Andrew Crocker, with Ozarks Technical Community College, interviews Kaitlyn Zach and Jerry Angelo who are running for the Missouri House District 133 seat.
Katelyn Zach
Crocker: Katelyn Zach, thank you very much for joining us.
Zach: Of course.
Crocker: Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office. You have one minute.
Zach: So I'm Katelyn Zach, I'm running in House District 133, which is West Central Springfield. I decided to run because, as a legislative assistant up in Jefferson City last year, I felt like my current representative and a lot of representatives up there were just playing political games. And it got to the point where I felt like my life, my friends' lives, my neighbors' lives, it's not a game to be won. So I put my name in the running. I'm not originally from Springfield. I'm from Topeka, Kansas. I came here for school eight years ago at Drury University, where I got my political science degree, and I've just kind of been working in the nonprofit space and on campaigns ever since. I worked on Amy Blansit's campaign in this district against my current representative four years ago and then went to work for Crystal Quade's gubernatorial race. And now we're here.
Crocker: So what role should citizen led initiative petitions play in Missouri's policymaking process? And what, if any, reforms would you support regarding how voter approved measures can be changed or overturned by the legislature?
Zach: Well, I think the citizen led initiative petitions play a key role in holding our electorate accountable. Sure, we are a democracy where we do elect representatives to represent us, but there is still a time when they need to be held accountable. And I think citizen led initiative petitions are the perfect thing for that. I don't think there needs to be any reform. I think where we have it right now is great.
Crocker: What is your position on proposals to reduce or eliminate Missouri's state income tax, and how would you address the potential impact on state revenue, services and other sources of taxation?
Zach: Well, being originally from Kansas, I was 11 years old when Kansas decided to eliminate the income tax. And when an 11-year-old knows what's going on in the state level because it's so bad, something is wrong. I went from a class size of 20 kids to 40 students just in that year. And so I know how, how bad it is, and I am very against eliminating the state income tax. I'm always open for discussion about what this would look like. This past attempt at eliminating the income tax, it felt like we were in flight and still building the plane. There was no real plan. If a plan could be brought forward of how we would regenerate that general revenue, I'd be open to that discussion. Increasing sales tax is not the way that I think we should do that. That leaves a lot of people behind, and that targets a lot of minority communities.
Crocker: What do you believe the results of the August election indicate about the priorities or concerns of Missouri voters? And how would those results influence your approach if elected?
Zach: I think it just shows that people are tired of what's going on. You know, there were a lot of primaries not on the side that I'm on, and yet we had a fairly large turnout for our side as well in the primaries. I think people are tired of the political games. I think this is also an affordability issue. Things are becoming increasingly more unaffordable. Gas prices have gone up. Housing costs continue to increase. And so that's something that I want to address in Jefferson City is making sure that we have affordable housing, affordable health care, groceries cost a decent and fair amount and that people aren't going into debt for medical bills or anything like that.
Crocker: Missouri's attorney general and secretary of state both pushed back against a recent Missouri Supreme Court ruling on the map that was approved by legislators during a special session last year and took it to the U.S. Supreme Court. Do you feel Missouri officials should always respect Missouri Supreme Court rulings? Why or why not?
Zach: Yeah, that is the, the law of our state. They're the highest court of our state. When they give a ruling, I think we need to sit and take that ruling and, you know, kind of actions — or consequences of our actions. And I think that's, we have to, they need to sit with it.
Crocker: Rural hospitals and health care access remain an ongoing concern across much of Missouri. What is one specific state level action you would support to address rural health care access or hospital closures?
Zach: I'm going to be completely honest. I'm going to go kind of a route that probably a lot of people don't talk about. And that's to make sure that we have people on Medicaid in rural communities. Right now, I really want to work on Medicaid reform. It's really hard for people to stay on Medicaid because there are a lot of documents that aren't necessarily easy to access. And when someone is kicked off Medicaid, it is very hard to get back on. And so I think that's something we need a little bit of Medicaid reform. And I think that will also, people will be more likely to use those rural hospitals, and we can bring more funding back when more people are using them.
Crocker: And to conclude, please tell us what your top priorities will be if you're elected. You have two minutes.
Zach: All right. Affordable housing. You know, as a living, as a young person living in Springfield, Missouri right now, I currently live in a 400 square foot studio apartment, and I pay $1,000. It's very unaffordable. I work with the unhoused population and making sure that we get them housed and into stable housing, and going off of HUD regulations. It's extremely hard to find a one-bedroom apartment for less than $725 that doesn't look like it's going to catch on fire as soon as you turn the oven on. So affordable housing is my biggest issue that I'm running on. Affordable health care, as I talked about with Medicaid reform is another one. I also really want to make sure that we, at the very minimum, fully fund our public schools. Right now, we're not fully, we're not fully funding our public schools. And I don't want our students and the future generations of Missouri to feel what has happened and not get the proper education that they need. I also fully support making sure that we have correct workers' rights, making sure that we have safe environments for people to work in, that they have livable wages and don't have to work three jobs to make ends meet. And then protecting reproductive freedoms because it's not just about abortion. I know not everyone likes abortion or supports it, but it's not just about that. It's about STD testing. It's about cancer prevention and treatment. It's all of that. And when we cut funding from one, we cut funding from all.
