Central Oregonian

New Year’s resolutions our elected officials should make

January 15, 2013

As each New Year begins people throughout the country stop and take the time to make resolutions in order to better their own life, or those around them.

With that in mind, here are some resolutions that we would like to see from our public officials from the national level to the local level.

Nationally we would like to see our lawmakers and President Obama set aside partisan bickering and start working together. Instead of putting politics and reelection concerns ahead of the national good, it is time to finally address the national debt.

Lawmakers need to make the tough decisions that will finally get our national debt under control. The debt has passed 16 trillion and is continuing to expand. Entitlement programs including Social Security and Medicare are approaching bankruptcy, while the fiscal cliff with its tax increases and automatic cuts looms on the horizon.

It is time for politicians to quit playing the blame game and start working together to solve the problems.

On the state level we would also like to see lawmakers begin to work together. PERS is taking a huge chunk of the budget, and is costing county government and schools alike. Recent Oregon tax increases have hurt the business climate, while at the same time we have passed a tax break for Nike.

Once again it is time for politicians to start looking at the big picture and do what is best to improve the business climate for Oregon while providing for a stable tax base.

On the local level we recognize that Crook County and City of Prineville officials have worked hard to bring jobs to the community. We would like to see a continued effort to bring jobs to the community. We commend our officials for recruiting Facebook and Apple. However, data centers alone will not meet the economic needs of the citizens of Crook County.

We would like to see local officials work to ease red tape, improve infrastructure, and continue to work to draw new business into the community. Additionally, local lawmakers should work to ensure that existing businesses have the opportunity to expand.

Business concerns such as transportation, available energy, and adequate water supply need to be addressed on a continuous basis.

In addition, we would like to see Crook County High School and the continuing education system work together to ensure that Crook County has a qualified and trained work force.

With diversification, government support for business, good infrastructure, streamlined regulations, and an educated workforce, we believe that Crook County can once again become a vibrant healthy community.

Lastly, we would urge all government officials to not just give lip service to working together, but to take the difficult steps to build bridges and open lines of communications.

As many of us know from our own experiences, resolutions are easy to make, but hard to keep. Despite the best of intentions resolutions tend to wane. We ask our elected officials to buck that trend and make a difference that will last long into the future.