The Fires of Participation

There are candidates for a seat on the City Commission who do not participate in City government at all. They sit on the sidelines or in rubber stamp positions without participating. Perspective is born from the fires of participation. Certain contenders, therefore, do not have the experience needed to step into the Legislative Branch role. Reframing the rural culture, which we hold so dear, to include the groundwork for responsible growth requires both roots and guts.  Rivals are vindictive.  We must remember our identity.

You have a vote...

Use it!

My advice for voters is that they consider how some people have our towns' best interests foremost in their minds. Certain individuals have held firm by participating in government as members of the Executive Branch. Age does not always indicate wisdom, and in fact we have some issues with age causing a lack of diversity in the current City Commission. For some Commissioners, their only asset is their lie-ability.

The voters are my heros, for the voters deal with the consequences of their vote for 4 years.  Elections are when Assets and Lie-abilities are evaluated by the voters. 

Both roots and guts

I have achieved many steps in advancing and stabilizing our rural economy. I am complimented by all the tagalongs. The fiscal theories of other hopeful candidates are inappropriate to rural economies. They copy what I've said in general, but in the details they show a desire to forget our roots and try to act like big cities or mayor-council forms of government.

Let's be T or C, We're good at that!

Why try to be something that we're not? Why sell cheaply to outside developers? Growth is expensive, even when well-planned.  Smart growth controls expenses by allowing balanced development.. 

Outside developers are going bankrupt in their home states and cannot even afford to follow the law to register here in New Mexico.  Like any desperate entity, they'll just flip our resources to pay off their debts. Keeping our growth within the scale of our ability to provide resources (like water, air and infrastructure) is the key to sustainability.

Growth for growth's sake is unprofitable.  Growth always costs more than the return on the investment.  The smallest cost, from the most careful of city growth plans, is 7% of the tax revenue.  And that is if the developers do the infrastructure for their land.  Growth is necessarily planned like any other major improvement. 

We Citizens have always kept an eye on the volatile economic conditions of our rural economy.  We Citizens kept our City growth phases sensibly to the 2 year periods in our economic cycle.  That is simply when we could afford it.  We Citizens know better than to listen to Pie in the Sky promises.

The people say:

My constituents tell me that the past neglect of infrastructure is a significant concern.

1. Jobs drive the economy and mass transit brings people and jobs together. Quality of life through quality jobs is one of my goals.

2. Our culture is health-oriented, and people want clean mass transit. People don't ride diesel because the fumes make them sick. Electric buses are now available at affordable prices. An economy that is based upon what the consumer wants is a strong economy. Normally, the costs per capita for mass transit is $90, which results in a savings of more than $100 per capita in other costs. Electric, however, done wisely, will cost only our City $1 per seat per day while saving $100 per capita in other costs.

3. The cost savings include reduced wear on the streets and improved air quality.

4. I recall saying many times, as a member of the Executive Branch, that Crime Doesn't Pave the Streets. One can decide if there is corruption in our City government by the condition of the streets.

5. The City currently spends over $2,000 per person. Most cities in New Mexico spend a quarter of that and spend it so that the local businesses can generate revenue.

6. I plan to develop no-cost solutions to the cost-of-living issues for low incomes. I've been doing this for the last 4 years. During the last 2 years, I brought $1 million to the low incomes in cash.  I want to expand TaxHelp to be available to all low incomes in the City.  I also want to provide year round financial solutions to low incomes.