All Politics is Local
Having served on the Franklin County Commission and having grown up very involved an interested in county and municipal government, I understand first hand how decisions on the state level impact local governments and thereby directly effect local taxpayers. Legislators always have good intentions of making our lives better, our communities safer, and our services better, but often times they forget what kind of impact their decisions have on local governments.
State government should never balance it’s budget on the backs of our local governments. Every local government operates on a tight budget and the least little cut from the State leaves very few options for local governments when it comes to providing services to their local constituencies: Cutting Services or Raising Taxes.
I will work with and fight for all of our local governments to insure that we put an end to well meaning but underfunded programs that are passed off to local government without consideration of how they impact local taxpayers.
Mr. Stewart, I agree that the state legislature should be careful how, in its good intentions, it overburdens local government. Not only does it affect taxpayers, it gives local government a good excuse - my county government loves to blame the state for everything. You’ve commented about financial matters here, but what about other mandates that come down from the state level, such as open government/sunshine laws? Do you think our state open government laws burden local governments too much, or not enough?