For the Reporter

Phil Fortunato announced on Tuesday his candidacy for 31st District representative position 2 against Democrat Chris Hurst.

Fortunato, who lives in Auburn with his wife Suzanne, is an environmental consultant for clean water act compliance. He brings knowledge of environmental issues together with his past experience as state representative of the 47th District, where he served on the agriculture and ecology, transportation and local government committees.

One of his most notable achievements was to inform parents when their underage driver got a ticket. Since then more than 60,000 parents have received notices about their child’s driving saving countless teenage lives, according to Fortunato.

Fortunato has the support and endorsement of 31st District Sen. Pam Roach, R-Sumner.

“Phil will be a solid vote for our district,” she said.” “Phil Fortunato is very hard working. He reflects the values of the people in the 31st District and will stand up for open and responsible government. He will fight onerous tax increases and work to ensure that working families can make ends meet.”

Fortunato is passionate about funding our states transportation improvements without a tax increase and a constitutional amendment for the two-thirds vote to raise taxes.

“This is a critical year for our state,” Fortunato said. “So many important issues are hitting critical mass, and this district’s election could be the tipping point on who has the majority in the House of Representatives. Transportation is being held hostage by a committee chairman who is putting her personal opinions over people’s ability to get to work and feed their families.

“On top of that, House Democrats have consistently used their power to block a constitutional amendment to require a two-thirds majority in the Legislature to raise taxes in defiance of the will of the people,” Fortunato said. “People realize that raising taxes is too easy. It has become the Legislature’s go-to move and lets them get out of making hard choices and being creative and smart about how we fund things. It seems like any time we run into a problem with funding, we slap a tax increase band-aid on it, instead of taking a step back and looking at whether or not there could be a better way. The Democrats have been at the wheel for a long time and we have seen the result. So this election is about whether or not you are happy with how things have been run or not.”

To learn more about Fortunato, visit VoteFortunato.org.