Why I Decided to Run for Celina City Council Place 3
We have gone from ~19000 people in 2019 to around ~53000 people in 2023 and our sales tax revenue has gone from ~$1.5M to ~4M in the same time. The brunt of the infrastructure demands are being borne by the property owners and the tax foundation necessary to maintain our roads, law enforcement, water, sewer, public works, fire departments and schools is not in place.
I don’t know if you are all aware of the recent issues with lack of capacity in our water and sewer and the >$135M dollar investment that will be required to support communities already in development or committed to.
The taxpayer will pay for that through bonds. Bonds that likely would not have been necessary if we had been more thoughtful about our growth.
Growth is going to happen. We want it to happen, but it needs to be more forward thinking and the right foundations need to be built to support it.
Unrestrained Residential Growth
The amount of Celina Citizens property tax that goes to support our schools is almost double that of what is received by the city
Last year Prosper had to pass a $2.8 Billion dollar bond to deal with explosive growth and a few weeks ago we were told in a town hall meeting with the Celina ISD superintendent that the $600M dollar bond passed in 2019 that was supposed to last us until 2029 will be gone by 2025 and as tax payers we will be presented with at least a $2 Billion dollar bond to see us through another 10 years.
This is what an unbalanced approach to growth gets you, major tax increases paid for by property owners and not a strong, stable commercial tax base.
My opponent voted for all these residential tax incentives. The citizens of Celina are now going to pay for these shortsighted decisions.
Why Do You Think the Citizens of Celina Should Support You
I have seen the results of poor decisions, such as hundreds of millions in Residential Developer welfare and the lack of action preparing for that explosive growth that those incentives created leading to an overburdening of our water/sewer, police, fire and public works, I cannot sit idly by anymore and not take action.
This is what led me to run for Celina City Council place 3.
Andy Hopkins voting record supporting residential developer welfare and his lack of action on a water/sewer system that is and has been over loaded for years shows me and hopefully many other voters in Celina that there needs to be a change.
I have taken significant heat from people supporting Andy Hopkins and he should feel lucky that he has a group of passionate supporters.
I think it is worth it to share an alternative solution to the poor decisions that got us where we are at.
Apathy is a sin of Omission, actively voting for decisions that put the Citizens of Celina in a bad situation, regardless of intent, is a sin of Commission .
Sin is Sin. I have repented of mine and resolve to do better and be more involved.