The Suzy Kelly Difference...

As a person who has run a business for over 30 years, I will take a different approach than most. Solving problems by gathering the facts, and involving those impacted by the issues is standard in business.

I am a person who truly believes that tax dollars are your money and my money. In order to lower taxes, we must either stimulate the economy, reduce spending, or both. My favored approach is to stimulate the economy. Having a thriving economy produces job opportunities for our citizens.

I believe in personal responsibility and in a culture that people-helping-people is preferred to government-helping-people. Wherever possible, I will create and support initiatives to this end. The more we as citizens are involved in helping others, the less we depend on the government.

ISSUES:

Economy: With economic indicators pointing to a downward trend in the national economy and with the downturn in the housing market, it is critical to plan for a downturn in the local economy. The essential components of stimulating the economy are to lower taxes and provide economic initiatives for businesses and job group. My plan for Chesapeake would be to:

• Lower real estate taxes to provide citizen's with tax relief.
• Offset the real estate tax relief with incentives that encourage new businesses to locate here and to provide initiatives for existing businesses to grow in Chesapeake.
• Support our industries on the port. Chesapeake has a strong waterfront presence that provides unique opportunities for businesses to locate here.
• Increase job opportunities with the initiatives for new and existing businesses to locate and expand here.

Transportation: Commerce is essential to the city and to the Hampton Roads region as a whole. Road projects as outlined by the MPO must be funded in order to keep our city, our region, and our port thriving. Stimulating our economy through ease of commerce will allow our localities to lower residential taxes. In addition, funding our transportation needs is essential to ensure adequate evacuation routes in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. I support funding these transportation needs with measures that minimize the impact on our citizens, particularly those on a fixed income. I will also provide the city with ideas that will help fund local road projects.

Public Safety: Providing safety for all the citizens of Chesapeake is a fundamental role of government. The city of Chesapeake has a critical need for more police officers and public safety equipment. I will create and support initiatives that encourage police officer recruitment and retention. Providing competitive salaries and benefits is an essential component of my plan.

Schools: Our public schools produce the future leaders of our city, state and nation. They are essential to providing a workforce prepared to meet the future workplace needs. We must ensure that our children have a safe learning environment free of gangs and drugs. Our growing gang problem must be addressed and aggressively tackled. Cooperation between city and school leadership will be required in order to make a difference. Codes of ethics should be considered as a foundation to character development of our future leaders.

Budget: As a private sector city council leader, I will be a budget hawk. I will encourage and develop measures that will enhance city services while creating city efficiencies. One such measure will be to reward city employees and departments that develop efficiencies and enhance city services while saving the city money.