Platform

Three Things I Believe

1. We need to do more to save what we love about our town - Milford is a great place to live and raise a family. We are a small town and a big town, but the small town part is disappearing too fast. We need a new plan for saving our fields, forests, country roads, and small-town feel before they are gone forever. We need a new plan to keep improving our downtown.
   
   
2. We need to draw the line on tax increases - Milford's taxes are high and they keep going up. Taxes can't keep increasing faster than the growth in our town wages, salaries, and retirement checks. Every year taxes take a bigger and bigger bite out of our incomes. That's unfair and unaffordable. We need a new approach to keep taxes in line with our incomes.
   
   
3. We need to run town government better - Town government belongs to all of us. We pay for it. We elect the selectmen who run it. We are entitled to good management, good service, fair and equal treatment, and good value for our tax dollars. We need to do better at running town government so it works for the people, and not the other way around.

10 New Ideas

1. Save our small town feel - New voluntary incentives for property owners to preserve fields, forests, and views.
   
   
2. Do more for our downtown - New voluntary incentives for businesses to invest in improving our downtown.
   
   
3. Help our new residents with winter road maintenance - Have the town handle plowing and winter maintenance of new subdivision roads, will full cost of reimbursement by the developers.
   
   
4. Self-funded Planning Department - Make the Planning Department at least partially self-funding, through user fees paid by developers.
   
   
5. Smart management to reduce big costs - Competitive bids for the town's lawyers, engineers, and other service providers.
   
   
6. Strict "public interest" test for revenue waivers - Don't give up town revenues due from private parties (such as impact fees) unless there's a clear public benefit.
   
   
7. Tackle skyrocketing town benefits costs - New citizen volunteer committee to help plan ahead and come up with fair, cost-effective solutions.
   
   
8. Expand "pay for performance" - More performance-based pay to motivate and reward town employees and to protect taxpayer interests.
   
   
9. Keep selectmen focused on the "big stuff" - New management approach for selectmen - delegate more to qualified town employees and spend more time on policy.
   
   
10. Openness and discipline on spending - New deal with taxpayers to be open and direct about budget choices and keep town tax increase in line with taxpayers' own wages, salaries, and retirement checks.