News photo by Kayla Wikaryasz On Tuesday, gubernatorial candidate Karla Wagner, R-Kent County, is seen standing in front of the Alpena County Library.

ALPENA — Gubernatorial candidate Karla Wagner, R-Kent County, said she is running for the governor’s seat in Michigan because she doesn’t think legislators in Lansing understand the real challenges that Michigan residents are facing.

Wagner explained that six years ago she started researching the potential impact property taxes have on state and local economies. Through her research, she began the AxMITax petition which requests that the Michigan constitution be amended to eliminate property taxes.

She hoped to get enough support to get AxMITax on a ballot, but it never came to fruition.

Wagner said as governor, eliminating property taxes would be her focus. She added that doing so will shrink state government, make housing more affordable, and ensure that small businesses have a chance to thrive.

She also said that if she is elected as governor of Michigan, she will support farmers and return Michigan to a “Sportsman’s Paradise.”

SHRINK GOVERNMENT

To shrink the government, Wagner said that the state needs to “start privatizing things, to get it off the state’s books.”

She suggested more control needs to be given to municipalities.

“Try to go to Lansing and talk to anybody. It’s impossible,” Wagner said. “So why are they making the most decisions for us? I just feel like they’re too far away.”

She added that to give municipalities more control, residents of townships and counties need to “make sure that we’re electing the right people that will do the best for everyone, not pick and choose.”

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Wagner suggested that communities don’t need more affordable housing but rather state legislatures need to make current housing more affordable.

“We’re aborting people, babies now. We’re deporting illegals, and we’re losing our senior citizens and our young people because they can’t afford to live here in Michigan,” she said. “So we don’t need more housing. We need to make all housing affordable.”

“We can’t just build new affordable housing, because what about me?” she added. “My house will be unaffordable. My mom’s house will still be unaffordable. It’s fine to build new affordable housing for other people. But what about the people that already own a home”

SMALL BUSINESSES

To support small businesses, Wagner said that eliminating property taxes will help but also eliminating the minimum wage increase.

“We need to eliminate that, raise the wage thing,” she said.

She explained that if a “dishwasher” employee in a restaurant is raised to $15, then all other employees have to have a wage increase, as well.

It’s not just paying him $15 an hour. I have to raise the wage of everyone in his upline then,” she said. “How do I pay a cook only $18 when I’m paying the dishwasher $15?”

She explained that this wage increase is a reason why restaurants have raised prices on meals.

“So the cost of my burger just went from $12 to $16 to factor in all of the wage increases,” she said. “Now, everybody goes, ‘Well, don’t go to Karla’s’ for a burger at $16.’ So I lose my customers.”

FARMING

Wagner explained that the minimum wage increase also hurt farmers as they are now required to pay farm hands $15 an hour. She noted green houses and “muck farmers” in her county that grow celery and onions.

She added that she does not believe that those farmhands should be paid a “living wage” as those farmers mostly hire Junior High and Highschool students.

“They can’t afford to pay them $15 an hour … my grandkid, he’s working in a greenhouse. He doesn’t need $15 an hour. He still lives at home. He doesn’t need to make a living wage.”

She also stated that eliminating property taxes will make it easier for farmers to buy and sell farmland and that clearing forested areas will open up more land for farming.

She said that trees cleared can be replanted elsewhere

“We’re covered with trees, but those trees have to be managed because of course, in their natural state, trees will grow anywhere … There’s really good agricultural land under some of those forests.”

“You have to replant the trees,” she added.

CONSERVATION

To protect Michigan’s natural resources, Wagner said that she believes that the state needs to protect Michigan’s Great Lakes from invasive species and implement an “antler point program” to grow that buck population in the state.

She suggested a program that would require hunters to purchase a doe permit before purchasing a buck permit and requirements that only allow hunters to take bucks with a certain number of points on their antlers.

“That way you’re killing the doe which produced the babies … and then you’re letting the bucks grow a little bit bigger so that people will come back here for those trophy deer,” she added.

She explained that Mcihgian’s natural resources and outdoor sports draw people to the state who contribute to local economies.

“When those people come back here, they’re buying groceries, they’re staying in our hotels, they’re buying gas,” she added. “They’re spending money at the sports stores, they’re buying licenses. That’s revenue right now that we’re getting very little of.”

She said if elected as governor, she would not be in favor of raising the price on hunting or fishing licenses.

“If you want to sell more of something, you don’t raise the price,” she said.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.