I used to consider myself a republican. I thought that they were for freedom of enterprise and free trade. The truth is that are for neither. They like to regulate business to keep them under control and to keep themselves in a position of power. Republicans have a tendency to subsidize domestic production and place tariffs on imports; free trade this is not. Its not even the more popular term, fair trade. It truth the only fair trade is free trade.

The goal of government should be to provide essential services with as little cost to the taxpayer as possible. In other words it should try to maximize the citizen’s profit. Government should focus on the tasks enumerated to it and leave other functions to the people who care the most about the issue, citizens and charities. As it currently stands the appointed government officials have very little incentive to maximize the efficiency of their program/department and they don’t really have to answer to anyone. I would like to create an improved system of oversight that would require officials to run their respective duties at a reasonably high efficiency level. Like it or not, government is a form of business and it should be run as such. Either have these people do their jobs at the lowest cost possible or get someone in there who will.

Reducing the requirements of the government is a prerequisite to reducing taxes. A reduction in spending will inevitably result in a reduction of services. Many of the services currently being supplied by the government are either unnecessary or capable of being done in private hands. My main point is that if private interests are capable of doing it they can probably do it better.

Government should never inhibit business unless it directly interferes with the rights of others. Licensing is yet another form of taxation stating that you cannot perform your trade without paying the government to allow you that opportunity. I would support measures to eliminate the need for licenses and reduce government intrusion to health inspections.

A public smoking ban is a current topic in the city of Lafayette. I insist that this issue is purely a business decision. Some businesses will choose adopt such a policy and others will reject it. The people can then patronize the ones in their favor and reject the others. The thought that the government thinks it could make a good decision for all businesses is absurd.

Zoning is a strange practice that is used to artificially boost property values as well as to neutralize externalities to existing property owners. Although they may not be a good thing to initially institute, since they are in effect they should be generally maintained to prevent a sudden drop in property values. It is part of the reason that the cost of living is high in Tippecanoe County. I believe that the restrictions should be relaxed and that they should be used to supplement existing residents and business proposals. They should not be used to favor one party over another.

I am pleased to hear that the council has agreed to consider moving the county meetings to later in the day, similar to the city council times. That is an appropriate step to getting more people involved in the process of their government. I would like to see more action in this direction.

Many citizens are turned off by the complexity of the whole process. I would like to see the government publish a more readable account of income and expenses, specifically how much money is going where. This information is available now, but it takes some talent to get a hold of it and to fully understand it. What I would like to see is accounting statements similar to those that corporations prepare for their stockholders, but a little more in depth. This is intricate to people having a better understanding of their government and being involved.

Republicans have controlled county government for a long time. Part of the reason why we ran candidates is so they would have to answer for their actions. I am sure that they have only the best intentions, but good intentions don’t translate into good policies. At the last council meeting I heard no opposition vote to any of the resolutions proposed. Our policies are similar to the strict constructionists of the old days and we believe it is better to kill bad bills than pass good ones. Somehow I doubt that every proposed resolution was both necessary and proper to enact in our county. Even if they were I would like to see some competition, one of the things that make our society strong.