Buckeye RINO

Canoeing?

More shopping?

Norwalk tourism?

Whose priorities are those?

The Democrat candidate for Huron County Commissioner, Sharon Ward is putting the cart before the horse on some of her proposals, some of which are beyond wishful thinking–they are pipe dreams.

Her opponent, Larry Silcox, has a much more level-headed approach.

Even before the recent Wall Street crisis, back in March, Silcox was talking (to the Norwalk Reflector) about a prudent approach to the county’s budget,

“Certainly we’re going to have to tighten our budget.  I’ve been there before in tight budget times.  I campaigned on no new taxes and that’s exactly where I’m going to be.  The budget is super important the law requires that you have a balanced budget, but where do you make those cuts and how? That’s going to be a tough issue.  County government needs to downsize.”

The Norwalk Reflector, more recently, asked about the top priorities of Silcox and Ward as they head in to the home stretch of their election campaigns for the open Huron County Commissioner seat.

Silcox named trimming the county budget, combatting unemployment, and removing county-imposed obstacles to economic development as the top three priorities.

Ward is a financial planner.  Umm . . . perhaps Ward might want to keep mum on being a financial planner in the wake of the Wall Street meltdown.

She says she’s ready to address county budget issues.  Then she starts talking about other things she wants to do as a county commissioner:

Ward would also like to develop tourism in the county. “I think we have some assets in this county that we’re not using,” she said, adding that attractions such as canoeing could tie into the tourist industry in Erie County.

She also wants to encourage residents to spend their dollars in the county. “We need stores where we can buy things instead of going out of the county so we can keep those tax dollars here,” Ward said. “Every time we spend money at the mall in Sandusky, that money doesn’t go to our sheriff’s department, it goes to Erie County. We need more opportunities here.”

OK.  All in favor of having the Huron County Commissioners allocate their resources in pursuit of canoeing as a way to boost tourism, vote for Ward.  As for residents shopping within the county, it would help if there were more employment opportunities within the county.  If people who live in the county also work in the county, then their daily commutes would likely cause them to shop in the county.  Silcox is correct to put employment among the top priorities for the county.  Ward is putting the cart before the horse, hoping for people to spend without appropriate concern for hoping that people earn.

Why would Ward tout tourism and shopping so highly?  They generate sales taxes, which bring money to the county.  Maybe Ward isn’t so serious about trimming the county budget after all.