Stan Young

Biography

Stan was born in Tulsa in 1959. He grew up in Senate District 35 and has been a lifelong Oklahoman. A product of Tulsa Public Schools, he attended Kendall Elementary, Wilson Junior High and is a member of the Will Rogers High School Class of 1977. Stan enlisted in the U.S. Navy in January 1978 and became a Hospital Corpsman eventually serving aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Robison. He returned home to Tulsa after his first enlistment and continued his Navy career as a reservist in Broken Arrow while attending Tulsa Junior College and the University of Oklahoma College of Nursing. Stan applied for and received a direct commission in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps upon earning his BSN degree in 1987. He returned to active duty serving at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, CA. Stan was selected for the Navy Nurse Corps Anesthesia Program in 1990 and graduated from the George Washington University in 1992. After tours of duty as a staff anesthetist at Naval Hospital Great Lakes, IL and Naval Hospital Lemoore, CA, Stan left active duty in late 1998 and finished his naval career as a reservist in Broken Arrow. He was transferred to the Retired Reserve in early 2000. Since his return to his beloved home state, Stan has worked in the front line of direct health care delivery as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist providing anesthesia services to multiple rural communities including McAlester, Shawnee, Ardmore and Vinita amongst others. He returned to Tulsa in late 2005 and has been a resident of his original home Senate District since late 2011. Stan has been active in state and local party politics since 2004 and has volunteered hundreds of hours for Democratic candidates seeking public office over the last decade. Most recently he has served as Vice-President of the Veterans Committee of the Oklahoma Democratic Party and earned the Veteran of the Year award for 2016. Stan is currently a member of Tulsa’s Hope Unitarian Church.

Platform Issues

Health Care

In a twenty-plus year civilian career in front line health care delivery serving both rural and urban Oklahoma, I have seen the level of overall health of our citizens decline significantly. Our state has become known for being at or near the top of the national lists in the rates of obesity, tobacco use, teen pregnancy and our lifespan expectancy is dropping. Much of this is related to limited or poor access to basic health care and health maintenance, a problem which must be addressed. I am proud to have been a circulator of the State Question 802 petition last year and I am an adamant proponent of the full Medicaid expansion. I also strongly support preserving the provisions delineated in the Affordable Care Act intended to reign in insurance industry abuses. As a consumer, I know what it is like to be relegated to limited insurance selection availability. I learned that it is imperative to have competition in the market place to help contain cost of individual policies. Having been a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, I am a strong advocate for expanding the role of Advanced Practice Nursing professionals and all other mid-level professional practitioners in under-served neighborhoods and communities throughout our district and state. I support the advancement of medical marijuana research and its access to appropriate patient populations. It is my intention to address and improve policies regarding health conditions which are not curable and are predicted to worsen in the coming years, specifically Alzheimer's disease.

Public Education

Without the wherewithal, any concept of liberty is purely academic. Ensuring future prosperity of all citizens is a moral imperative that begins with a committed investment in primary and secondary education. I seek sustained improvement of public education beginning with funding to a level adequate to sustain all 512 Oklahoma school districts. Charter schools as with private schools are available alternatives to public institutions, however, I am opposed to subsidizing private education with taxpayer funds. I will seek to reverse the systematic defunding of public education and move it back toward its 2008 levels. It will be my goal to increase compensation for public school teachers to a level competitive with other states in our region and commensurate with level of advanced education. Significant cost reduction must be demonstrated by the proponents of district consolidation to be viable for my consideration.

Veteran Affairs

As a U.S. Navy Veteran, my quest to ensure that all who served receive all benefits to which they are entitled is not negotiable. I intend to seek all possible avenues to incentivize the acceptance by all for-profit health care providers and facilities of Tri-Care for all veterans and military retirees. I am stalwartly opposed to any effort to privatize the Veterans Administration and the Oklahoma Department of Veteran Affairs. My chief priority will be to address the suicide rate among Oklahoma's veteran community.

Tax Policy

I firmly believe that there is no such thing as a ""fiscal conservative"" or a ""fiscal liberal."" There are only those who are fiscally responsible and those who are not. It has been clearly demonstrated over the past decade that cutting taxes does NOT increase revenue. Our state cannot withstand repeated annual revenue failures and budget shortfalls that adversely impact core services. Failure to pay the state’s bills constitutes dereliction of duty of those elected to represent and lead. In addition to restoring the Gross Production Tax to its pre-cut level of seven percent, I will commit to seeking a long-term strategy to expand the state’s revenue base and lower the overall rate.

Criminal Justice Reform

As of June 2018, Oklahoma incarcerates more of its citizens per capita than any other jurisdiction ON THE PLANET! This is unacceptable. It is my intent to disincentivize the use of private prisons. I will advocate for the decriminalization of low level narcotic offenses and place them under the purview of community mental health. Given that strictly from a legal cost perspective, death penalty cases cost four times more than non-death penalty cases, I will also work to end the death penalty in Oklahoma.

Environment & Energy

I support all available avenues to move Oklahoma away from its dependency on fossil fuels. I also support tax credits for solar and wind alternatives. I oppose all measures, executive and legislative, to override municipal ordinances banning drilling operations within incorporated limits. I support a total ban on injection well disposal of out-of-state waste water.