Letter to the Editor: All Candidates Are Trying to do What's Best fot the Community

I would like to personally thank every candidate who was willing to sacrifice their personal time with family to serve on behalf of the residents they would represent. 

It doesn’t matter if you were running for Library District, Park District, Village Board, or Village President.  Your efforts should be applauded.  I have personally met with nearly everyone running for office locally, although I may disagree with them politically, I believe that all are trying to do what they believe is best for their community. 

If I did not meet a candidate you can be sure that I was at one of the forms in which they participated, so I could be educated on their positions.  With that being said, I believe that there are three significant issues facing the residents of our community.

 The first and most obvious to me is the potential TIF district on the site of the old Alexander Lumber yard.  It is clear that the developer was hoping to receive up to $23,000,000 in assistance through the use of a TIF district.  I think the biggest issue here is the differing opinions, not on improving the downtown or making it a destination stop, but rather how and who should pay for this. 

For those candidates who were open to the use of a TIF district I submit to you I would support such a concept so long as you could guarantee that there would be no bonds being issued by the village to pay for such improvements.  None of the candidates opened to a TIF district were willing to make such a commitment in any of the forms I attended. 

I am electing not to go any deeper into my recently acquired expertise in TIF’s because I believe if you are studied on the subject you are well aware of the pitfalls if bonds were to be issued by the village.  It is not a play words to say I’ve recently acquired expertise in TIF districts as I have been studying them now for several weeks in detail. 

Additionally, it may be useful for you to know and I have a degree in finance and I have been consulting to businesses on their financial matters for nearly 20 years.  Karl Baumrucker, who is open to the concept of a TIF, arguably made the best case against a TIF district in the Big Lar’s form last week when he said, and I’m paraphrasing now, that any new business would most likely locate in the Route  34 corridor or the Orchard road corridor.  I believe he is 100% correct.  That does not change the fact that improvements to the downtown could only help the village and its residents in the long run. 

Mr. Baumrucker is also in favor of improving the downtown, so please do not interpret the prior sentence as indicating otherwise.  If you have listened closely you will find that Brian LeClercq has spoke about several different tools that the village has available to help renovate the downtown, including such things as a revolving line of credit that the village can use to lend to local businesses.  It is like your mother always said, if you don’t have the money for it you can’t buy it.  In the simplest of terms let’s help rebuild the downtown with cash not credit.

The second issue is on the broad topic of business incentives.  How is the village going to attract new jobs and new revenue?  Although I’ve heard several candidates talk about the current economic conditions, I believe  a few have not taken the severity of the economic climate into account with their political rhetoric regarding how the current board is not business friendly, and seemingly how easy it could be to bring new business to Oswego.  It is not as simple as” if you build it, they will come.” Additionally, there have been some disingenuous arguments in comparing us to other local communities like Plainfield. 

I can end that conversation as simply as the difference in demographics,  geography, tax base, etc.  Once again I could go on, but for the sake of time I will not.  If there are incentives to be offered, I believe they should be offered in a manner in which regardless of the type of business or how long it is here, the said incentive will still exist for the residents whether or not any individual business stays or goes.  Thus, it should be a universal incentive. 

One such possible incentive is the Metra, Village Trustee candidate Dave Richardson has been in the forefront on this issue from the beginning.  He should be applauded for his efforts, in that such an incentive benefits not only businesses and our residents, but also benefits surrounding communities as well.  This would encourage surrounding residents to spend their money within our village’s borders.  Most importantly, this type of incentive has the potential to exponentially increased the tax base in a relatively short period of time, meaning 5 to 10 years. 

I do not believe the village should be closed minded to some additional types of incentives for truly unique circumstances, such as a fortune 500 company who would be willing to locate in our community, and we were required to be competitive with some sort of tax inducement.  I have had this conversation with Philip Smith, and although I applauded his steadfastness, I believe that there’s an exception to every rule.  Experience tells you, never say never.  If we’re going to use incentives to lure new business, the incentive must be under the ownership of the village. 

The analogy I would use would be similar to the village building a brand new house and renting it to a business at a reduced rental rate.  Regardless of what happens to the business, the village still owns house and can it rent out to another business if the existing business were to fail or move somewhere else.  Not to mention ownership is always superior to the position of lender in investment terms.  We are talking about investing on our village after all.  For those of you considering the thought that I may be hypocritical here as compared to a TIF district, please remember the following, cash not credit. 

The last issue is the tax referendum for the benefit of the Oswego Senior Center.  Mr. Wyngard, the director of the center seems to be very well versed and is able to articulate the facts in a fair and concise manner.  Although I’ve not had time to verify his statement that the state mandated a minimum of .0015% tax on the EAV of Oswego Township residents, I do believe him. 

Regardless, the fact remains, it could request up to the maximum amount which would be up to $2.1 million of taxpayer dollars a year.  Mr. Wyngard agreed that is a potential risk.  Frankly I do not trust some government official, at some  undetermined point and time in the future not to make that maximum request. 

As I’ve stated before in The Patch, I would be more than willing as a taxpayer in Oswego Township to pay for the processing and collection of funds incurred by the village for those residents who would choose contribute funds to the Oswego Senior Center through their Village of Oswego water bill.  This is a simple and effective way to support the senior center starting on your next water bill.  For the sake of time again I will choose not to go in to all of the additional reasons not to support this tax levy.  Please forgo the straw man argument that some of you may be considering right now.  You may be thinking that if I do not support a tax levy that automatically means I do not support the senior center. 

Frankly, this is a completely disingenuous, and ignorant thought process.  As most Oswego families do, we regularly make charitable contributions to organizations like the senior center.  The difference here is that we choose to make those contributions, we choose who they go to,  and we choose how much to contribute.

Based on the above I will vote for the following candidates and I hope you will do the same because of the facts, and not based emotions or friendships.

Village President, Brian LeClercq; Village Trustee, Tony Giles, Terry Michels, David Richardson; School Board, Brent Lightfoot, Bill Walsh, Paul Lark; Park District, Leonard Wass, Roy White, Saul Barocio; Senior Center referendum, NO

Robert Eberhardt, Oswego