Council candidates debate

Five county council candidates met on campus yesterday to answer questions posed to them by INPIRG, who hosted a debate at the Fine Arts building. \nThroughout the fall, INPIRG has been encouraging students to become educated about election issues and has been registering voters as well. \nWhile INPIRG encouraged involvement with the local government, the five present candidates vying for positions in four different county districts did the same. \nLucille Bertuccio, candidate in Dist. 1, said it is important for IU students to begin a habit of being involved in the local community. \n"Thinking about how you can relate to this town and what issues are important to you can be important," Bertuccio said. "I've always gotten involved with the issues. That's part of being a human being, that's part of caring."\nBertuccio, who said she has lived in the community for nearly 15 years, said she believes that keeping the environment beautiful is an important concern for the county council.\nThis was echoed by both Dist. 2 candidates present at the debate. Democrat Bill Hayden, a former Sierra Club lobbyist, said he was surprised to be the moderate in his race, rather than a liberal, because of the presence of Green party candidate Julie Roberts.\nRoberts said she is the only Green party candidate in the county council race, and she joined the party in 2000 during the Nader presidential campaign. Because she is a third party member, Roberts said it was important for her to declare her candidacy early, because she needed to collect signatures to be put on the ballot. \n"I declared early before anyone, even the incumbents, because as a third party candidate I wanted a head start," Roberts said. \nDist. 4 incumbent Mark Stoops stressed that the county council is a fiscal agency rather than a legislative body, so decisions on funding are the primary concern.\n"We shouldn't be funding things with taxpayer dollars that isn't benefiting everybody," Bertuccio said. \nCandidates at the debate repeatedly voiced concerns about the sprawl of Bloomington, and how the local economy influences that.\n"I'm an incumbent and I'm trying to look at what we fund to try to control urban sprawl, for instance," Stoops said. He said that tax abatements are currently greatly overused, and that the result is "subsidized sprawl."\nTax concerns were a major issue for other candidates as well.\n"I am demanding a tax increase to fund public services," Roberts said. "The thing about being a Green is I can do that. I'm not told by party contributors that I shouldn't." \nThe absence of Republicans at the debate allowed many comments to be made about ties between big business and Republican candidates. For example, Hayden said, "I have no ties to the real estate business in any way, but if you look at most of the Republican candidates, they do."\nThis is response to campaign statements that claim that more business in Bloomington will create more tax dollars for local government. Candidates present yesterday said this is simply not true.\n"People say we need more growth to get more revenue, but it's bologna!" Hayden said. He said because we live in a fast growing city, growth is expected, but incoming factories may not actually pay a living wage.\nStoops said that new residents for the county are not the fiscal answer either. He said for every dollar of tax revenue created by a new resident, the resident will cost the county $1.71 in needed improvements and infrastructure.\nDist. 3 candidate Robert Lentz said the monitoring of taxes and new jobs are key issues for his campaign.\n"I've been quoted as saying, 'Jobs, jobs, jobs.' I realize that's not really the council's job, but it can't hurt," Lentz said.\nINPIRG Board Chair Christine McGinley, junior, said she was disappointed with the turnout for the debate. \n"We expected more people than this. It's disappointing," McGinley said. Her group has been focusing on voter education this fall.\n"We haven't seen a lot of voter education initiative on this campus and we think it's important," McGinley said.