Raleigh City Council - District A
Alex Moore
The city of Raleigh commissioned a survey in 2016 which showed that transportation issues remain our residents’ top concern. Do you support the $206.7MM streets and sidewalk bond package which includes a 1.29-cent property tax increase?
No
Do you support a major league soccer stadium downtown?
No
Do you support the use of incentives for the attraction and retention of businesses?
Yes
What are you hoping to achieve as an elected official that will foster a healthy and innovative business environment in both the near and far term?
The biggest thing that the City Council can do to attract and retain businesses is to keep taxes low. Business are constantly fleeing high tax areas and go to low tax cities. The amount of debt we accumulate is directly related to how high taxes are. We also need to help correct the infrastructure problems we are facing. I also want to make sure that the convention center is being utilized as much as possible. Having large conventions and festivals will also attract new business to the area.
What would you like to see updated in the city’s Unified Development Ordinance related to land use, regulations and/or density that ensures our market remains competitive and attractive for business and residents?
I think that the UDO needs to be updated that that it is consistent and applied fairly to everybody. The current UDO is not consistent which causes challenges for developers, builders and ultimately citizens.
How will you balance increased infrastructure and personnel funding needs of the city while also addressing economic growth, affordability, and quality of life?
The crumbling infrastructure is a massive problem right now. In the past every city council has turned to bonds and debt to fund these things. We need to start looking at our budget and finding places where we can save money, places where processes can be streamlined to reduce costs. Doing this going forward is going to enable us to drastically reduce the amount of debt we will have to accumulate to pay for infrastructure.
Identify two specific areas in the city budget where you might reduce spending and two specific areas where you might increase spending.
One area we are lacking drastically in is the size and compensation of our police force. The police deserve everything we can give them. They are the front lines of the city and are under payed and over worked. We need to fix that. As for reductions in spending, I feel that we need to look closely at public transit and infrastructure to ensure that we are maximizing every dollar that we spend. Every dollar we save on projects or busses is a dollar more we can spend. Also reducing the amount of debt we have will free up more interest and principle payments that we have been making to reinvest.
What is an uncomfortable truth about Raleigh that voters must confront?
We are $2 billion in debt. Even thought we have a AAA bond rating, that does not mean that our debt is sustainable. If we venture more and more into debt, that is going to raise taxes for everybody and is going to stifle growth and will deter businesses from relocation to the area.
The city of Raleigh commissioned a survey in 2016 which showed that transportation issues remain our residents’ top concern. Do you support the $206.7MM streets and sidewalk bond package which includes a 1.29-cent property tax increase?
No
Do you support a major league soccer stadium downtown?
No
Do you support the use of incentives for the attraction and retention of businesses?
Yes
What are you hoping to achieve as an elected official that will foster a healthy and innovative business environment in both the near and far term?
The biggest thing that the City Council can do to attract and retain businesses is to keep taxes low. Business are constantly fleeing high tax areas and go to low tax cities. The amount of debt we accumulate is directly related to how high taxes are. We also need to help correct the infrastructure problems we are facing. I also want to make sure that the convention center is being utilized as much as possible. Having large conventions and festivals will also attract new business to the area.
What would you like to see updated in the city’s Unified Development Ordinance related to land use, regulations and/or density that ensures our market remains competitive and attractive for business and residents?
I think that the UDO needs to be updated that that it is consistent and applied fairly to everybody. The current UDO is not consistent which causes challenges for developers, builders and ultimately citizens.
How will you balance increased infrastructure and personnel funding needs of the city while also addressing economic growth, affordability, and quality of life?
The crumbling infrastructure is a massive problem right now. In the past every city council has turned to bonds and debt to fund these things. We need to start looking at our budget and finding places where we can save money, places where processes can be streamlined to reduce costs. Doing this going forward is going to enable us to drastically reduce the amount of debt we will have to accumulate to pay for infrastructure.
Identify two specific areas in the city budget where you might reduce spending and two specific areas where you might increase spending.
One area we are lacking drastically in is the size and compensation of our police force. The police deserve everything we can give them. They are the front lines of the city and are under payed and over worked. We need to fix that. As for reductions in spending, I feel that we need to look closely at public transit and infrastructure to ensure that we are maximizing every dollar that we spend. Every dollar we save on projects or busses is a dollar more we can spend. Also reducing the amount of debt we have will free up more interest and principle payments that we have been making to reinvest.
What is an uncomfortable truth about Raleigh that voters must confront?
We are $2 billion in debt. Even thought we have a AAA bond rating, that does not mean that our debt is sustainable. If we venture more and more into debt, that is going to raise taxes for everybody and is going to stifle growth and will deter businesses from relocation to the area.
