fresno elections 2008

Tulare County is the #1 Dairy County and the #2 Agricultural County in the United States, which means that we need to focus on strengthening our agricultural base and develop more industries that complement and complete agriculture. There are good opportunities for expanding exports as well as in food processing, which would help to create more jobs. Tulare County also needs to consider developing a 500 to 1,000 acre turn-key industrial park to attract new businesses to the County. Government needs to work with existing businesses as well to help them to expand their businesses. Growth is a good thing, it simply needs to be well planned to mitigate and address legitimate concerns. Talking to people throughout the campaign, I have heard many complaints that too many policies at the state level make California a difficult place to do business and many businesses and jobs have moved out of state as a result. This trend must be reversed.

The way to generate jobs is to keep Tulare County attractive to businesses. Tulare County will lead the way in generating new jobs be keeping impact fees low, allow for industrial land development around the 99 corridor, maintain water and sewer expansion, support higher education, and allow annexation into incorporated cities. I have worked on these projects being part of economic development for the City of Tulare, such as being involved with the Land O’ Lakes expansion, and expansion of city commercial and retail developments. I have the working knowledge and years of experience working along side developers and business owners that bring new jobs into the community. Further, as your Supervisor I support job growth like the proposed race development center in Tulare that will bring a potential 2500 jobs to the entire county.

I will continue to work for sustainable economic development. We will need public safety, available infrastructure (i.e. roads, rail access), water quality & quantity, an educated workforce, and a business friendly environment.

We can, with planning, create a well-balanced economy, which combines a mixture of agriculture and business. By working together we can build a solid future that maintains our unique way of life. The Central Valley is a diverse mixture of people, traditions and customs. Our valley’s future, the one we plan together and act on together, will be handed down to our children. By working with our communities business leaders we can create a diversified plan which can meet the needs of business.

The development of a four-year curriculum at College of the Sequoias will also be an important step in meeting those needs. For business to consider our county a viable option we must be able to provide a educated workforce.

Education is the foundation for future jobs.

Again we have our priorities sort of screwed up. We, Fresno County, encourage housing development which gobbles up valuable farm land and worsens air pollution. And now we have fallen under the spell of the subprime witch. Jobs can only be produced by investment in productive assets. We need assembly plants, packaging plants, electronic businesses. Rather than having developers knocking at our Hall of Records doors, I would like to see the likes of Bill Gates and Larry Ellison coming to us to discuss new electronic plants for Fresno County. But we will not get the likes of Gates and Ellison, unless we address the dreary condition of our educational system.

The enterprise zone will generate more jobs. I will continue to support a reorganization of the county’s economic development related functions to maximize our efforts related to economic development including tourism.

I am strongly supportive of the Economic Development Corporation and its new leadership. I also want to continue the Regional Jobs Initiative because it coordinates local resources and then ties those same resources in with the State Legislature and the Federal Government.

Again, investing in business parks would provide an opportunity for thousands of new jobs to be created. We have great people here in Fresno County. I would work to bring more high paying jobs to match our talent.

We must adopt policies that recognize the essential value of the private sector for creating jobs and growing the economy, promote educational opportunities and innovative programs that attract and encourage the best talent in fields such as business, agriculture and technology, advocate regional cooperation to make us more competitive for existing enterprises and emerging industries, and support growth of clean industries and tourism that can yield great economic rewards.

We should work with civic and business leaders, charitable and community-based organizations, educational leaders and others in an ongoing effort to identify and address underlying demographic circumstances that are impediments to a healthy economy such as crime, teen pregnancy, high dropout rates, drug abuse, etc.

We need to understand how essential it is to increase our tax base and foster a business environment that gives local businesses encouragement to grow and expand their job base, and attracts new, diverse businesses and industries that are compatible with our agricultural foundation and environmental goals.

We should pursue and raise awareness of the attributes of our valley that would appeal to tourists as well as business site selectors. Tourism is one of California’s major industries,
and we should make every effort to expand economic activity based on tourism.