Every dollar the county spends was taken from somebody who earned it. That should change how every vote on the Council feels.
A councilman is a steward of other people’s money. Not the government’s money. Yours.
Fiscal responsibility means treating it with more care than you would your own, because wasting your own money is a mistake and wasting the public’s money is a breach of trust.
What I believe
Every line has to earn its place
To ensure responsible management of your money, I want heavy scrutiny on budget line items.
We ought to be challenging ourselves to find not only what must be funded, but also what ought to be chopped. A program does not deserve funding this year just because it got funding last year.
No lifestyle creep
When a family’s income goes up, the smart ones bank the difference instead of upgrading everything.
Government does the opposite: revenue rises, and spending swells to meet it, then the new spending becomes next year’s baseline. Growth in revenue is not a reason to grow government. It is a chance to lower the levy and hand money back.
Live within our means, on paper and in fact
The county’s advertised 2027 budget totals $45.2 million, and it proposed a property tax levy of $11.17 million, up from $8.87 million certified for 2026.
That is a proposed increase of about 26 percent before the state reviews and trims it. Families across this county are tightening their belts. County government should be tightening faster, not asking for a bigger belt.
Outside money gets counted too
State and federal dollars are not free money and they are not invisible money.
Every grant and pass-through should be on the public record: how much came in, where it went, and what strings came with it. Money with strings is a policy decision disguised as a gift, and the Council should treat it that way.
Shift toward voluntary funding
I want to prioritize shifting LaGrange County toward a voluntary funding mechanism: services supported by the people who use and value them, donations and fundraising where they work, and a steadily smaller share taken by force.
That shift is gradual, and I will be honest about that. But every budget cycle should move the needle the right direction.
What I will do on the Council
The Council is the county’s fiscal body. Fiscal responsibility is not one issue for this office, it is the whole job description:
- Interrogate budget lines in public, and vote no on lines that cannot justify themselves
- Oppose levy increases and push the levy down when revenue growth makes room for it
- Cut wasteful spending and duplicative programs instead of trimming around the edges forever
- Demand a full public accounting of outside money and its strings before accepting more of it
- Publish plain-language breakdowns of where the money goes, so any resident can follow it
You work too hard for your money for the county to spend it carelessly. I will be a responsible steward of your tax dollars, and I will show the receipts.
No coercion. No extortion.