Politics & Government
Candidate Forum & Budget Resolution
These past few days, I've been trying to think up with a good question to ask of these candidates. Surprisingly, I have none.
The Whitefish Bay Village Trustee election is next week, and I'm pleased to see that Patch is holding a for the four write-in candidates.
Date: Wednesday, March 30th, 7-8:30pm
Location:
These past few days, I've been trying to think up a good question to ask of these candidates. Surprisingly, I have none.
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There are a bunch of obvious questions. Except all of the obvious questions have obvious answers.
Q: Should we fix our sewers? How?
A: Yes! This is important. We should fix them up real good in a cost effective manner by tomorrow or sooner. I'm committed to that.
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Q: What are your thoughts on Silver Spring?
A: Silver Spring is important! We must keep a healthy business district. And let's get another restaurant or two.
Q: How about taxes? You going to hold the line on property taxes?
A: Oh, yeah. I'm all in favor of that. I'm fiscally conservative.
Q: What do you think of Village communications?
A: We need to do a better job! I'm all in favor of more information.
Since there's much agreement on the obvious questions, what I'm personally looking for is ... what experience does each candidate bring to the table? Are they able to critically reason and question?
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I'd also like to comment on something we "resolved" at last week's Trustee meeting. We passed that requested some modification to the Wisconsin State Budget proposal, specifically, the ability for each municipality to do what they've been doing every year: Decide what services the community demands, and decide the sacrifice necessary to provide them.
The 2011-13 Budget Proposal cuts numerous sources of revenue for Whitefish Bay (estimated near $400k now) and limits municipalities from raising their tax levy to cover this shortfall, which provokes cuts. A portion of that is made up by demanding more health care and pension contributions from employees, but a large chunk remains.
So I voted for the resolution based on the concept that I do believe in local control. However, a caveat: Regardless of the proposed tax levy freeze, I suggested that Whitefish Bay start with a budget proposal that has a zero percent levy increase, which is something other communities have accomplished.
(As a note, we have been advised that that the tax levy can continue to rise if new debt is issued. This is important for all future sewer projects, which are financed by new debt. As a reminder, Whitefish Bay's financial picture is extremely sound.)
