The Herald Bulletin described the debate as At-large candidates debate Anderson's best interests. I could not see much debate in the newspaper.
I am a bit curious about the absence of any remarks by Rick Gardner. He is one of the write-in candidates (and I must note my landlord). Editorial bias or no good quotes or what?
Democrat David Eicks, local business owner and former building commissioner, said the city should use its money more on small businesses.
“The city has an economic development pot,” Eicks said. “For the majority of years, money has been thrown at Nestlé’s. We should be giving that money to small businesses, help small business expand.
Small, Anderson-based businesses will hire from within the city and county, Eicks said.
Anyone who has read this blog might know that I have harped (well, feel like I have harped) about the need to include small, local businesses. I am glad to see Eicks picking up this topic. None of the mayoral candidates did so at their forum (if you want to see what I have written on a topic - go to the right hand side of your screen and go down to posts by topic section, click on a link and that will get you all of the articles). Still, I have a concern. We cannot rely solely on small local businesses to pick up all of the employment slack. Also, what about business creation as well as expansion?
Republican Ava Likens Autrey said she would focus on marketing.
“And if you ask me how much I’m to pay this person (who markets the city), that depends on the return,” she said.
I am sure that there had to be more to Ms. Autrey's answer than what was quoted and I must guess that it had more to do with the substance of marketing the city. I give the Smith Administration points for marketing the city. I have my own small business and I know how hard it is to market. I know some professional marketers and read, and I am not so sure that marketers do not get caught up in the process of the work rather than the finished product. I wrote all that to make the point that whatever Ms. Autrey said about the substance of marketing was more important than what was quoted by the newspaper.
Libertarian Greg Noland said he would lower taxes to attract businesses to Anderson.
“I don’t think we should pay somebody to come to Anderson,” he said. “I think if we reduce taxes, that people will want to come here.”
I like Libertarians. I know Mark Rutherford from law school and he is a fine fellow who I respect. I just cannot follow them on economic issues. I can pick this statement apart in several ways. If Anderson existed in a vacuum, Mr. Noland's ideas might work. Instead we live in a world where economic incentives are used by governments of all sizes to attract businesses and expected by businesses. So we play the game or we do not. We do not play the game, then expect to see businesses go elsewhere. At some point we lower taxes and the town gets so rundown that no one wants to put their business here. No, nice idea, very attractive idea but not enough.
And that was the meat given us by The Herald Bulletin.
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