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All the issues are important and there are many issues that I stand for.
This page has a few of the issues. (Please
keep in mind that I will only be one vote on the
Council. I do not hide the fact that I am
a Christian, Patriotic American, and I consider
myself conservative. Every year, it is up
to you to vote for someone who has your values
too. Together we can make a difference.)
Please be sure to see my
Status Report
page to see the current status on these issues
and others.
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Continuing to Provide the best police and fire
protection
With
increasing crime rates in Lewisville, we should look at
how we can assist our police department in fighting
crime. As citizens, My Wife and I chose to help by
taking the Lewisville Citizens Police Course
and we help as we can though the Alumni
Association.
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Traffic and mobilization
issues
These issues
will be developing due to
the expected I35E Hwy expansion and the DCTA
rail system coming to our City. At
this time, those plans are complete and the
implementation will soon be in full swing
and this will cause some growing pains that
will need to be addressed.
See related Q&A.
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Addressing the problems caused by
illegal immigration
I am not saying that SOMEBODY needs to do
something... I am saying that WE need
to do something. Law enforcement is mainly at
the local level. We do not have a federal
police force roaming our streets so who else
is supposed to uphold the Rule of Law?
We need to take care of our piece of America
called Lewisville. Police and elected
officials use the same basic
Oath Of Office which contains, "and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and Laws of the United States and of this State and the Charter and Ordinances of this city."
Why would anyone want us to not preserve nor
defend?
Though I believe we should
avoid lawsuits where possible, we should not
cower in fear of one either. The
opposition will most likely file frivolous
lawsuits knowing that many will cower in
fear. There are
many things we can do legally and avoid
litigation. We can vote people on the
Council that are willing to actually do
something by following the rules.
This is not narrow mindedness as I have been
accused of being. It is courage to do
what is right in the face of adversity.
The other choice is to let it continue
until we cannot do anything about it.
It is already costing us too much.
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Other Links:
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Please see my
287g
Overview page on my blog. I have
received several questions about a biased
report referenced by opponents of the 287g
program. See the response from
Director of the Departmental GAO/OIG Liaison Office
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read more here.
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Question about
revitalization verses
287g in Q&A.
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See related Q&A.
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Maintaining or reducing our property tax
rate. Lewisville property tax rate
is below the average (second lowest) for the area but
that has a direct correlation to the
appraised property values. I hear
people say, "I wish I could sell my property
for the appraised value." They say
this knowing that they could not. I
would like to work with the County to
appraise properties more accurately.
This will keep citizens from having to waste
time going to the County office to appeal
the overly appraised values.
The rates have been lowered in the past to the point
where they might need to be raised in the
next budget cycle (it is noted for the
August 2009 Budget meeting). The last
thing I want to do is raise taxes.
I think that we should move money to areas
that we need them and beef up some areas of
the City like Police and Fire instead of
lowering the rate to a very restrictive
state. The City is running on a very
tight budget and should continue to do so.
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Neighborhood and retail
revitalization (includes keeping areas from becoming
dilapidated).
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Ensure adequate water
supply for our future
The Upper Trinity Regional Water District (UTRWD) was created to ensure an adequate water supply for its Member
Cities and Customers in Denton and Collin
Counties. The City of Lewisville has
its own treatment plant and works very
closely with UTRWD and the fifty year
regional plan.
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Economic stability and growth
Capitalism works best when everyone follows the
rules/law and they are applied evenly (a
level playing field). There are many
companies doing everything according to the
law. They pay employees fair wages,
pay
unemployment tax, FICA, pay required taxes, fees,
follow ordinances, hire legal employees,
etc... They run a legal business and
follow the rules. Yet they have to
compete with companies that get special
allowances or even cheat the system by not
paying these things.
Some companies are allowed
real property
abatements and variances - some of these
companies are no
longer here either. Is
this fair to the companies that do not get
these privileges? Also some companies
hire illegal aliens (employees are a huge
expense to a business) to get a larger
profit margin. The Legal business on
the other hand has to lower their prices to
compete with those that get allowances or do
illegal things to get a larger profit
margin.
How does this affect Lewisville? In several ways…
Legal businesses can go out of business
because they are not profitable enough as
they have to compete in an unfair playing
field. In some cases, the money is not
being spent in the economy, etc… We
should treat businesses the same. Why
does the council give some
real property
abatements to some companies but not to
others? Why are variances on
ordinances granted for some and not others.
I do not find this fair. The point is,
in order to have a stable economy everyone
should follow the same rules. It
cannot be based on cheating or unfair
allowances (bailouts at the taxpayer
expense). Legal Capitalism works,
Savage Capitalism uses
people and hurts the economy in the long
run. We should find ways to help but
do it fairly.
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