|
|
photo by Heather Renee_____
|
photo by Heather Renee_____ |
|
|
Family:
I have run my own one-man business building computer models for several company's business. The modeling of the business flow permits the company to make changes to the model to evaluate the impact of various business decisions on overall company performance, measured in a variety of ways, including missed delivery dates, cost over-runs, overtime needs, partial shutdowns and the like. I struggle daily with bad data feeding my models -- garbage in produces garbage out! My major customers are forest products companies, such as Boise Cascade. Several customers severely downsized after 2008 and business is quiet, and I'm now officially retired.
Profile:I was born in Southampton, England, raised in Canada, lived in Europe for 3 years, and moved to Massachusetts (aka Taxachusetts) in 1977. Until I moved to Lincoln County in 1997, I had always lived in high tax jurisdictions. But the high taxes are following me! I became interested in local politics several years ago as a result of reading Harold Cadmus' articles in News@Norman. I resolved to do what I could to shed light on some of the back-room dealings amongst the power brokers in Lincoln County. I initially thought that it would be tough for one person to make any difference, even in a relatively small pond. I soon learned, much to my surprise, that I had been wrong! One person CAN make a difference. So can an organized small group of 20-25 people, who had a lot to do with replacing two incumbent county commissioners at the last election. Think what we could do if we had hundreds of people who were willing to get involved! I discovered that much of what goes on at the county political level is something along the lines of "we've always done it this way, leave us alone..." and "Joe did this for the county in '88, we owe him a .....". Plans if elected:I believe that the voters are entitled to involvement that impacts their community. Any significant issue SHOULD be put to the voters -- districting of any elected board, incorporation, major fire dept spending, major capital expenditures. I believe that taxes are not the issue, per se, SPENDING is the issue. Once you do all you can to avoid wasteful spending, and reduce spending of the citizens' money instead of the money of the real beneficiaries of that spending (often developers), then what you have left is the tax rate that you approve. If the citizens approve the school bonds in May, then the resulting spending will add to the tax rate -- "there ain't no free lunch!" At the same time, we have to make sure that new development pays the county for the costs that it incurs. Our subdivision ordinances need updating, and need to expand the amount of open space, school land, and road improvements that the subdivision contributes -- most other localities demand more than we have to date. But local government shouldn’t be dictatorial, but should attempt to accommodate people. As an example, now that water and sewer connection fees have raised significantly, it makes sense to follow what many other localities do, and permit paying those fees over time, say, ten years. This would ease the cash-flow for individuals and the smaller home builders. Family:
For More Information Contact: |
|
Send mail to
martinoakes@charter.net with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