Jerry Angelo
Crocker: Jerry Angelo, thank you very much for joining us.
Angelo: Thank you for allowing me to come in here and talk with you folks today. Appreciate that.
Crocker: Let's begin by having you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to run for this office. You have one minute.
Angelo: Sure. My name is Gerald Angelo, and I live here in Springfield, Missouri. And I'm running for the Missouri House of Representatives District 133. And the reason why I'm running is because I want to see our families go from surviving to thriving. I want to see them strengthened and encouraged. And if we can be successful in doing that, I believe that rising tide is going to float all our boats. I, I just, I think that that's the key to, to all of our problems that we're having in our society. I also want to see us be successful in reducing crime and also intimate partner violence and domestic violence. And also, I want to see us make an improvement in our schools as well and give those kids an opportunity to be successful as well.
Crocker: What role should citizen led initiative petitions play in Missouri's policy making process? And what, if any, reforms would you support regarding how voter approved measures can be changed or overturned by the legislature?
Angelo: Sure. I think that the IP process is an important process that we have for citizens to, to voice their will. I think that the current amendment that's, that's up right now, Amendment 6, probably goes a little bit too far. And so we need to strike a balance between the legislature and also these initiative petitions, much like we have checks and balances in other areas of our government.
Crocker: What is your position on proposals to reduce or eliminate Missouri's state income tax? And how would you address the potential impact on state revenue, services and other sources of taxation?
Angelo: Sure. You know, any time that we have an opportunity to reduce taxes. I think that's a good thing for us to investigate those solutions, but those solutions also need to make sense. And so I would definitely support opportunities where we're reducing our taxes as, as long as it's not going to impact the bottom line of our citizens in Springfield and the state of Missouri, for that matter.
Crocker: What do you believe the results of the August election indicate about the priorities or concerns of Missouri voters, and how would those results influence your approach if elected?
Angelo: You know, what we saw back in the primaries was a clear rejection of that proposal, and I'm not surprised. I don't think that there was a clear plan there. It was kind of confusing and a lot of people weren't quite sure where they stood on that. And I think out of abundance of caution, they rejected that. So if we're going to go forward with reducing taxes, then we definitely need to put forth a clear plan on how we're going to do that. And again, like I mentioned earlier, we need to make sure that it's not going to impact the bottom line for people's affordability at their kitchen table. And so that definitely needs to be a part of that consideration.
Crocker: Missouri's attorney general and secretary of state both pushed back against a recent Missouri Supreme Court ruling on the map that was approved by legislators during a special session last year. And they took it to the Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court. Do you feel Missouri officials should always respect Missouri Supreme Court rulings? Why or why not?
Angelo: I think that we have a several processes that we can follow in situations like this. And, you know, it was it was voted on by the legislature, the government, the governor, you know, signed that, signed that bill. And, and, you know, there was an opposition to that. And so we've they've been able to work through that process. And I know it's a little confusing now because we have, we have state and we have federal processes. And so we just, we just need to work the plan there and, you know, obviously the outcome, we need to respect the will of the voter. And so the amendment that's coming up, Prop A, that's going to give our voters an opportunity whether to affirm the new maps or not.
Crocker: Rural hospitals and health care access remain an ongoing concern across much of Missouri. What is one specific state level action you would support to address rural health care access or hospital closures?
Angelo: Sure. I think everybody needs to have equal access to health care. That's, you know, that should be a given. We, you know, people shouldn't be denied that or have to go through an extra effort. So again, there's a process. Let's, let's figure out what that plan is, how to get people what it is that they need and work through their, their local legislator, their local officials to get them what they need. And then of course, that rolls up into the, into the state legislature where we can help them. So, you know, we have a bit of a mental health crisis right now that we're dealing with that I think is feeding into a lot of our social issues that we're having. And so we need to make sure that those are getting addressed appropriately, especially in people in our rural communities.
Crocker: And to conclude, please tell us what your top priorities will be if you are elected. You have two minutes.
Angelo: Sure. As I mentioned in the intro, I just want to see our families go from survive to thrive. I want to be a part of that solution where families are succeeding. Because when families succeed, that rising tide is going to float all boats. But when they fail, that's when government grows, and that's when we all pay the price. And so if I'm elected, I want to create a family commission that will have several areas of focus. And right now, there's an executive order that Governor Kehoe signed regarding families and some, and some mental health and wellness. And that executive order is going to expire at the end of the year. A family commission could handle issues like that as they come up within our, within the state of Missouri, where we could focus on, on, on crime or intimate partner violence or domestic violence or the health and wellness for our families and our children. And so I want to create a commission where we would appoint leaders from across the state that could tackle those issues and report back to the legislature and recommend any kind of legislation that might need to be proposed.
Crocker: Jerry Angelo, that concludes our interview. Thank you very much for taking time to talk to us.
Angelo: Great. Thanks for bringing me in. And may God bless America and God bless the state of Missouri.
Nico Burasco was the videographer for the candidate interviews.
