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RUNESTAD'S POSTIONS
TAXES
My primary role as Commissioner is that of a tough-minded budget hawk. Accordingly, my first duty is to protect the pocketbooks of the taxpayers of White Lake and Waterford. In these tough times with declining state revenue and decreasing property values, we must work diligently to retain our hard-earned AAA bond rating by holding the line. I know that we can refuse to raise taxes and still keep the high quality of life we have worked so hard to develop in Oakland County.
JOBS
The next important task is to work with Brooks Patterson to diversify the economic base of Oakland County. I intend to focus on the Emerging Sectors initiative, which has identified ten sectors of future economic opportunity – providing Oakland County residents with hundreds of new high quality, high tech, good paying jobs. The initiative is already working. In the last three-and-a-half years, Oakland County has attracted over 9,000 new jobs and over one billion dollars in new investment. We’re going to keep that kind of solid progress going.
Coupled with the Emerging Sectors, I will work to continue to create new jobs by concentrating on growing Automation Alley. Automation Alley was started nine years ago and is a high-tech consortium which started with just 42 companies and has grown to over 867. Too few people know that southeastern Michigan has over 300,000 jobs in technology, 82,000 technology companies, and 184 research and development companies. The heart and soul of this exciting growth area is Automation Alley.
REGIONALISM
On this issue, I believe Brooks Patterson has stated it best:
“If there is a program put forth that is good for the City of Detroit and Wayne County, and good for Oakland County, clearly I’m in. I’ll be a supporter. If there is a program that is put forth that is good for Detroit and Wayne County and neutral to the interests of Oakland County, I’m in. I have no reason to oppose it. I’ll be there as a supporter. However, if there’s a program that is good for the City of Detroit and Wayne County, but injurious to the interests of Oakland County, I will oppose it.”
I’m with him 100 percent.
LANSING
My final goal is to get more of the dollars we already send to Lansing returned to us to support the construction and maintenance of Oakland County bridges, roads and highways.
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