Issues

Voting Rights & Democracy

One of the most important roles of a County Commissioner is overseeing the elections in Pennsylvania’s third-largest county of over 850,000 people. As an election lawyer and civil rights advocate, Neil Makhija is protecting our right to vote in Montgomery County and setting a national standard for voter rights.

Mental Health & Human Services

As a public interest lawyer, Neil represented Pennsylvania counties against Big Pharma for flooding our communities with opioids. As Commissioner, he will be investing in treatment and mental health services, including mobile medical units that can access areas of the county that lack primary care.

Preventing Gun Violence

Neil has received distinction by the gun violence prevention group Moms Demand Action as a “Gun Sense Candidate.” Neil will fight to reduce gun violence by making it harder for domestic abusers and violent criminals to get guns. At the local level, we can require secure storage of firearms to keep them out of the hands of children, provide safety locks, and work with community leaders to run gun buy back programs.

Reproductive Rights

Neil has been endorsed by #VoteProChoice and will fight to keep government out of women’s healthcare decisions. As the son of immigrants who provided reproductive healthcare to women in rural Pennsylvania for over 40 years, Neil understands the necessity and importance of ensuring all women have access to reproductive healthcare and that decisions are left to a woman and her physician — not politicians.

Education

Montgomery County is a great place to raise kids in world-class public schools and institutions of higher education. While school boards, not County Commissioners, fund and oversee our schools, as Commissioner, Neil will ensure the county provides services to schools including training and programs for anti-bullying, mental health, and other highly needed services.

Clean Energy & Climate Change

Montgomery County is already feeling the devastating impacts of climate change, including severe weather events and flooding. Neil will strive to make our county a national leader on addressing climate change through reducing carbon emissions, building resilient infrastructure, and preserving green space. He’ll start by requiring that Montgomery County purchase American-made electric vehicles for its own vehicle fleet.

Affordable Housing & Homelessness

Across the country, housing has never been more unaffordable. As Commissioner, Neil will work with townships and boroughs for community-driven solutions to build more housing so that young families can buy their first homes and seniors can retire and stay here in the community they love. Neil will work with townships and community based organizations like churches to safely house the over 500 people sleeping on the street each night in Montgomery County.

Parks, Trails, and Open Spaces

Neil is an avid runner and cyclist and can be found on weekends at the Perkiomen and Cynwyd trails, or cycling on the Schuylkill River. As Commissioner, Neil will work to preserve the parks, trails, and open spaces that are essential to our community. These spaces provide safe public spaces for our children and are crucial for our health.

Workers’ Rights & Labor

The labor movement is what gave us weekends, the 40-hour work week, and basic protections for workers that many of us now take for granted. Neil will always fight on behalf of working people and the labor movement. As a workers’ rights lawyer, Neil sued companies on behalf of workers who were underpaid and misclassified, including suing banks on behalf of minimum wage workers who were forced to work around the clock to meet basic pay.

Neil will institute policies to make sure that we are also prioritizing worker protections, benefits, and good wages. He will also appoint a labor liaison to communicate and collaborate with local labor leaders and to work alongside their counterparts from the District Attorney’s office and Attorney General’s office to work together to protect the rights of workers.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

As a leader of a national civil rights and civic engagement organization, Neil has devoted much of his life’s work to diversity, equity, and inclusion. He will ensure that County government enacts best practices to include every community when enacting policies, and make sure every community has a seat at the table — especially those groups that have been historically excluded from positions of power.

Neil will work to address racial inequity by advocating for equitable policies and practices in education, housing, healthcare, and other areas within his jurisdiction. This includes promoting diversity and inclusion within County government and partnering with community organizations to address systemic barriers to achieving racial justice.

Criminal Justice Reform

As County Commissioner, Neil will oversee funding for the civil and criminal justice system as well as the District Attorney’s office. He will continue to support pre-trial and diversionary programs that seek to treat issues like substance abuse disorder as public health problems instead of criminal issues. He will fight for a criminal legal system where we address inequities and everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. This will start by achieving greater transparency in data that will allow policymakers to assess disparities head on.

LGBTQ+ Rights

It is a travesty that conservatives continue to attack our LGBTQ+ residents and make them feel unwelcome. Neil will always support Montgomery County’s LGBTQ+ community and make the county a model for welcoming all people, including those who are trans and gender-nonconforming. Neil will create an LGBTQ+ Advisory Commission at the County level and ensure that we have representation from those who too often get left out of these discussions. Neil will also highlight and celebrate the work of The Welcome Project in Hatboro; he will draw attention to their work on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community and do what he can to further the construction of a second center in the county.

If you’d like to advise Neil on the issues, email policy@neilformontco.com.