For the past several years, our country and cities have been struggling to maintain public services with declining revenues.
Our public school buildings and infrastructure are worn out, yet we can’t raise taxes to replace them.
As we continue down this path, we will eventually decrease our quality of life, seriously impact the education of our children or raise taxes beyond the capacity of the average citizen.
The alternative is to substantially increase the tax base countywide.
This means attracting private capital investment on a larger scale than we currently are.
There was a time when taxes on industry and businesses paid more than half the cost of our new school buildings, operation levies and other expensive structures.
To bring long-term investments into Clallam County, we need political leadership with the experience and knowledge in how, where and why businesses invest their capital.
Clallam County commissioner candidate Randy Johnson is one of those leaders who has managed and expanded an international timber company for many decades.
He has been involved with financial markets and is familiar with the business-investment people and processes.
Sustaining vital public services and infrastructure must become a significant priority in our immediate future.
We need Randy Johnson for Clallam County commissioner now.
Orville Campbell,
Port Angeles
Campbell is a former deputy mayor of Port Angeles.