Less Spending and Waste
During recessionary times, the first thing we need to consider is to be smarter with our spending. Our Wisconsin lawmakers need to clearly identify where the problem areas are in the budget and work with the constituents to find solutions. The money spent at the State level is all of our tax money and we must be stewards of those funds – personal, corporate and public.

According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, this current budget is $3.6 billion more than the 2007-2009 budget, a 6.2 percent increase in spending. Wisconsin did receive Federal funds of $3.5 billion, but unfortunately $2.2 billion was used to directly balance the state the budget. We need State and Federal fiscal responsibility to get us out of the hole we have gotten ourselves in.

The State we love is in dept and is unsustainable. A vote for me is a vote to stop runaway government from destroying our future of the 57th District.

View Chris' Signed Taxpayer Protection Pledge

Job Creation
The Fox Cities have lost more than 13,600 manufacturing jobs since 2000. Wisconsin now has more government jobs than manufacturing jobs. If we can find ways to deregulate, it will allow small businesses to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit.

The Wisconsin Technology Network, Wisconsin Innovation Network and the New North are examples of organizations that work at creating new industries. We must align our educational and business structure to support new industries and these organizations to grow our region.

Health Care
The new healthcare law (commonly known as Obamacare) only addresses access to heathcare insurance and tax payer reform, not healthcare delivery. Clearly, this is a problem if we want to reform the heathcare system and get a handle on costs.

Personal accountability through changes in behavior is the key to controlling healthcare costs. According to the Wellness Council of America (WELCOA), seventy percent of the healthcare costs are a result of people make poor lifestyle choices (lack of exercise, poor diet and smoking). Healthy behaviors can also yield the results businesses need: Return on Investment. According to WELCOA, an investment of $150 per employee will yield between a $3:1 to $16:1 return.

Well City-Fox Cities is part of the solution to driving down healthcare costs. To learn more about this organization I founded with two talented peers in my industry, visit www.wellcityfoxcities.com.


Well City Collaborative
In fall 2009, Chris Hanson of Hanson Benefits, Barbara Van Gorp of McClone Insurance Group and Pamela Utpadel of Universal Insurance Advisors, decided to join forces to enroll 20 percent of the Fox Cities employed workforce (32,442 people) in WELCOA’s Well Workplace program. They met this goal in June 2010.

WELCOA provides the nationally recognized structured set of ‘7 Benchmarks’ to achieve the high standards and designation of a Well Workplace. The process requires employees to take a biometric screening and a written assessment of their lifestyle choices. They also participate in wellness education and interventions at their workplace to improve their ‘health assessment score.’ After adhering to a stringent, ongoing process of creating a wellness culture, the employer and its employees become accredited as a Well Workplace. This achievement often leads to national recognition.

Hanson, Van Gorp and Utpadel believe behavior change is the key to controlling healthcare costs. According to the Wellness Council of America, seventy percent of the healthcare costs are a result of people make poor lifestyle choices (lack of exercise, poor diet and smoking).“It takes twenty one days to change a behavior. People spend so much time at work, so really good behaviors start there,” states Utpadel.

Healthy behaviors can also yield the results businesses need: Return on Investment. According to WELCOA, an investment of $150 per employee will yield between a $3:1 to $16:1 return. “Besides impacting health insurance premiums, worksite wellness has an impact on employee retention and recruiting, absenteeism, presenteeism, workers compensation, disability and overall employee morale,” states Van Gorp.

The three women believe bringing a fresh concept like Well City - Fox Cites to businesses in the community will help them look forward to something positive in return for good behaviors and accountability.

“We are three ordinary women with three extraordinary destinies. We are not self promoting and don’t get paid to do this. We just want to affect positive change,” states Hanson.

Education
The greatest costs in education are labor and benefits. To facilitate positive change for our educators and children, there needs to be productive dialogue with the Unions, Schools Board Administrators and Government. Lack of revenue in our educational system is impacting our children with increased class sizes and programmatic cuts. Appleton families are very concerned with the future quality of our educational system.

I will charge area leaders to make bold changes. Rather than cutting programs, there needs to be open discussion with teachers and Unions regarding the enormous costs of benefits to taxpayers.

- Job Creation

- Job Retention

- Less Government Spending

- Lower Taxes

- Health Care

- Education