Meet the Candidates Night

Thanks to the efforts of the Nibley City Youth Council I feel that the Meet the Candidates night was a great success.  The citizens came prepared with thought-provoking questions and I feel there were good responses given by the candidates.  I kept quite detailed notes of the questions and my responses and have decided to post some of them here.

Question:  As a member of the Council what would you do to increase revenue?

Answer:  This is a question that I have thought about quite a bit knowing that if we want to avoid paying more money ourselves in taxes we need to look to other sources of raising revenue.  According to the current zoning of Nibley we have commercial zoning located along the Highways of 165 and 89/91.  I would like to establish an EDA (Economic Development Agency) which would consist primarily of council members that would be used to help attract high quality businesses to Nibley.  This type of agency is provided for in state law to provide tax increment financing.  Raw land is taxed at one level and developed land is taxed at a higher level.  The difference is used to pay for the infrastructure costs of placing the business.  This isn't a new mechanism in Cache Valley.  The Maceys that is now a gym/sporting goods store was built and remodeled this way.  

Question:  If elected, would you support an increase in taxes to fund open spaces or parks?

Answer:  I do not feel that a tax increase would be necessary to fund these projects.  As far as parks are concerned they are being built using the impact fees that are assessed to builders and Nibley has applied for and received a good share of funds from the County in form of RAPZ (Recreation, Arts, Parks, and Zoos) funds.  These are funds set aside for the express use in Cache County for these specific purposes.  Our trails plan also would receive funding from this source.

Question:  Do you favor keeping the rural flavor of Nibley?  How?

Answer:  Yes.  I support the Conservation Subdivisions that are outlined in the Nibley General Plan.  These planned subdivisions are built by developers with the goal of having more open spaces.  Basically it is clustering homes together on smaller lots allowing for the remaining land in the development to be devoted to parks and trails or simply left as open spaces.  I feel that this is a solution to the growth demands of Nibley as well as a solution to our desire to have open spaces.