The city of Compton municipal elections are nearly a month away. On April 18th voters will be asked to select their mayor, two council members, attorney, clerk and treasurer. 2 Urban Girls asked city council candidates how they would increase revenue in the city. Third district candidate Robert Ray has ideas on how to raise money. Does it make sense to you?
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You ask how I would bring revenue into the city. There are several ways to start, and believe it or not, does not require using any extra city resources to make it happen.
First we need to clean up our city and make it desirable for business to want to come. We have our public works department, who, in my opinion, are not doing enough to keep our city clean. With the number of city employees out and bout every day there is no reason for them to not be picking up trash and debris left on streets and parkways.
Next we need to get the owners of all these empty storefronts on our major thoroughfares to make their buildings inviting by giving them a face lift.
The combination of these two things will start to attract small businesses that will want to occupy these storefronts which will start to generate more tax revenues for the city. And will also create jobs for our residents.
And, speaking of businesses, there are many business operating without licenses. Making these business obtain a business license would help, and issuing citations for operating without a license would bring in revenue.
Next, we need to restructure our fee schedule. Contractors who are working on large projects pay the same fees as a homeowner making a small renovation to their home. This is but one example. There are many similar circumstances.
And my last comment here. We have so many municipal codes and ordinances that are not being enforced. We have our code enforcement folks, and if they would give citations to everyone who is violating our codes this would start generating a lot of revenue.
These may all seem to be small issues, but they do add up to big money. And while this may not generate revenue, being more careful on how the city spends the revenue it has would definitely save some.
