DeBruin
pushes for major district survey on taxes, spending
Nov.
17, 2006 -- A major effort to find out how residents
of the 15th supervisory district feel county spending
will launched by County Supervisor Lynne DeBruin.
The
ferocious and opposite stands residents staked out in
the recent county budget wars prompted DeBruin to make
the effort.
“I’m
not really clear where this district stands on taxes vs.
services,” she said.
DeBruin
has a weirdly-shaped district
that includes both liberal and conservative elements.
Listen to the comments made by supervisors
during the override discussion (works best with Internet
Explorer. You might have to click a couple times on the
buttons because of a patent dispute).
DeBruin
said she will use her own money to send out surveys seeking
input on the topic, and is seeking to get about 5,000
responses from registered voters, a 30% to 40% response.
She said she already asked the pro-tax freeze Citizens
for a Responsible Government to help get people to respond,
and planned to ask the Alliance for the Public Good to
assist as well. That coalition sought to preserve services.
"Any
group that wants to help is fine," she said. “All
I’m asking them to do is help ask people to turn
it in.”
The
results may inform her votes, but will not dictate them,
she said.
“It
doesn’t make me a blind idiot,” she said.
DeBruin
is one of 14 supervisors who voted to override County
Executive Scott Walker's veto of the entire budget. The
override was successful.
Walker
did not live up to Republican ideals when he slashed law
enforcement, said DeBruin, a Democrat who grew up in a
heavily-Republican family. The County Board increased
the levy by about $8 million. Of that, $5 million was
to preserve law enforcement, $1.5 million was for parks,
and $1 million was for transit.
DeBruin
said during the County Board discussion preceding the
override vote that Walker could have easily won a levy
increase that was less than the 3.6% approved by the Board
and preserved by the override.
"The
county executive could have used this week to speak to
the seven, eight or nine supervisors that he thought would
be amenable to making cuts in this budget," she said.
"By my calculation he could have gotten the tax levy
down from a 3.6% to somewhere in a 1 to 2% range,"
she said.
