Paul Skidmore Outlines Reelection Platform and Goals

1) Public safety is the foundation of my campaign. If our neighborhoods are not safe, we do

not have a viable community. We can keep our community safe utilizing a range of solutions:

a. We need to provide education on community and personal safety and violence prevention in our homes, schools, workplaces, and throughout the community.

b. We need violence interruption programs with trained personnel that can respond to incidents and defuse them before they get violent.

c. We need well a well-trained and equipped police department that has the authority to respond and end any threat to the citizens and properties in the City of Madison.

d. We need a well-trained and equipped fire department, including ambulances and EMS personnel to serve all of our neighborhoods in a timely manner.

2) Development and maintenance of our public infrastructure is essential to our community

health, welfare, and vitality.

a. We need to maintain a well-planned system of streets, sewer, water, parks, urban forests, libraries, and other public facilities to serve the needs of residents, businesses, and visitors and maintain the high quality of living that we love.

b. We need to make a commitment to adequately maintain our public infrastructure in a timely manner.

c. We need to preserve and protect existing natural resources and restore degraded natural resources where possible and feasible.

3) It is critical that we adopt City budgets (capital and operational) that focus on our prioritized need and our revenues. The City of Madison has been in a budget crisis for a number of years, due in no small part to the spending priorities of past City Councils. The Council has passed numerous capital budgets that fund projects thought borrowing. This borrowing results in debt service that we have repay through operational budgets in future years. In 2021, Madison must spend about $60+ million dollars in debt service (which means that those funds cannot be used on services and programs that would benefit the public). My

budget priorities are:

a. Provide adequate funding for public safety programs (police, fire, and EMS, Cares).

b. Provide adequate funding for public works programs (streets, sewers, water, parks, libraries, administration, etc).

c. Provide adequate funding for community services (public housing, public health, neighborhood centers, senior services, etc).

d. Provide funding for economic development programs and services.

e. Prepare responsible budgets that balance capital borrowing and increase spending of public programs and services.

4) Private development is the engine that drives the vitality of our City and its neighborhoods.

a. We need to promote and encourage good, orderly development that follows adopted plans in all our neighborhoods that will meet community needs, provide jobs for construction and service professions, and provide the tax revenues that fund our City programs.

b. We must encourage and assist in the planning and development of a wide range of housing opportunities for all of our residents. We need to promote and assist in the development of affordable and accessible housing for seniors, veterans, and those who are struggling with homelessness.

c. We need to reduce and eliminate the bureaucratic barriers to good orderly development to make it easier and more efficient for businesses to develop and grow sustainable businesses.

5) The role of the alder is to represent constituent interests, solve their problems, answer their questions, and advocate for them at City Hall.

I worked very hard as alder for 20 years to represent all of my constituents and I enjoyed my service to them. If elected, I will return the focus on meeting the needs of the residents of the 9th district.