Candidate Profile-State Rep. Dist. 4 Position A-Janet Callen (D)

| September 19, 2012 1:56 AM

STATE REP. DIST. 4

POSITION A

JANET CALLEN (D)

Birth date: 1/19/19++

Profession: Retired Certified Public Accountant

Educational background: Whitman College; U of I; Lewis-Clark State, B.S Business Management

Public service (elected or appointed offices): Community service (service clubs, nonprofit boards, etc.): Soroptimist International, member and president; Coeur d'Alene Audubon, member and president.

How many years as a resident of your city: 20

Marital status: Not presently married

Family: Daughter and two sons, 4 grandchildren

Hobbies: Gardening; Bird-watching; Model railroad

1. Why are you running for office? Because the Idaho legislature needs new ideas and balanced thinking. I’m running to protect women’s rights and freedom; to create Idaho jobs by keeping Idaho tax revenues in our state; to restore ethics and transparency to our Idaho legislature and for the students and educators in our schools.

2. What do you see as the three biggest issues you’ll face?

a) Improving education

b) Creating jobs

c) Affordable health care for Idaho

3. If elected, what steps will you take to resolve these issues?

a) I would not replace teachers with computers. Neither would I outsource our education tax dollars. I would invest in our teachers and their understanding of student and community needs. Include teachers in curriculum decisions, try some pilot programs, expand in-school computer labs and increase school hours. A bottom-up approach could work better than a top-down, one-size fits all.

b) (see a) A teacher pays income taxes, property taxes, shops in local stores, visits the dentist. His or her salary is recycled into our community, creating or saving more jobs. Our state’s infrastructure is in need of repairs. Instead of giving $35.7 million in tax breaks to the wealthy, create jobs by turning our tax dollars into construction jobs.

c) Let’s take a practical approach to finding medical coverage that our residents can afford. Expand Medicare under the Affordable Care Act and our state will save $436 million over 6 years. An insurance exchange is just a place to shop for insurance and a federal exchange could lower insurance costs for everyone because of market competition.

4. What specific skills or experience qualify you for this job?

(a) Small business owner and employer.

(b) Understand tax law, financial statements and budgets