Council does have a plan
Published: February 11, 2009
The News Virginian has suggested on a number of occasions that the council is not taking action to address the current economic crisis and the future of Waynesboro. Last Sunday’s editorial specifically challenged Mayor Tim Williams to act and have a plan for the city.
Speaking only for myself as a council member and a citizen of Waynesboro, I have always felt there was a plan, and have always consistently worked toward it:
n Ensure that the city provides the services of government in the most effective and efficient way possible.
n Have the lowest taxes of any city in our state.
To summarize, our goal is to provide the best service at the lowest cost to our citizens. That is what we are working toward, and we are doing so by figuring out how to do more with less, which is something we haven’t had much experience with lately.
If we can accomplish this, and I think we can, the benefits will be enormous. Entrepreneurs will flock to our town to take advantage of the low taxes and service fees. We will be seen as a destination point for the producers and contributors that all cities seek to attract. Our businesses will flourish and the city will be studied and used as a template for others to follow in their efforts to become destinations for people to live and work.
We have been making some progress in this regard over the last few years, but we need to do more. Because of our relatively low borrowing and lowering of our tax rates (not taxes) we are going in the right direction. We now have in place a strong management team and city employees working hard to do a more effective and efficient job in providing the necessary services to our citizens.
We still have work to do, but I have seen great strides by our city staff in recent months. Most people don’t realize that we have cut spending by more than $1.1 million since the May elections and we are in the process of finding $900,000 more in cuts due to declining revenues in this fiscal year. This has been done without the suggestion of a tax increase or cuts in service.
The entire council has been actively working to generate and seek out other opportunities that are sound and solid. This hasn’t always been done in public, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening. If anyone has an idea that can help our city, please share it with the council. Though we are committed to our goals as stated above, we remain open-minded to any proposal that can help the city and the citizens.
It is an honor to serve on the City Council, and have a seat at the table. I will always do my best to serve our city and represent all of our citizens. I feel very strongly that all of us must work to make our city great. We should also help our neighbors and be more giving in time or money to our charities in these rough times.
There is no easy way. It will take hard work and sacrifice by all of us, the city government, the business community and the citizens to get through these times, but I know we can do it and ultimately we will be a stronger, better city for it.
Frank Lucente
Vice Mayor
Waynesboro
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Reader Reactions
I’m a little worried about the logic that this plan is based on. I try to be a realist and look for evidence of success when it comes to these types of strategies. It would add much credibility if there were some examples of how this philosophy has worked in other communities with low taxes. Augusta County has very low taxes yet there is little, if any entrepreneurial activity there. The major centers of entrepreneurial activity in the US are in places like Boston, San Francisco, New York, communities with the highest tax rates in the country. Locally, we’re seeing entrepreneurial activity in Charlottesville and Harrisonburg, local communities with much higher tax rates. With Waynesboro so close to these cities I wonder why these folks have not come to Waynesboro where their cost would be much lower to start and operate their ventures? My business training tells me that there must be other factors and enablers that drive this type of effort. Some were touched on in the responses posted here; others would include things like Universities, Colleges, sources of capital, etc. I wonder if we’ve done our homework before we started down a path that could have dire consequences ..........
Perhaps Mr Lucente could expand his definition of “entrepreneur” by some more research. The entrepreneurs of the 21st century are influenced by the quality of life of a community and the technological infrastructure that is in place. They are much less influenced by the claim to “the lowest tax rate of any city in the state.“ If we were truly serious about developing the new “industrial” base for Waynesboro, we would be exploiting our location, expanding our options for living and working in a walkable urban environment, and working to implement a vision for a next Waynesboro.
We will not evolve into a stronger city by eliminating those things that make living in Waynesboro an attractive alternative to other cities in our region. Nor, we will have entrepreneurs “flocking” to Waynesboro if we do not have a Director of Economic Development agressively bringing attention to Waynesboro and its positive attributes.
The sacrifices Mr Lucente suggests we must all make seem to be in our quality of life and in our future.
Well, at least Mr. Graham didn’t resort to name calling, and call Mr. Lucente a fascist. That’s an improvement.
Where, Frank, are all these entrepreneurs flocking to Waynesboro since the city lowered the tax rate to 70 cents in 2004? Are you counting the Waynesboro Town Center - because that’s it, and you had to vote to give them millions in economic incentives to close that deal?
This letter is an insult to the generations of Waynesboroans who built this town into the economic capital of Western Virginia not through this kind of empty rhetoric but through hard work and shared sacrifice.
We once had the courage to invest in the infrastructure needed to provide a foundation for residents and business to be able to live their lives and produce and market their wares, but no more. We once had the gumption to invest in a first-class school system, but now we have a vice mayor who famously thanked our school superintendent during last year’s budget review for doing so much more with so much less.
Our community is withering on the vine, and Mr. Lucente thinks the solution is playing to the lowest common denominator to attract even more low-paying jobs to replace the solid manufacturing jobs that we’re losing every day that with their daily losses are taking with them our ability to meet current and future needs in educating our children and providing even basic services to our fellow residents.
I’m reminded now of the old saw about how it’s better to not say anything and have people think you’re the village idiot than it is to say something and in the process remove all doubt.
Kudos to The News Virginian and its editor for keeping the feet of our city leadership to the fire. One bit of warning, though. Keep this up, and you’re going to be a rag, too.
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