Education leads to better jobs, said Rick Currie, who is running against incumbent Rep. Kathy Sims for House seat B in the 4th Legislative District.

"Jobs are very important to me, no question, but education leads to better jobs," Currie said. "My opponent voted against K-12 funding, and voted against secondary education funding.

"But the one key thing that I cannot understand is why she voted against technical education funding. Technical education funding is extremely important to Kootenai County. It is so important."

The former county commissioner, 66, was born in the parking lot of the Iron Horse Bar and Grill Currie graduated from Coeur d'Alene High School and attended North Idaho Junior College in the class of 1971.

He has been active in the Republican Party as an elected Precinct Committeeman. He also served as chairman of Panhandle Area Council Board of Directors. He has served on the boards of Jobs Plus, Lake City Center, the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce, the North Idaho Building Contractors Association and the Jaycees.

Currie is married with five children and three grandchildren. He is currently employed as the administrative director of the Lake City Center.

Here are Currie's views on the four issues we asked all of the state legislative candidates to address:

Add the words

"First off, I don't think anybody should be discriminated against, but I don't feel that you have to say you're gay to somebody, either. I don't think we need to press that issue. Do I want to come and say no? No, I don't. The only reason I don't is because I wasn't there during the session. What they bring back may be so darn watered down, who knows, but I wouldn't give you a flat no on anything. I do feel that everybody needs to be treated equal, but I don't think we need to state it for every group out there."

Medicaid expansion

"That is going to be a leadership question. That is why I didn't get any traction is because leadership didn't want to deal with it. If leadership changes their minds, I will take a look at it. Obviously I have some experience on the county level and we can use some help - the local taxpayers can use some help. But there is a cost involved and it's going to cost us some way. It's just where do we find the best way to pay for it if it comes to vote next year? I am going to look at it from the financial standpoint and determine what is best for the citizens of Idaho and especially the residents of District Four. If we make some changes I would hope that it would help the taxpayers of Kootenai County, but I would have to see the bills first before coming to any conclusions."

Minimum wage

"A lot of that depends on how much they would want to increase it. Any significant increase in the minimum wage will put some people out of work. Is it more important to keep people working or do we shut some businesses down because they can't afford to pay their employees? In the position I am in right now, we don't pay a whole lot, but we pay above the minimum wage. First thing I would look at is what kind of an increase they are asking for and what the ramifications of implementing that would be. It could cost the people of Idaho more than what an increase could do for wages."

Economic development

"They have been trying to get that tax credit incentive through for a long time and they finally got it through this session. My opponent voted against that, but I would have voted for it. We need to be competitive with other states. We need to first look at how well that works for us, and the jury is still out on that. But I am open to creating new tools for economic development. We need better tools to attract new businesses, but also like those caveats that require decent wages and health benefits for a business to qualify for them. We need employers who improve our standard of living here."