JASON ARP
JASON ARP – Republican Candidate for City Council 4th District
Having met many of you at your homes doing door-to-door campaigning over the last 9 months, I’ve learned a lot about the issues that face our community in southwest Fort Wayne. Many of the issues are the same whether it’s in Waynedale, Time Corners or Aboite; streets, storm drains, sidewalks, sewer and water issues. These are the things that affect people where they live. When people throw about the catch phrase “Quality of place” and then spout off about some new arena downtown or adding artwork to intersections at the city “gateways”, they forget that for most of our residents quality of place means the livability of their neighborhood, the conditions that are affecting their home. It seems that the city administration has been more focused on the hypothetical people that they would like to see move here than those that are living here, working, raising families and paying taxes.
I am a firm believer in free markets. Call me an old fashioned American. The government should not be centrally planning our economic development like in some collectivist “utopia”. As proud Americans, we have a legacy of self-sufficiency and independence that we would like to pass on to our children. This means we can’t expect the government to pay for a third of every downtown development project. We can’t expect to build some people’s businesses on the backs of the taxpayer, simply because they are well connected. We shouldn’t use the government to crowd out entrepreneurship and innovation. City government can work with private businesses, developers and the community to make sure that zoning is appropriate, that the infrastructure is in place or available to support development and to keep taxes and regulations to a minimum. There are over $600 million dollars in private construction projects invested in Fort Wayne annually without government subsidy. I want our city to flourish. I believe the best way to do that is to get the government out of the way.
There are very important, but limited roles for city government. We need to provide for the common infrastructure of the city, including maintaining our neighborhoods. We can add sidewalks in areas that desperately need them, like along Bluffton and Sandpoint roads. We can correct storm drainage issues that lead to regular flooding in neighborhoods in Aboite, Time Corners and Waynedale. We can work to fix our streets and keep our public areas well maintained. We can provide for adequate police and fire protection.
However, we can’t do these critical city government functions if our government is squandering our hard earned tax dollars on $4 million roundabouts and paying $127,000 per year for a superfluous Director of Public Safety position. We must choose wisely the things that we invest in. I say we invest in the things we know are appropriate for cities to do, not economic planning. We should not be dictating directions to our citizens, but rather supporting their individual visions and dreams with safe, clean, well maintained public infrastructure in their neighborhoods.
Publisher’s Note: In the interest of public education of local politics and to encourage voting, The Waynedale News offered all of the candidates in the upcoming primary election the opportunity to share their biography and goals for the office that they are running for. This came with the stipulations that they were not allowed to degrade other candidates or current policy, and they were required a minimum advertising budget for The Waynedale News area. Staying true to our non-bias news and positive outlook, we do not endorse or recommend any of the candidates on this page further than any other candidates running for office. But, these are the candidates wanting to be seen by you. Our recommendation is to use this page as a reference when researching candidates for the upcoming primary election, make educated decisions on who you would like to see in office and most importantly VOTE on November 3rd at your predestinated voting location. More information about the upcoming elections can be found online at www.allencounty.us/election-board.
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