadership was no longer necessary. He cared more about the Republic than about great power for himself. He cared more about the Republic than about fame and glory. Julius Caesar cared more about his fame and his glory than about the Republic. Julius Caesar cared more about having great power for himself than about the best interests of the Republic. We need leaders who combine the type of mind Caesar had with the type of love that Cincinnatus had for the Republic. We need leaders who are more devoted to the Republic than they are for their own fame and glory. We need leaders who are willing to take risks and provide leadership. We need leaders who are willing to make significant decisions when little is known. Sincerely, Kenneth Scot Stremsky Republican candidate for President of the United States of America in 2004