One of my first tasks as Mayor was to close down our 1st (successful) TIF and bring much needed money back into the city budget.  I also worked with my staff and purchased a subdivision in 2019 that had been undeveloped since 2004.  It sparked a housing boom in 2 other locations for a total of 57 homes, all during Covid. The prior 15 years had only 3 homes built. Unfortunately, the current state of affairs has brought building to a standstill in Waterloo, but I’m hoping to find creative ways again to continue to grow our community.

 

In all of my elected positions, and in my professional careers, I have always advocated for spending money wisely.  Maintaining or reducing taxes, balancing budgets and eliminate non-government related wasteful spending. But I’m not sure our spending priorities are in line at the state, and I want to find out firsthand what we’re really spending our tax dollars on.

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The government’s role is to serve the needs of the citizens, ensuring a safe and clean environment, and quality education. Fire, Police and Public Works serve the public in very key and important roles and must be fully funded.

 

But things have changed quite a bit over the years:

 

• Police Departments have been underfunded and unsupported

• Fire & EMS services can no longer survive on volunteers

• Schools are constantly going out for referendums

• And our roads are not keeping pace with repairs

 

Case in point: Waterloo has 2 DOT projects coming in 2028 & 2031, the city portion is approximately $2 million dollars each.  What does this do for our other interior roads? Nothing.

 

Facebook is loaded with complaints, and I can’t argue with that.  Some of our roads are absolutely awful, but we only have so much money to deal with and so much money we can borrow. We need new formulas, we need to find better solutions for our failing aid system.