As many of you know I love Auburn. As I always say: “Auburn is my Hometown, I was just born someplace else. For this reason I have some very strong concerns about the long term fiscal viability of our city. I will be running for a seat on the Auburn City Council in November. These are my top concerns:
City Finances:
• Most of the present city council gets it. I want to help them to figure out wher
e our money is best spent. However, we are constantly being pulled in every direction, particularly by the labor unions. As a small business owner I know we need good employees, and paying them well is important when you want a qualified and dedicated staff. However, at the present rate of growth the increases and with the unfunded pension liabilities it is unsustainable. So at this rate, our city will not be able to maintain the number of employees it has, much less provide basic city services. We need to pave our roads that is what the citizens are asking for. At the present time we have 4.6 million dollars in the general fund reserve. This is mainly because of increased property tax revenues and sales tax revenues in the last few years. But, we all know that those revenues can go down significantly in recessionary times.
• Our unfunded liability for pensions is more than $16,000,000. That means the 4.6 million dollar reserve could be completely gobbled up by our pension liabilities. Of course these payments do not have to be made this year, but they are being distributed yearly and they go up yearly. Making sure we manage this fund properly by being proactive with managing our budget is what I do.
• I am uniquely qualified to do this job and I want to help. When I ran for the Auburn City Council in 1994 there were layoffs and no budget reserve. Yes, I said there was no budget reserve! When I left the city council after serving the entire 8 years on the finance committee (Administration committee) we had a 3 ½ million dollar reserve and a new budget policy that asked future councils to follow our policies and save for the future. That has been done, thus the 4.6 million dollar reserve today. Economic Development:
• Economic development and our city services go hand in hand. I have been working steadfastly to promote shopping local since 2007. Perhaps, you have heard of Think Auburn First. We need to get the word out. People want to support their community; they just need to be informed how to do that. I believe having a position on the city council will be another way of letting people know about, Thinking Auburn First. Bridget has done a fantastic job with the Airport Business Park by starting a business organization for the businesses at the airport business park. I want to continue that effort with her and the businesses out there. We need to also encourage businesses to locate in Auburn proper, old town and downtown as well. This has always been a difficult task, but not impossible.
