Following the State of the State, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey told WKHM that the Governor, “has fallen prey to the old adage ‘just because we can, doesn’t mean we should’.”
So, what is it that we as a state can do, but shouldn’t? Senator Shirkey wants to avoid doing things for free. Particularly, when it comes to education. “We all learned that lesson when we were 13 or 14 years old, and she’s in this notion of free. If we just give people stuff free, it’ll fix problems. Actually, in the area of education in particular, free can actually cheapen things to the point where they’re unaffordable.” Senator Shirkey understands that it’ll require some communication, “I’ve got to help her navigate that pathway a little bit.”
Shirkey agrees with the Governor regarding solving road and water issues. He wants to start with what’s happening now, and get aligned before jumping to action. “It’s going to require a lot of courage and frankly, sacrifice, on everybody’s part. The first thing we’ve got to do is re-prioritize our current spending and squeeze every nickel we can out, and then take it from there. On water, environmental justice, on PFAS, we have to focus on increasing our wisdom. We have a lot of data, lots of knowledge but we really don’t understand what the implications are. If we act too quickly, we’ll spend too much money, and won’t solve the right problems. We could actually exacerbate those problems.”
