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Mayoral candidates offer approaches to economy at NACA forum
Thursday, March 26, 2009 by Jacob Cottingham
With the nation in deep economic decline, candidates for mayor and city council discussed ways to grow
Mayoral candidate Lee Leffingwell told the crowd that the city should primarily be focused on creating jobs from the “ground up,” and not waste resources trying to lure out-of-town companies to set up shop in
Brewster McCracken pointed out the fate of once-prosperous cities like
Taking a shot at Leffingwell, McCracken said, “I don’t want us to hunker down, I don’t want us to duck our heads. I think that creating job opportunities is more important than union pay raises.”
The mayoral candidates were asked how they would reconcile the city budget with increased demand for city services. McCracken compared the city budget to a family budget, full of locked-in costs. He did say he didn’t think “a massive bond election” held in six or 12 months would be a good idea, and suggested that 2012 would be a more appropriate time.
Leffingwell took umbrage with that, since he had said he would consider a 2010 bond, under the right circumstances. “Brewster does seem to have a comment about me every time he takes the microphone.”
When all the candidates were asked about plans to diversify the economy in
Brewster said “we could put a big neon sign outside of
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