What is "Responsible Economic Growth"?

By Al Tervalon

Three little words, three big ideas

Economic: Building a budget that supports our needs, because nothing happens without the funding. Not committing ourselves to long-term debt, or negative cashflow projects.

Growth: Recognizing that we all want more of everything, both services (police, fire, transportation) and recreation (lower access fees, watering the parks).

In my house, and I suspect in yours as well, there are only two ways to manage a budget: make more money, or spend less. I want to focus on making more money, by having more activity (business) here at home. This means more stores to support the basics (supermarkets & general retail), but also the addition of some miche businesses that would make Morgan Hill sufficiently unique to draw people from other communities.

There are over thiry thousand people in town, each with something specific they'd like to see. I'm particularly interested in bringing a live music scene to downtown. I'd also like to see more "young family friendly" businesses - I don't go out as often as I used to simply because it's hard to take little kids into most places. When you vote, you're not selecting my specific ideas, you're voting for an inclusive process that considers all viewpoints and then moves in a good direction.

Do I have all the answers? Not at all. Do I have an approach that will move us all forward together? Absolutely.