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Political Philosophy for Ben ShepherdCandidate for Supervisor; District 5
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PlanningPlanning decisions must be based on workable and practical policy. Regulations are necessary to preserve the quality of life but yet allow for reasonable and sensible land use decisions. New development must pay for its fair share of costs for service demands caused by that development. New development though, cannot be burdened with unreasonable costs and restrictions that make new housing only affordable for the wealthy.EconomyHumboldt County's economy is shifting from economic base jobs like manufacturing, to service based jobs. Our history has been a resource dependent economy with raw material export as our prime base industry. Because of the changes in the resource areas, fewer companies employ workers, and fewer workers accomplish the same job as in the past. One of our greatest potentials for increasing base economic jobs is development of value-added products. Finishing our resource products to a higher level adds value and increases the number of good paying jobs. Humboldt County can play a role in this by working on a strategy of "develop from within." By carefully evaluating our export opportunities for value-added products and identifying escapement (goods and services provided from outside our area), we can work to develop more base economic jobs. Training local entrepreneurs to manage new businesses and to refine and market local products is essential. Groups like the Small Business Development Center need continued local support. The Humboldt Bay region must work together as one economic force and not work to relocate jobs from one area to another within our county. One entity providing incentives for a big box retail business for their jurisdiction that forces small business in neighboring communities to close is short sighted. Keeping local businesses healthy so they can return their profit back to our local communities is better than a large corporate retailers taking their profits out of Humboldt County. Ben Shepherd believes that a heathy small business community makes a healthy economy. |
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Created from information supplied by the candidate: May 15, 1998 22:06
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