Political Opinion: Burr Sullivan's Letter to Voters
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Burr Sullivan is a mayoral candidate for the City of Lexington. {Contributed photo}
In the 51 years I have lived in Lexington, I have never had reason to worry over the soundness of the financial affairs for the City of Lexington. But today, I have several good reasons for this exact worry, and my interest in being elected Mayor of Lexington is driven by the belief that my training and 50 years of leadership here in Lexington are badly needed for a more prosperous future. There are many examples of why we need new elected leaders, and they were on display when Interim City Manager Ralph Clark addressed and called out the Mayor & Council on August 28, 2023. Mr. Clark had a long list of issues that beg to be addressed, and his remarks were alarming to say the least. Among the most alarming issues are two large spending projects that were given priority to be “kick started” on May 8, 2023 with a budget “earmarking ‘’ of $ 2,250,000 to purchase a large tract of land and prepare construction drawings for a new Recreation Center and a new Police Department. The Rec Center alone will require borrowing $ 27 million and that debt can only be repaid with a 30% property tax increase. So this one project by itself will force City tax rates to go from being the 4th highest in the State of NC to being the absolute highest among 100 cities of all sizes across the State. This is an outrageous proposal and it must be blocked by new leadership with more financial experience. The Interim City Manager was also very critical of the City’s plan to more than double Wastewater fees in order to pay for $ 204 million of expense to upgrade the water treatment facilities. Mr. Clark correctly found that the plan to severely jack up fees every year is not workable and begs for an experienced financial leader to design a better solution.
It has been sad to watch the change that has taken Lexington from being a City winning awards from the State of NC for its financial management to now when the Interim City Manager openly questions whether the NC Local Government Commission will agree to underwrite the debt the City will be required to issue for a long wish list of projects found in the new City of Lexington budget document. Instead of current budget priorities that involve borrowing money and raising taxes, the City of Lexington should be focused on bringing companies with good paying jobs to Lexington. The current city budget has no money for recruitment of companies and we have no professional staff to work with the NC Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of NC. The Davidson County Government also lacks a professional staff person in economic development for the first time in over 25 years. We deserve better!
The median FAMILY income for Lexington is just over $ 30,000 per family, according to the recent Census. That number for the entire State of NC is over $ 60,000. This is holding Lexington back, and I promise to make this my top priority for the City if I am elected Mayor. We need to increase family income to the State average and put a freeze on new property tax increases to make Lexington more successful. WE CANNOT BORROW AND SPEND OUR WAY TO PROSPERITY. That plan will simply fail, and our population will remain stagnant. Our population is the same as it was 23 years ago, despite the State of NC growing by over one million people in the last decade. We are not getting our share!
The voters of Lexington should carefully look at my record of leadership here in Lexington and with the State Of NC over the last 50 years and compare that to my opponent’s record. There is a stark difference in our financial training and leadership experience. I have 18 years of experience in economic development work locally and with the NC Department of Commerce. I have been a leader in five different organizations whose financial budgets were each larger than the City of Lexington budget. My opponent simply has no comparable experience and financial training. And he is at a particular disadvantage now that our city manager with 25 years of financial experience was recently forced out. I am ready to step into the leadership void to get Lexington on a better path. The City has lost its way financially and needs a new leader.
I want to be Mayor of a City that brings in more new jobs, a City that will announce a freeze on new property taxes, sets a goal to double median family income, and reduces poverty, one job at a time. I am very optimistic about Lexington’s future but only if we change the direction of what our priorities are. The outrageous spending projects called out by Interim City Manager Clark must be blocked by new leadership with the experience to manage our financial affairs. Our City can grow if we bring in more jobs and block plans to spend money we do not currently have. My vision is for a much more prosperous Lexington ten years from now. I have three experienced running mates who each share my vision for our City---Tommy Black, Becky Klass, and Cody Beck.
I urge everyone registered to vote to come out to the polls starting Thursday, October 19th. Our tax dollars are definitely on the ballot in a few days.
