Over the last so many years in League City, we have all heard the typical campaign slogans during campaign season. " I am for Business" "I am for Economic development" "I am going to fix traffic" "I am for smaller government" "I am for fiscal responsibility". These campaign promises are in Juxtaposition to the statement "I am for smaller Government. History has shown us that no matter how truly sincere the politicians are at the time they make these campaign promises, something happens once they are elected that stymies their ability to deliver on their words and pursue their office with their original credo intact. I say the cause of their inability to fulfil their campaign ideals and be effective community leaders is they are conflicted by the promise of delivering smaller government. The elected officials are beholden to a vocal and involved minority of citizens who want smaller and less government interference in their lives. This same group is a majority of the voters. Only 4-5% of the citizenry votes in municipal elections. If we ever hope to solve our issues, we will need to come to terms with the fact that to solve the communities real problems it will take money and more govenrnment. Let's look at some of the issues and promises.
"I am for business and economic development" of course a candidate should be for economic development. Most candidates do not win if they say "I don't want economic development" However, the application of economic development is not like fixing a road. You can not just throw money at it and yield results. We learned this painful 24 million dollar lesson at Big League Dreams. While in its own right BLD dreams is a successfully business, without the city footing the bill for its fixed assets, it could not make it. As citizens we still are waiting for the economic development that was hoped to surround that development that has not quite come at the levels that a citizen would hope $24,000,000.00 would yield them. Economic Development has to be wisely planned. To build an economic engine for a community, it requires that each piece of the economic machine has to mot only provide economic growth for the intended recipients, but it has to build value for the community as a whole as well. For economic development to be successful, in most cases, there is the need for more government offices and employees to oversee how the government can "assist" with economic development. Here lies confliction #1, how do I meet the challenge as a leader of a small town like League City to provide economic development without promoting larger government and spending more tax dollars? Answer, You Can't
