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Plans for
Future of Midlothian
The reason I ran for city council is that I
have a concern for how the City of Midlothian is being managed.
Successfully running two
businesses in Midlothian,
Family Chiropractic
Clinic and 1st-Care
Medical Testing, requires more than just knowledge
of the business, it requires business knowledge.
For over 14 years, I've run successful businesses in Midlothian.
A small businessman must understand cash
flow, payroll, expenses, budgeting, and income. If his income is not
meeting expenses, he can't say "just raise the tax rate" like so many council
members have done. He has to control his expenses, or go out of business.
We're seeing the "city council" mentality in
a lot of large corporations right now. CEO's are lost with the bad
economy, and know nothing other than asking the government for a bailout.
Notice the number of large companies in the news that have done that, but still
fly their jets and pay bonuses -- our money -- to their executives.
A small businessman knows better. He
can't expect the government to bail him out, and he doesn't want them to.
He wants to build his business by his own hard work. He understands that
customers are the lifeblood of a business. He knows you cannot run a
business -- or a city -- by wasting money and being frivolous.
With that business knowledge, there must be a
plan, and my plan for Midlothian is:
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Eliminate property tax in the
future:
Instead of
increasing
property tax, we need to eliminate it. Several cities in Texas have
already done it, and it won't be an overnight project, but it's quite feasible. And, we won't reduce city services to
do it. We simply replace the property tax with sales tax, by make
Midlothian more business-friendly. We can learn from other's mistakes.
Click here to see how Cedar Hill did it
wrong.
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Enhance our police and fire protection:
This is being done slowly, but not for the entire city. While
everyone's taxes pay for the warning sirens, some neighborhoods are still not
protected. We must be vigilant in protecting our health and safety.
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Recover our freedoms:
Our government should be here to
serve us, not make us subservient to it. We need common-sense restrictions
to protect our property values, but we must make sure government doesn't go too
far. Businesses can't grow if they spend all their time conforming to
ordinances, and why would someone move to a city where one can get fined $1,000
for having a crack in a parking spot (Section
12.003.011(c))? One proposed ordinance would restrict the
types of light bulbs we can use in our home, and that's just going too far.
It's no coincidence that my plan coincides
with that of Councilman Ken Chambers. Ken and I have worked together on this plan,
studying other cities and applying our own business knowledge to those models.
If we can get a majority of the city council to embrace these plans, we can
reduce the burden on homeowners and business people by reducing the property tax
until it's eliminated, attract responsible growth to Midlothian that will
enhance our community and our lifestyle while providing revenue through sales
tax, improve shopping for our residents, increase city services, and remove
unnecessary and cumbersome restrictions on our residents.
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