The Post is sending this five-item questionnaire to candidates running for Fairway City Council.
We will publish candidates’ responses the week of Oct. 20, before early voting begins.
These questions are based, in part, on readers’ input.
The Post touched upon some of the same topics and more at our live, in-person candidate forum on Wednesday, Sept. 10. You can watch that forum here.
Here’s what we’re asking candidates:
- Background: Readers want to know something of your background. Briefly explain your education and employment history and how those experiences qualify you for this job.
- Property taxes: We frequently hear from readers urging cities to consider tax rate cuts or other relief to counteract the impacts of rising valuations in Johnson County. It’s the job of each city’s governing body to set your city’s annual mill levy, or property tax, rate. Is your city’s current tax rate appropriate for your city’s needs? Would you vote for steeper tax rate cuts, as residents often call for? Why or why not?
- Budget: From inflation to rising health insurance costs to uncertainty around federal grants and programs, municipalities are facing a number of budgetary pressures. As you face difficult decisions about what city services to fund and how much to spend in the coming years, what city services will you want to protect most? On the other hand, are there aspects of city spending you want to see trimmed?
- Fairway Shops: There has been changeover at the Fairway Shops and the former Houlihan’s remains vacant, frustrating some residents who look at improvements and growth at shopping centers in neighboring cities and would like to see something similar happen in Fairway. What is your vision for the Fairway Shops? And what can the city do to encourage the complex to be fully occupied and up to date?
- Parks master plan: Fairway is in the middle of writing its first-ever parks and recreation master plan, which is meant to guide long-term planning and capital spending priorities for the city’s parks and recreational spaces. What do you want do you want to see emphasized for the future of Fairway Parks & Rec?
