I’ve been compiling all the candidate answers to the Richmond News surveys.
It’s remarkable how many platforms are simply ‘magic’
What do you mean you’ll hire more police, build more rec facilities, more arts funding, more free events AND lower taxes?
You want to reduce congestion, but not build any new active transport infrastructure?
$694 million operating budget. $180 million of that is community safety (mostly police contracts with y/y raises you aren’t stopping), another $180 million is utilities (set mostly by metro and with rate increases coming). Etcetera…
Our residential property taxes are already kept artificially low by developer fees and commercial properties taking an oversized share of the burden.
So just, be honest. Look for a few million dollar efficiencies where you can, cut out unnecessary red tape. Tell people exactly what percent of the city workforce you’ll cut and from which departments.
But you’re not freezing the budget without significantly shifting the burden to future generations. I would actually argue that’s already happened, we are the future generation screwed over by decades of not properly funding our cities to build the infrastructure we need.
I want to vote for candidates who want to be part of the solution. Who have a vision for a city that will be a magnet for young families. That allow seniors to age with independence and dignity. That have the housing where teachers, nurses, services workers and the like can live in the communities where they work.
/end rant