This was sent to me by Kasim Reed’s campaign:
I’m running for Mayor because I love Atlanta. Our city is a treasured place which gave me countless opportunities when I was growing up. But Atlanta is in a crisis right now and is at the most challenging point I have seen in my lifetime. We need tough, tested leadership to deal with these challenges. Atlanta needs new leadership for a new direction – not more of the same.
What I offer is a solid record of delivering results for the city of Atlanta. For the last eleven years, I have had the distinct privilege of serving Atlanta in the Georgia Legislature, with four years in the House and seven years in the Senate. During this time, I gained an intimate and detailed understanding of the problems facing residents and have worked on issues important to every Atlantan, including public safety, transportation and education.
When we had to overhaul our water and sewer system and it was on the verge of being taken over by the Federal government, I worked tirelessly to secure $500 million in low interest loans and passed the legislation to allow the city to levy a one penny sales tax that has helped us keep our water rates lower than they would have otherwise been.
When the Atlanta Board of Education needed to rewrite and strengthen its ethics policy, I pushed through that legislation making it the most comprehensive ethics reform in its history. And most recently, when the Beltline was at risk of shutting down, I helped lead the effort to pass a constitutional amendment that got it back on track.
When I have been asked to deliver for the City of Atlanta, I have and I will continue to do so if elected mayor. But to move Atlanta forward, we need to tackle three distinct challenges facing us.
As your mayor, enhancing public safety will be the focal point of my administration. I have made fully funding and expanding our police force a central campaign issue since day one. The current City Council has raised property taxes by 42% and I will re-direct a portion of that revenue to add 750 police officers to the force in my first term. It is critical that we do absolutely everything we can to improve public safety, or we risk reversing the progress we have invested so much time and money to produce here in the City.
In a Reed administration, I will empower law enforcement, as it has never been empowered before, to deal with these violent and organized gangs that are plaguing our city. More optimistically, I will turn all of Atlanta’s abandoned recreation centers into Centers of Hope – – havens of esteem and education where our young people can be trained in science and technology as opposed to drugs and violence.
Atlanta must restore sound fiscal policy. City Hall’s troubles are certainly worsened by the economy, but they also follow some unsound prior choices. Addressing our financial woes must start with solving Atlanta’s pension crisis. As a result of irresponsible decisions by the City Council over the past eight years, the city’s pension obligations have ballooned to unsustainable levels. One of every five dollars in the general fund must now be allocated to our pensions. No city, or indeed any organization, can operate on sound financial footing when such a significant portion of its revenue is dedicated towards deferred benefits rather than current service delivery.
Our pension funding shortfall is the single largest contributor to Atlanta’s fiscal crisis, forcing layoffs, furloughs of public safety officers and cuts to vital services. During the 2009 legislative session we took the first step towards rescuing the City’s pension funds. I was the Senate sponsor of HB 371, which will allow the City to invest pension funds in a more diverse group of asset classes – a strategy historically shown to improve performance. Going forward, I would assemble a team of experts in pension fund governance to develop reforms to be implemented during the first year of my term. I would also work with other mayors to lobby Washington to modify some of the onerous requirements that have been recently imposed. My relationships at the federal and state level make me uniquely qualified to pursue relief and assistance from those levels of government.
With regard to economic development, the city needs to take an active role to ensure that we both maintain and preserve the economic development we have worked so hard to realize. There are a number of once-in-a-generation opportunities that currently face us – the Beltline and Ft. McPherson are two of the most exciting redevelopment projects that Atlanta has faced in decades. We have an opportunity for enormous economic development if we expand the airport into a twenty-four hour operation by enhancing Hartsfield-Jackson’s mission as an international cargo hub. Because of its proximity to rail and the Savannah ports, expansion of cargo business will make Atlanta highly competitive with Dallas and Miami, and create opportunities for international business with Latin America, Mexico, Asia and Europe, as well as create countless jobs in the City of Atlanta–not just maintenance and warehouse jobs, but jobs for entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Additionally, I would work with the federal government to develop high-speed rail lines throughout the Southeast, further cementing Atlanta’s regional hub and leadership status in the vital logistics and transportation industries. The nexus of Georgia Tech, Emory, and the CDC give us an incredible base for leading in bio-technology research and development. Atlanta is blessed with many such assets and opportunities, and as Mayor I would actively partner with the private and non-profit sectors to leverage those assets and opportunities into growth and wealth for Atlanta in the 21st Century.
As Mayor, I will address these issues currently facing the city. These are serious challenges. But like most challenges, this is a great opportunity for us to work together to find solutions. Our best days lie before us, not behind us. I am going to make sure that Atlanta is once again that city on a hill that Dr. King and so many others worked to create.
Join me today to move Atlanta in a new direction.
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