Positions

Taxes | Open & Honest Government | Education
Affordable Housing | Local Option Sales Tax | City's Budget Problems
Moran Plant | Public Water Fluoridation

Taxes

I pledge to not support new resolutions or projects that will result in increased property taxes as I believe the residents of Burlington cannot handle more tax increases. The property tax reappraisal made things worse and now is not the time to take on additional burdens. Many residents I know, myself included, have had to tighten their personal budgets and I believe the city must do so as well. We have seen enough increases in Burlington. Furthermore, I will seek to reduce the budget by pushing for resolutions that will help find and eliminate waste and inefficiencies from the city government budget.

I will not spend time on projects that do not benefit all citizens. I will push for getting back to the basics, such as roads, police, fire and water treatment. I support reducing city regulations to help bring back business, jobs and affordable housing to Burlington.

Furthermore, I support a Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR), which would restrict the city's spending increases to inflation AND population increases (or decreases). Any increases beyond this would require a super-majority vote by Burlington citizens of 2/3 to 4/5 majority.

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Open and Honest Government

I will be more proactive, rather than reactive, in regards to city services. I will seek out the people's opinions on the issues and not try to hide it from the people. I will push for a more open and honest city government.

Some recent examples of problems I have seen with the integrity of our city government include the smoking ban for private clubs and the YMCA/Moran Plant proposal. First the city passed a smoking ban without the private clubs knowledge. Then, when the members came to complain (both smokers and non-smokers), the city council told them they would rethink the issue. Afterwards they met with the private club members and said they would allow an exemption for clubs that have a majority vote to allow smoking and don't have any non-member employees working there. Then, at the next city council they took that part out and went with the original resolution, thus lying to the private clubs. Whether you are for or against the smoking ban, this kind of behavior by the city is not right.

Then, shortly afterwards, the city council was about to hand over the Moran Plant to the YMCA for the $1/year deal without having public input, but the Let the People Decide group stepped in and fought for the question to be put on the ballot, despite many of the councilors being against the idea of putting the issue on the ballot.

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Education

I support more local control. I have heard over and over again that a lot of the problems with funding our schools in Burlington have to do with Act 60 as well as state control over our schools. We need to work to get the politicians out of the way, keep our property tax dollars here, and allow the parents, teachers and students to decide what's best for our schools.

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Affordable Housing

I support reducing the regulations and property taxes in order to make both rental units and home-ownership more affordable.

Excessive regulation, the recent reappraisal, and excessive property taxes have caused the high housing costs. The regulations make it too hard to build enough housing in Burlington. Regulations make the too few permitted units much more expensive, driving up costs. The Burlington Housing Authority staff themselves have been quoted as saying that they wouldn't own rental property in Burlington because the city makes it so hard for landlords.

I spent several years in a town very similar to Burlington, except it had less code enforcement, housing regulation and property taxes. The rents were the lowest I've ever seen. Landlords and tenants got along just fine as there was plenty of competition for tenants. I was able to rent a unit for $235/month, with all utilities included. Where there is more competition like this. Landlords often advertise "move-in specials," where rent is reduced for the first month or they will even pay for your moving expenses. I would like to see the same opportunities here in Burlington.

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Local Option Sales Tax

I believe that the Sales Tax will not solve the City’s financial problems. It just delays the making of tough choices that are needed for Burlington’s finances to be more sustainable.

Unless there are major reductions in spending now, the rate of growth in the budget will absorb all of the sales tax revenue within three years, and the City will again be looking for new revenue sources, which will mean further increasing the sales tax rate, property taxes or most likely, both.

I believe that by getting costs under control and enacting better performance measures we can avoid major reductions in the quality of city services.

The proposal also requires us to send 30% of whatever we collect plus administration fees directly to the state. I think we already send more than enough money to the state. Wouldn't we be better off keeping the money here in Burlington by allowing people to spend more on goods and services, which benefits our local community?

Also, the sales tax will be applied to fuel and cable as well as products that many of us buy locally. I don't think it really matters whether you call it a property tax, sales tax or income tax, it's still just another tax. We are taxed enough and we already send more than enough to the state. Therefore, I urge people to vote no on the local option sales tax.

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City's Budget Problems.

The recent city budget task force recommendations report has some good suggestions for dealing with these problems that I support. They include:

• An immediate hiring freeze for city departments
• Reduce the size of city employee base.
• Require department heads to manage within approved budgets.
• Control personnel overhead costs, which include increasing contributions to health care premium costs and reducing overtime compensation.
• Department heads should provide a list of all departmental services that no longer have strong public support and that could be cut or reduced.
• Enact better performance measures which would help ensure that service and financial goals are met.
• I also believe we should change the retirement plan to a more realistic and sustainable system, perhaps a 401k type plan where employee contributions could be matched by the city to a certain level. The city should not be making promises based on market predictions, this is just too risky.

Reducing excessive regulation would help cut zoning and code enforcement costs and would make it easier for people to improve their homes, bring down the cost of housing and bring back business and jobs to Burlington.

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Moran Plant

I'm pleased to see the city trying to get more public input on this issue. However, I personally feel that the ballot survey is confusing and I fear that it will not clarify what Burlington really wants.

I also feel that there should be an option on the ballot regarding revenue generation as this appears to be very important to many residents in our ward considering the budget problems the city is in.

In the future, the city needs to be more open and honest with the public. This means completely disclosing all plans, proceeding slowly with new projects and going out of your way to seek public input to avoid big expenses and public distrust such as what happened with the YMCA, City Market, and Multi-Model projects.

Also, anything we do comes at a cost. I spoke with many people who told me their roads have not been paved for some time. One resident told me their road was paved only once in the past 30 years. If we go ahead with any new plan for the Moran Plant or other projects such as the Gosse Court redevelopment, I fear that these roads may not be paved for even longer.

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Public Water Flouridation

I support taking the Fluoride out of the public water supply. I do not believe it's the city government's job to decide on the validity and safety of water fluoridation. The issue is do you believe it's the city's job to force medicate its citizens? ...and the answer should be no. The city is doing something that would be illegal for any doctor to do. A doctor cannot medicate a patient with a prescription grade drug without the patient's consent. Why should the city government have this privilege?

If you have something specific you would like me to consider or talk about my views on, please contact me by calling me at 865-0111 or email me.