Dear Friends,

The City of Denton’s mission includes providing quality infrastructure and city services, public safety, and economic viability.  In all these areas, we face challenges together as a city.  It’s time to come together as a politically diverse community, bring our focus back to local challenges, and find creative solutions that make Denton a better city for all its residents.

As I listen to what voters in Denton want for our city—upgrades to roads and other infrastructure, social services, funding for the arts—it all depends on revenue that comes almost entirely from two sources: sales tax and property tax.  Texas homeowners already pay high property taxes, and landlords pass those costs on to renters, making housing in Denton less affordable for everyone.

Economic development is therefore arguably the most far-reaching challenge Denton faces today: It provides sales tax revenue for everything Denton wants, reduces reliance on bond elections, and creates a rising tide of good jobs that lifts all our boats together.

Think about Denton’s increasingly pressing problem of homelessness: With the help of amazing non-profits, the city is working hard to address the needs of people experiencing homelessness.  But some of the federal funds we’re using to help the homeless will run out at the end of this year, and calls to help the unhoused are taking increasingly larger bites out of first responder budgets.  Limited revenue limits what we can do to help.  For those on the edge of becoming homeless, more jobs with higher incomes help people from sliding into homelessness in the first place, and money spent in Denton by employees with new jobs helps keep workers at existing businesses employed, which helps keep them housed.  Robust economic growth would make nearly every facet of this problem easier to manage.

But economic development in Denton is currently adrift.

We need a bold new economic growth strategy that provides win-wins for everyone in Denton, both residents and the businesses they work for.

This is just one of my goals for Denton. I’ll be addressing this and more of our challenges throughout the campaign. I look forward to earning your vote.