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San Diego County, CA November 4, 2008 Election
Smart Voter Political Philosophy for Jim Gibson

Candidate for
Council Member; City of Oceanside

[photo]
This information is provided by the candidate

Respecting the Taxpayers Money: I will hold everyone at City Hall accountable with the taxpayer's money. I'll make sure we have a balanced budget and will cut waste and mismanagement instead of raising taxes. No New Taxes

I am convinced that we are overtaxed as citizens, that Government needs to live within its means and not spend a dime more than it has. We spend too much on failed programs and not enough on core issues such as public safety, streets and public facilities.

It is interesting to note that when a business fails to serve its customers, it gets less money, less profit and often fails. With government, it is the opposite; if a program fails, it is given more money. If the program is ineffective often, politicians vote additional money for the project.

When you cut taxes and regulation, productivity increases.

The problem with most politicians is that they are more interested in doing what is right for the organizations they work for and they forget that their real boss' are the citizens and the taxpayers of the community. I work for the citizens and taxpayers. I want to see our city work for our families. I want to see my children and grandchildren live and work in Oceanside.

I am opposed to raising the sales tax. In fact, I think we should lower sales tax. I often hear politicians say "the sales tax has not been increased in years and therefore the time has come because of increased expenses that we need a higher sales tax." This argument is flawed at its core. Sales tax is a percentage of the price of a product. With inflation, an average product will increase in price therefore sales tax revenue will increase.

When you tax something, you get less of it. On the other hand, when Government cuts taxes, the increase in revenue has been dramatic. Just like in business, when you cut the price of the product you sell more of it; when you raise the price of the product you sell less.

When it comes to the City of Oceanside, raising sales tax will only hurt our city. It will cause people to shop in other cities and we will end up with less revenue.

Bringing Good Paying Jobs to Oceanside: I'll make sure we have well paying local jobs by cutting the red tape that discourages businesses from starting or relocating here. Jobs here mean less time on crowded freeways!

I have been a business owner for over 20 years and I have trained hundreds of employees in telecommunications and voice and data networks. Many have moved on to large corporations with great Information Technology jobs.

When we decided to buy a building in Oceanside, the city government made it extremely difficult to operate our business. You would think the average city would be interested in clean, eco-friendly, high paying jobs in their city. However I was faced with long waits for permits, vague regulations and resubmission of the same answers to the same questions over and over again. These delays cost my business tens of thousands of dollars which could have been put into employees who are Oceanside residents as training, salary and benefits. These delays from the bureaucracy did not benefit the citizens or the city of Oceanside.

I propose that we have reasonable regulations that make sense and protect our city; not just regulations for regulation sake. Cut the bureaucracy, encourage businesses to come to Oceanside and reap benefits of jobs closer to our homes and revenue for our city to improve our quality of life and our neighbrohoods.

Putting Public Safety First: I believe the first job of government is keeping our families safe. I support increased police patrols, more anti-gang units, and a Zero Tolerance on Illegal Immigration.

I will do all I can to support our police department, county and federal government when it comes to enforcing all the laws.

Demanding Integrity and Transparency: I'll make integrity and transparency a priority at City Hall. I'll will make sure that the books are open and I will make sure that there is no 'backroom meetings'. City money belongs to the taxpayers + you should be able to check on how it is being used at any time.

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 5, 2008 13:26
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