Janesville City Council Candidate Spencer Potter Answers Our 5 Questions

Question 1: Rock County currently ranks #1 in the state for unemployment. Much of this is due to business closings and layoffs in the City of Janesville. What will you do to bring jobs back to the City of Janesville?

Unfortunately, the state of Wisconsin is currently in an anti-business climate and cities like Janesville are going to struggle to bring new good paying jobs to our communities. Having said that, the city council must identify and remove unnecessary barriers to business. We must accentuate the positive attributes of our city. We must invest in our infrastructure and city amenities that businesses look for when considering communities to locate in. And we must create a sense of excitement. Businesses, like people, want to be where the action is.

Question 2: Janesville is known for its automotive heritage, however, much of that industry is now gone. If you were to define Janesville’s heritage for the next 20 years, what would it be?

This is a difficult question to answer. Janesville is known as a manufacturing community and I suspect manufacturing will continue to be part of our identity. Historically, the manufacturing sector of the economy is the first to suffer from an economic downturn and the last to benefit from an economic upturn. Because of this, we must work to diversify our local economy to better withstand the fluctuations in the economy. The construction of the new St. Mary’s hospital is a welcome move in this direction.

Question 3: During the past year, several projects surfaced and were met with a great deal of public debate: the bike tunnel, the childrens' museum, the aquatics center, and the ice arena. Please explain what guidelines you will use to make decisions on projects such as these.

Throughout my campaign I have been insisting that all basic/essential services such as snow plowing, maintaining our infrastructure, maintaining the parks and other city amenities as well as fire and police protection be properly funded before any consideration is giving to new non-essential projects and services.

I believe that government has an important but limited role in the lives of the people it serves and that government shouldn’t be viewed as the investment vehicle for every worthy project or idea.

Question 4: What steps should the City of Janesville take, if any, in redeveloping the downtown area?

There are several things the city can do that would encourage private investors to invest in the downtown area. First, we must improve the traffic flow and parking situation so that people can quickly and conveniently move in and out of the downtown area. Second, we must address the problems associated with the Fourth Ward which have discouraged private investors. Third, we must put an emphasis on downtown and inner city development and deemphasize growth and sprawl on the outer edges of the city.

Ultimately the market determines where and when investments will be made. However, the city can make the downtown attractive to private investors so that they would consider investing in the downtown and inner city areas.

Question 5: Explain your approach to budgeting and taxation: do you start with adding the expenses up and then setting taxes based on those expenses? Do you start with setting a cap on taxes and then working backwards? Do you strike a balance in between? Please explain.

We must modernize the budget process by replacing the current process which only addresses the increases over the previous year's budget (incremental budgeting) with zero-based budgeting which requires every department function be reviewed comprehensively and all expenditures be approved. Zero-based budgeting helps identify and eliminate wasteful and obsolete operations. And, it drives manager to find cost effective ways to improve operations.

I am not in favor of any tax increase. By implementing zero-based budgeting I am certain we can adequately provide the services the public expects. Any proposal to increase taxes will be meant with considerable scrutiny.