What about you??

So far in the campaign, all of the candidates (including me) have been talking about city funding. As in either how to create more money for the city or such things as tightening the proverbial belts to reduce spending. All of the conversation is interesting enough and you are free to make up your own minds on who would do the best thing along those lines.

Today I'm talking about the Kingman resident.

Have we really looked around recently?? Are we listening to what is happening??

I hear more about good people getting laid off from their jobs, I see places of business going under and closing, and none of it feels good.

I realize that Kingman and most of Arizona is beholden to housing, construction, development, and investment markets and right now the market stinks for all of the above.

Yet at this very same moment there are many interests that seem to be willing to infuse local and growing markets with real capital. Often we hear that it "takes money to make money" and well yes it does. So why is half of this community bent on interfering with the interests that want to bring their money here?? Who here locally is proposing large scale projects that have the ability to create opportunities for anyone motivated enough to capitalize??

I know of one major project that could qualify, but the locals involved have made it clear that they are willing to wait another five or so years in order to have the taxpayer of Arizona pay for most, if not all, of the project before any infusion of capital takes place.

Do you think that the folks getting laid off or the business owners under financial pressure can afford to wait around that much longer before things get better?? I say the answer is no. This local economy is deteriorating right now when it doesn't necessarily have to.

I hear people talk about the housing market locally all the time and many say that the home prices are way too high for what the typical Kingman resident makes income wise. This may very well be true and I'm not trying to argue on the side of higher home prices, that market needs to take care of itself. However, I have some data that shows the household median income for residents in Mohave County in the year 2000 was just a bit over $28,000. That number jumped up to $34,000 by the end of 2006. The main reason for this was the influx of money coming into the economy. Investors, developers, contractors... local or otherwise were contributing and the community was benefiting... the residents were benefiting.

In the last year though we saw in public efforts to defeat more infusion of capital in the area. Today we are seeing out of business signs and good people getting laid off. That is hardly a coincidence.

Do you want to have MORE opportunities next year?? The solution is simple really. It is time to reach out to those that have an interest to invest in our community. It is time to have an open conversation to see if there is a solution that could work towards yielding benefits to the Kingman resident. Can or will these interests with capital create jobs, create new business opportunity, and/or promote further infusion of capital from other sources that may have been on the fence about investing in Kingman?? If the answer is yes, we must make the right decision and move forward.