Al Rivett’s Three Point Plan

CREATE JOBS

St. Lucie County needs a comprehensive review of its economic development efforts.  Although the Economic Development Council has been successful in marketing to bio-tech and other technology companies, our community does not pursue all job creation opportunities.

Are we ready to meet the needs of future technology spin-offs or help establish other home-grown, entrepreneurial companies?  Why don’t we routinely visit our targeted industries to retain their businesses and facilitate their expansions?  Why don’t we proactively seek TV & Motion Picture location productions?  Why do we rely on billboards at the landfill to promote our community to those traveling through St. Lucie County?

I am calling for development of an innovative job creation initiative that will leave no stone unturned and will marshal public and private resources necessary to enhance St. Lucie County’s success in creating jobs for its residents.

IMPROVE BUSINESS CLIMATE

Marketing is part of the battle.  Businesses locate in communities in which they are likely to be profitable.  To insure St. Lucie County is and will remain competitive, it must be (1) fiscally responsible and (2) free of burdensome regulation and permitting.

Raising taxes is not an answer.  Government must be fiscally responsible, using your tax dollars in the most efficient and effective manner. Efficiency often results in the consolidation of departments and flattening of organizational structure. Effectiveness, however, speaks to the actual need of those departments and their respective programs. A new viewpoint is needed.  Funding “band-aid” programs must be replaced with support for new approaches that deal with the root of problems and not just their symptoms.

Government regulation, although necessary, is often unreasonable and burdensome.  The result is missed business locations and their resulting jobs.  Welcoming businesses doesn’t stop with their location announcement.  Respecting their investment, now and into the future, will lead to subsequent expansions within our community.

I will bring a new perspective to the County Commission, one that will build and maintain a positive business climate and, in doing so, create jobs and improve the economic well-being for all St. Lucie County residents.

ELIMINATE POVERTY

The 1960′s “war on poverty” resulted in public assistance on which many became reliant and thereby exacerbating the problem of generational poverty.  Welfare reform in the 1990′s was a step in the right direction, but it didn’t provide the practical measures needed by families to transform their future.  As recently as 2010, poverty was identified by one child advocacy group (Roundtable of St. Lucie County) as the root problem for the issues it addresses.

Today, we need to have an expectation that “all families can enjoy prosperity, no exceptions“.  We must help families identify and avail themselves to resources (of which financial is only 1 of 9) needed to end the cycle of poverty.  If we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, we must take action.  I am calling for all of St. Lucie County to be part of an initiative to end poverty in our community.