Fries wants to improve economy

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

If Matt Fries is elected to the Colorado State Senate, his first priority will be the state's economy.

"We've got to get our economic house in order," he said, and he believes the future lies with small businesses. "Eighty percent of people employed in Colorado are employed by small businesses," he pointed out.

Fries, 41, of Fort Collins is the Republican challenger facing Democratic incumbent Bob Bacon in this fall's race for Senate District 14.

Job growth, Fries argued, comes largely from entrepreneurial enterprises, and he would like the state to support those ventures. He favors eliminating taxes and fees for any start-up business for the first three years. He also wants to eliminate personal property taxes for the first $100,000 in business assets.

Fries said his personal experience helps him understand business issues. He founded Professional Document Management in 2001, and when he sold the business in 2007, it had 15 employees and was generating $1 million per year in sales. Fries said he would use this experience to help solve the state's budget problems.

"We're faced with a new level of challenges, and we need to get innovative and creative," he said.

Health care is another top priority for Fries. He does not want government-controlled health insurance but said that government subsidies for those who can't afford health insurance need to be considered. He would like to reward healthy habits with tax deductions, and he wants to reduce the number of mandates that Colorado imposes on insurance policies. "We now have 47 mandated coverages, while Kansas has 13," he said, adding that health insurance in Kansas is substantially cheaper.

Fries also thinks that health insurance should not be tied to a person's employment.

In the educational arena, Fries would like to expand options for high school students to begin to learn job skills, so they're more employable after they graduate. He noted that he was fortunate enough to learn skills at his parents' commercial printing business, and he would like others to have similar opportunities.

Also in the educational arena, Fries supports Amendment 59 on this fall's ballot. The measure, called Savings Account for Education or SAFE, is a "step in the right direction," Fries said, in solving the constitutional conflict between the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and Amendment 23. Amendment 59 would allow the state to keep revenues in excess of those allowed by TABOR and would also repeal the mandated education spending increases of Amendment 23.

Fries believes the current Democratic majority in the legislature has not made transportation a priority, but it would be a top issue for him. He believes the current system of funding highways through the fuel tax "isn't working anymore," and the state's separate regions need to set priorities and fund their own transportation projects. Additional highway funding, according to Fries, should come from increased sales taxes and tolls for new roads.

Fries supports the Northern Integrated Supply Project if it's done "the right way" with environmental protections.