Kent Solberg

Kent Solberg

Solberg, Kent (Green)

Phone: (520) 245-0454

Email: kentstools@aol.com

Website: www.Kent4House.org

331 E. Blacklidge Dr., Tucson, AZ 85705
(Mail: PO Box 77300, Tucson, AZ 85705)

Age: 63 (7/10/47, Boston, MA).

Arizona since: 1972.

Occupation: Co-owner and operator, Kent’s Tools & Industrial Supplies, since 1978; social worker, B’nai Birth, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Family Counseling Agency, Pima County Juvenile Justice Collaboration, 1968-78.

Marital: Married (Salle Hunter, co-owner Kent’s Tools & Industrial Supplies).

Religious preference: Jewish.

Education: M.S.W, social work, ASU, 1975; B.A., business administration, Boston University, 1970.

Political experience: Green Party member since 2006 (Pima County co-chair and state treasurer, 2010); Green Party candidate, state Legislature, 2008; actively found against the passage of the Regional Transportation Authority; Evan Mecham Recall Committee, 1987.

Memberships have included: Better Business Bureau, Tucson Chamber of Commerce, NASB, NARAL.

Interests: Reading, watching sports, hiking, fishing, golf, dogs and cats, crossword puzzles.

Issues:

Political influence: My wife of 35 years, Salle Hunter, who has taught me to always stand up for my convictions and to know that positive change doesn’t come to those who sit quietly and idly by. Also, my uncle, Saul Baker, Ohio state Senator in 1960, who taught me not to be afraid to speak in public and that a soap box or a milk crate is as good a podium as any that you can have.

Budget recommendations: Revoke tax breaks to corporations over the last six years and reassess the income tax structure in our state. Decriminalize the use of drugs. Make drug addiction a medical issue and use the money spent on apprehension, conviction and incarceration to not only fund treatment programs, but the huge savings would fund public safety, education, health and human services. Reassess the use and lease structures of state trust lands. These fees are supposed to be helping to fund our public education system. I believe that these trust revenues can be increased without jeopardizing our continued safeguarding of open spaces and environmental balance.

Other concerns: Education, water and prison reform.

Fiscal philosophy: I am fiscally conservative. I believe that balanced budgets on local, state and national levels are an imperative. I believe that increasing regressive taxes like sales tax put the burden of raising government funds on the wrong people. I believe that we need to revamp the state income tax and corporate tax structure. Background & experience: My greatest strengths come from my numerous and varied life experiences. I grew up in a mom-and-pop hardware business and for the last 32 years my wife, our close friend and I have owned and operated Kent’s Tools. We pride ourselves in service to our customers, to the selling of American made quality products, to truth and honesty in our business relationships and to our commitment to our community. I will take all these values with me when elected to the Legislature. My social work and community activist experience has given me the ability to understand and communicate with people of all walks of life and political points of view. This experience will not only help me represent the wide range of people in my district, but will help me as a third party legislator bridge the gap between the two major parties and between the so-called left and right.

Proposition 100 sales tax: I voted for the 1 percent sales tax increase. I didn’t want to vote for the increase, but the Legislature put us between a rock and a hard place. Public education is too important to let it go unfunded just because the Legislature didn’t have the courage to find other funding sources. One of my jobs as a legislator when I am elected will be to make sure that the money goes to education and to make sure that it is only a three year temporary sales tax increase.

Pro-life/pro-choice: A woman’s right to choose cannot be abrogated by special interest groups, political parties or religious organizations. The key word is “choice,” and those who are against abortion also have the “choice” not to have one.

One last thing: One of the basic things that voters need to know about me is that “what you see and hear is what you get.” I am a committed candidate who wants to bring needed change to the Legislature. If you believe that there needs to be a change, that we need to get rid of the same old government that has brought us to where we sit now and if you believe that a Green Party candidate can help us achieve these goals, then vote for me.

Campaign Finance: public.