www.ThadKBartley.com
Population and hence jobs are the first things to tackle in Reno County. They go hand-in-hand.
According to the Reno County article at http://www.renocountygrowth.com/blueprint/letter.shtml the population of Reno County went down from 1980 to 2000, and we even lost a thousand more people from 2000 to 2010's census. How, then, can the Reno County budget have increased? With a smaller tax paying base how can you increase, or even sustain current budget levels?
The answer is that "you cannot". If a budget is sustained, or raised, with the same or smaller tax base, then taxes have to be raised across the board in order to keep things running.
1. Reduce what you plan to use taxes for to well below 1980 levels because we have fewer residents.
2. Help increase the population of Reno County through available jobs, working with the Reno County Growth Coalition, and brainstorming in town halls for new ideas to implement.
3. Job creation should be done through a culture built around helping companies thrive. Jobs should not be created by the government because they then become bureaucratic and funded by taxpayers. Tax breaks for companies should not be reduced, percentage wise, below what we offer the general public, but we need to give tax breaks across the board from corporations to residents to founder an era of job growth and trust that the local government will help that happen. If taxes are moderately reduced, and eventually brought to rock bottom, then we can actually increase tax revenue by foundering a county where corporations, and hence jobs, want to relocate. In addition, we need to go beyond just blue collar jobs. America, and Reno County, are built on the blue collars of Americans. Unfortunately, most relocaters, and citizens, will not move to Reno County simply for blue collar jobs which we have workers for anyway. Co-hybrid companies that work with blue collar industries such as accounting, manpower, logistics, etc will move to our area if we add a multitude of blue collar jobs. This is not talking about a couple hundred with Siemens type corporations. We need several of these types of industries and companies to increase growth. It will be short term pain for long term gain. Let's bite the bullet for a couple years to reap long term rewards. The Reno County Growth coalition is looking toward 2020. Let's all take a cue and look long-term at what Reno County can become.
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