JACKSON, Wyo. — The countdown to Election Day is on, so Town Council candidates shared their stance on a few of Jackson’s most critical issues.
Town Council candidates Scott Anderson, Devon Viehman, Perri Stern and Kevin Regan each responded to three questions from Buckrail:
- What are ways to eliminate the Town’s budget deficit?
- What are ways to better manage building density?
- What is the Town’s role in managing traffic?
Budget deficit
Anderson told Buckrail that the budget, which is four million dollars short this year, needs a foundational review and a zero-based budget reconstruction. According to Fidelity Investments, a zero-based budget must justify all new payments for a new period, and will start from zero and adjust as needed.
“The Town management must determine the most important services and fund them first, and then seek additional revenue without increasing property tax,” Anderson said.
Viehman also supports starting with a zero-based budget to tackle the deficit problem.
“Zero-based budgeting forces us to evaluate every expense from scratch, rather than just tweaking last year’s numbers,” Viehman said. “While it takes more time, that extra effort often reveals non-essential spending that can be cut, freeing up funds for the priorities that really matter.”
Stern explained that reducing expenses entails carefully scrutinizing the budget, assessing all expenditures and determining better efficiency measures.
“We will need to eliminate redundancies and non-essential expenditures in our government, but protect and fund the essential services that are critical for our town’s functioning, e.g. water, sewer, streets, public safety, behavioral and mental health services,” Stern said.
She also said that Town needs to explore creative ways to raise revenue by targeting visitors, absentee second homeowners and developers.
Regan told Buckrail that he looks forward to building consensus to make balanced budget decisions.
“The Town has had to tap into reserves in the last two budget cycles,” Regan said. “It’s going to take a combination of increasing revenues and reducing expenditures to right the financial ship.”
Regan suggested some potential strategies including: working with the County to refine the funding split between Town and County, exploring a lodging tax increase and being very careful about additional hires.
Building density
In reference to the Town’s emergency building moratorium, Anderson said that Town Council must review the underlying rules that allowed for large building density in the first place. He added that zoning needs to be reexamined, and the moratorium needs to rewrite rules to reduce the bulk and scale of buildings.
“It should create a tool that allows developers to work with the Town to be more creative in achieving community goals, similar to the planned mixed use development tool that was in place previously,” Anderson said.
Viehman said that zoning needs to be amended to allow for multi-family units. She also explained that Town can implement strategies from “progressive planning” to include not only the physical aspects of development, but also the social, economic and environmental impacts.
“Now is our chance to take a fresh look and make adjustments that truly reflect the community’s needs,” Viehman said. “It’s time to bring back the yards and trees that make our town special.”
Stern said that overdevelopment in Town is one of her priority concerns. She added that managing density means anticipating and mitigating the broad impacts of development before they happen.
“Our town desperately needs a clear and realistic vision for how we move forward and evolve as a community,” Stern said. “We must tackle the comprehensive, interrelated, big picture issues regarding development and its impacts on our town, our lives.”
Regan says that it’s necessary to strike a balance between preserving community character and private property rights. He suggested revisiting the 2:1 density bonus tool, which provides more affordable housing per square foot, and spending time to complete a more comprehensive review of the Land Development Regulations.
Managing traffic
Anderson said that the START Bus, which is managed by the Town, must be focused on commuter passengers to help reduce the number of cars that drive into Jackson from Star Valley and Teton County.
“We need continued cooperation with the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) on HOV lane management and road construction/repair management,” Anderson stressed.
Viehman also agreed that Town needs to work more closely with WYDOT to reduce traffic impacts. In reference to the recent paving of Broadway, she said that crews could have planned from the start to end work by 4 p.m.
“People in our town are already under enough stress, and we shouldn’t add to it by failing to plan ahead for major projects like this,” Viehman said. “I also understand staffing can be a challenge, but having people direct traffic at key intersections during such disruptions would help ease frustrations.”
Stern said that public transportation needs to become more convenient and desirable.
“Let’s increase START’s capacity, encourage employer, resort and business incentives to use public transportation, increase and broaden bus and micro-transit opportunities throughout town and consider creative ways to fund parking and parking minimums,” Stern said.
Regan stressed that he regularly uses public transportation and serves as a volunteer on the START Board. He said that Town needs to improve traffic signal timing and increase transportation alternatives that work for everyone, whether walking, biking, driving or using START.
“The Town should continue to work with START to reduce single occupancy vehicle travel and increase transportation alternatives, such as bus service and START On Demand,” Regan said.
Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Early voting is now open.
