Stop wasteful spending & Reduce Tax Burden
Mississippians are some of the hardest working people you’ll ever meet. They work hard for the money they earn, and they don’t bleed and sweat to make a living just to watch Jackson politicians spend their hard-earned money on wasteful pet projects or flushed down the drain to out-of-control, mismanaged, and non-transparent state agencies. Jansen believes that we need to restore the power back to the people and return to responsible fiscal governance.
As your State Representative, Jansen will fight to make sure our tax dollars aren’t lost in the swamps of Jackson. He will support zero-based budgeting, requiring state agencies to provide full transparency and justification for their funding, and he will fight to block any and all legislation that gives special interest groups millions of dollars in kickbacks without the consent of the taxpayers.
Mississippians have to live within their means, and so should their government. Jansen believes that Mississippians pay enough taxes, and he will fight to let you keep more of what you earn while keeping the state government out of your pocketbooks. Jansen will oppose any tax increase or the creation of any new taxes and will fight to reduce the tax burden on small business owners and Mississippi consumers.
fight for a prosperous economic future
Jansen is an avid supporter of America’s free-market economy. He believes economic freedom goes hand-in-hand with individual freedom. Our ability to choose our career, build a business, or buy products should be free from government coercion, unreasonable regulation, and excessive taxation. Jansen believes that the best way to grow the economy and create new jobs is by reducing taxes and overly burdensome regulations, paving the way for innovation to provide Mississippians with better products and services as well as new industries and good paying jobs. Jansen will fight to keep the government off the backs of small business owners and job creators.
Mississippi is unique. We have the best community college system in America with one of the nation’s finest – Pearl River Community College – situated right in the center of District 106. Jansen believes that our community college system is Mississippi’s “secret weapon” and its key to a prosperous economic future. To grow Mississippi’s economy, Jansen believes we should harness this secret weapon by investing in our community colleges in new and innovative ways.
Jansen will introduce legislation that will foster more partnerships between high schools and community colleges throughout the state, so that students in their last two years of high school can receive vocational training that will make them trained and ready to enter Mississippi’s workforce upon graduation. Moreover, Jansen will work to provide our community colleges with the resources they need to offer the latest vocational training programs that will attract industries looking to find a home. What better place to open a manufacturing plant than in the same town as a community college fully equipped and capable of training your entire workforce?
fight public corruption
Recent newspaper headlines across Mississippi are full of what has become the norm: rampant public corruption. Unsurprisingly, Mississippi has consistently been ranked among one of the most corrupt states in the union. This must end.
Jansen believes that fighting public corruption is essential to preserving a working democracy that people can have confidence in. As your State Representative, Jansen will work to increase penalties for public officials who betray the trust of the good people of Mississippi. He will fight for forward-thinking reforms across all facets of state government that will make local and state governments more transparent and accountable, including introducing legislation on his first day that will completely overhaul Mississippi’s open records and open meetings acts – giving you, the people, more insight into what your government is doing.
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Secret back room deals aren't working for Mississippi. They aren't working in Jackson and they aren't working at the country courthouses or the city halls. There is no reason that any legislator should ever cast anything but a "Yes" vote for legislation that makes state and local governments more accountable to the people. Voting otherwise is caving to cronies, special interests, and career politicians focused more on secret deals and less on a government that works for the people.
fight for term limits
We must encourage innovation and ingenuity to improve the condition of our great state. The Mississippi Legislature’s seniority-based power structure places too much influence in the hands of a few, entrenched career politicians. Under this approach, our legislators become complacent while sitting on their hands waiting 10 to 20 years before they can get anything accomplished. Their focus becomes not on what they can do to move Mississippi forward, but instead on how to build seniority - then they’ll worry about actually doing something. This is not how our democratic institutions were designed to work.
Jansen wholeheartedly believes in the idea of the citizen legislator – that’s why he will fight to make sure that Mississippi joins the 15 other states in the nation, including Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida, that limits the terms that any one person can serve in the state legislature. Legislative term limits will push career legislators out of power and shift the focus away from building seniority and towards building a better Mississippi.
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In addition to fighting to term limit our own state legislators, Jansen will fight to bring term limits to the United States Congress by supporting a convention of the states resolution in the Mississippi House aimed at amending the U.S. Constitution to implement term limits for members of Congress.
fight for our children's future - education
Thomas Jefferson once said, “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” When it comes to education, Mississippi has consistently ranked last at everything from high school graduation rates to teacher pay and classroom investment. Our children’s future – and our state’s future – depends on the quality of the education that they receive. Good, well-funded, high-performing schools will attract new industry and more jobs to our community.
To change the direction of public education in Mississippi, drastic reforms will have to be made – starting at the top. In the state with some of the lowest teacher salaries in the country, Mississippi’s state superintendent of public education is the highest paid in the country, collecting a state salary of $300,000 per year. Even more rattling, in 2018 the Mississippi Department of Education cancelled a $5.5 million software contract but only after nearly $1 million of taxpayer money had already been spent, effectively sending $1 million that could have been invested in our schools straight down the drain. This type of wasteful spending at the top hurts our children and takes much needed funding out of our classrooms.
Jansen will fight to ensure that the schools of District 106 and across Mississippi are properly funded and our children are afforded the education that they deserve. He will work to make sure that Mississippi’s teachers are paid what they deserve by fighting to increase teacher pay to at least the regional average. To do this, he believes we must start by tackling the wasteful spending at the Department of Education and throughout state government. He will also introduce legislation that will cap the salaries of administrators in Jackson so that our money flows into the classrooms and not the pockets of special interests and cronies.
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Additionally, our students and teachers are stressed to the max by overburdensome state testing requirements. As State Representative, Jansen will fight to reduce mandatory state tests. Education should be individualized, and teachers should be able to do their jobs without micromanagement from cronies and politicians in Jackson and Washington, D.C..
stand firm on the second amendment
Jansen is a firm believer that the Second Amendment is one of our most important freedoms, and he understands the importance of protecting our constitutional right to bear arms. The Founders saw the crucial importance of giving citizens the right to protect themselves, and the government must protect that right. Mississippians recognizes that gun violence is a problem plaguing our society. Jansen will work hand-in-hand with members of both parties in the Mississippi Legislature to reform our mental health system and evaluate violence in our culture. He is 100% committed to enacting policies that prevent these senseless tragedies, while protecting the Second Amendment.
life & Family
Jansen believes the family, not the government, is the most important unit in American society. Families are how we pass down our values to the next generation, and if the family breaks down, society breaks down. That’s why he will be an advocate for pro-family policies like the expanding the adoption tax credit, expanding insurance coverage to include infertility treatments, job training, adult education, foster care reform, and changes in welfare policies that will encourage families to stay together.
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Jansen has seen firsthand the perils and problems that plague Mississippi's foster care system. The system is broken, and children and families are suffering because of it. Jansen will work to introduce reforms that will incentivize fostering and make it easier for good and willing adults to become foster care certified.
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Jansen is unapologetically pro-life and believes no human right is more fundamental and more sacred than the right to life, and every human being is entitled to the protection of our laws. He will always stand and fight for the unborn.
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ASK JANSEN
This list of issues is not exhaustive. If you have any questions about any of the issues on this list - or any issues not listed - feel free to call or text Jansen on his personal cell at (601) 522-3337 or send an email to owenformississippi@gmail.com.