Garrett ready to promote fiscal conservatism

Cor­rec­tion: The printed ver­sion of this story in Friday’s Gazette should have read, “By part­ner­ing with school dis­tricts, Garrett’s goal is to attract more busi­nesses to the area, increas­ing tax rev­enues and avoid allow­ing school dis­tricts to go to the bal­lot and ask vot­ers for more funds.” The ver­sion below reflects this change.

Gar­rett

DUSTIN ENSINGER

Staff Writer

After serv­ing for two years as a Con­cord Town­ship trustee who reduced the size and scope of gov­ern­ment, Joe Gar­rett is ready to take his brand of fis­cal con­ser­vatism to the Delaware County Board of Commissioners.

Gar­rett is set to take on incum­bent Delaware County Com­mis­sioner Tommy Thomp­son and for­mer Delaware Gazette pub­lisher Gary Mer­rell in the March 6 Repub­li­can pri­mary. The win­ner will face Demo­c­rat John Hart­man in the Novem­ber gen­eral election.

“I became a trustee because, as a Chris­t­ian, you’re taught to serve oth­ers using what­ever gifts that you have,” Gar­rett said of his deci­sion to get into the race. “I felt that it was an oppor­tu­nity to serve more people.”

If elected, Gar­rett said that he plans to focus on three issues: restor­ing civil­ity to the com­mis­sion­ers’ office, cut­ting spend­ing and pro­mot­ing development.

Gar­rett said that his is con­cerned about the recent ver­bal scuf­fles between com­mis­sion­ers that have occurred in pub­lic meet­ings. Those pub­lic dis­agree­ments do not inspire con­fi­dence in county gov­ern­ment, he said.

“We need a lit­tle more civil­ity, When you become an elected offi­cial, you are the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the peo­ple,” he said. “How you behave in meet­ings is, in my mind, a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the peo­ple that you rep­re­sent. To be pub­licly argu­ing and fuss­ing with the peo­ple you are serv­ing with does not do jus­tice to the peo­ple you represent.”

Gar­rett also plans to bring fis­cal dis­ci­pline to the com­mis­sion­ers’ office. As a town­ship trustee, he said, he reduced full-time employ­ment by 10 per­cent and saved the town­ship more than $115,000 this year by can­celling redun­dant con­tracts and reas­sign­ing cer­tain job duties. Those moves will result in $400,000 in carry-over funds for the town­ship at the end of the year.

“In Delaware County, every Repub­li­can can­di­date is going to tell you that they are a fis­cal con­ser­v­a­tive and the rea­son they do it is because they want to get elected,” he said. “The dif­fer­ence with me is I have a record in office of being a fis­cal conservative.”

As the owner and oper­a­tor of a a direct mailer com­pany for the past 25 years, Gar­rett said that his time in the pri­vate sec­tor has shaped his fis­cal con­ser­vatism that he hopes to bring to the county gov­ern­ment. “It’s a big dif­fer­ence when you’re the guy writ­ing the check. Being self employed for 25 years, I built my busi­ness,” he said.

As a county com­mis­sioner, Gar­rett hopes to lessen the tax and reg­u­la­tory bur­den on small busi­ness own­ers such as him­self and attract new small busi­nesses in the process.

“To have a strong econ­omy, you have to have strong small busi­nesses,” he said.

Gar­rett said that he would work with local school dis­tricts and other munic­i­pal­i­ties to lower taxes for all home­own­ers, espe­cially those on fixed incomes.

“As a com­mis­sioner, you can’t con­trol that,” he said of school dis­trict tax levies. “But we can work with the other enti­ties. We are all in the same boat. All groups that use tax­payer dol­lars or have levies to oper­ate, we’re swim­ming in the same pool and the water is only so deep.”

By part­ner­ing with school dis­tricts, Garrett’s goal is to attract more busi­nesses to the area, increas­ing tax rev­enues and avoid allow­ing school dis­tricts to go to the bal­lot and ask vot­ers for more funds.

“We have to find those busi­nesses that fit those areas of the county to help out those schools,” he said. Gar­rett believes that his mes­sage is res­onat­ing with vot­ers. He points to an online Gazette poll in which he gar­nered 140 votes, more than dou­bling the vote totals of each of his opponents.

“I believe it is because vot­ers are look­ing for some­one that is going to con­trol gov­ern­ment spend­ing and I attribute those poll num­bers to my record of doing just that,” he said.

Posted by Dustin Ensinger on Feb 17 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.