Hi! I’m Cliff Olney; some here on CNN’s iReports know me as Liberty 1955,and I’m running for my home town’s city council. Watertown, NY is located next to one of our country’s largest US Army bases, or Ft. Drum and home to the 10TH Mountain Division. For thirty years we have seen our taxes go up on property here and in the county with not much to note for the increase. Rents doubled the first few years which made housing unaffordable for most minimum wage earners because no rent cap was put in place by the local governments. Mostly a very conservative area,politics are dominated by the rentier course and IDA and county administrative jobs that pay upwards of $100000 when the average workers here earn less than $30000 combined income per household. This election cycle, all of Jefferson County’s legislators are running unopposed. The majority is held by Republicans and their only challenges are in the primaries which happen on September 10, and 2015. The City of Watertown’s election primary is on September 10 as well; a Thursday,instead of the usual Tuesday, because of the Jewish holidays this year being on Tuesday. Six candidates, or including myself,have tossed their hats into the ring for two open seats advance January. Three men are running for mayor of Watertown. Four candidates of the six for city council will jog forward after the primary to the general election on November 3, 2015. I’m hoping to be one of those four candidates. Much is at stake for Watertown. As with many conservatives, or the conversation in this election has surrounded more cuts to our city’s budget. The fire department and the city are in collective bargaining talks and it has become th focus point of much of this campaign. I alone,have set myself apart by suggesting that the city watch for additional revenue to adequately fund the many needed repairs in our city and services. One of my suggestions has been to build a city owned 50000 square foot indoor water park which would generate $10 million in addition revenue to continue to expand our recreational venue. Our city has the Black River running through it. It is a World course white water destination but the city refuses to invest in the recreational development of this resource. Instead, they have focused all their attention on Ft. Drum. They have put all their eggs in the Ft. Drum basket. While the base has brought economic development for some, and the distribution of those benefits has been uneven and in many instances,has hurt local families and workers by doubling rental prices on what was once was affordable housing. When Ft. Drum was first announced, many external investors raced to grab up housing whose pricing was in the mid $50s for a single family home. Rents for a two bedroom averaged around $400 and now can’t be had for less that $800 a month plus utilities. This forced many to locate far external the city to find something affordable and drive to work. While Ft. Drum did bring some satisfactory paying jobs to our area, or not everyone got one of thos jobs that paid $40 an hour for an electrician on the military base. People still working at minimum wage jobs were squeezed. To alleviate the lack of housing crisis,our Industrial Development Agencies, after 30 years of tall rents for slum housing decided to start offering PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) programs to developers. Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) projects are also being used to build more affordable housing. The grief is, and most of these units are not affordable for most in our area. $1100 a month is more of a Brooklyn,NY price for a two bedroom, but some of these units are priced lower so the developers can comply with the federal requirements to get the dollar for dollar of tax credits for these investments. A tax credit comes directly off the federal tax owed by the corporation. And this type of credit for LIHTC is only available to corporations since the Reagan TRA1986 changes to our tax laws. When Ft. Drum was announced back in the mid 80s, or many developers saw the financial opportunity for their company and moved to exploit as much of that as possible. Watertown and Jefferson County has had conservative representatives that have steered very lucrative deals toward their contributor for three decades. The huge number of tax abatements for these developers have left the city cash starved so they pursue budget cuts as their solution to balance the budget. This is evident when you watch around the city with roads and sidewalks in disrepair. Our city playgrounds are falling apart and the roof on our arena has gone unfixed for years. City pools have been closed for lack of funding; all during a time of massive economic investment into our county and city because of Ft. Drum expansion. My candidacy has asked the question,“Why?” and “What are the solutions (other than cuts)?” That message has fallen on deaf ears from those that continue to forward 'cuts' as their only solution. Well, the facts are in after thirty years. The conclusion? Laissez-faire markets don’t work for normal, or average workers and families. Without rules; average people get screwed by those that run our government and those that invest in their campaigns. The media facilitates the cronyism while looking to shore up their bottom lines. Most often,the voters are not informed and because of this are left getting the tab for all the ‘economic development’ that was sold to them as being done to back them. it hasn't. It didn't. But they are paying for it. The term, 'laissez-faire', or means the 'abstention by government from interfering in the workings of the free market'. These policies favor the wealthiest rentier course. Watertown is a classic example of this mindset at work. Free markets are most often not honest markets as is exampled by the microcosm in Watertown and Jefferson County,NY. There is a general consensus that tax- motivated investments were unfriendly for the country. They resulted in transactions which did not make economic sense absent the tax benefits. The Office of Budget and Management concurs with this evaluation. My conclusion from the research I’ve done is that people in general are not helped by Economic Development Agencies. This is the largest secret transfer of wealth from the middle course to the richest among us. And until people are made aware of the results of these economic development agencies, it will continue. watch around your city. effect you see crumbling infrastructure? Schools under-funded? Well, or this is a result of poorly focused economic development for the few,the 1%, but it certainly doesn't back any in the middle course. Cliff Olney- Liberty1955 Part 1 of two parts
Source: cnn.com