Candidate Forum

Candidate Forum tonight .... doors open 6:30 at Isanti Middle School .... wear your Wimmer t-shirts in support ....

Ever Cat Fuels still Paying Off

Another great offshoot of Ever Cat Fuels and the Mcgyan Process. Our entire area has benefited and continues to benefit from this venture into green technologies.

https://isanticountynews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9157&Itemid=1

Over 110,000

We have reached another milestone of over 110,000 page views.....

Business Development by the Numbers

28 new jobs ( 50% are $20 or more an hour) and $3,202,648 in new tax base generated by our recent economic development.

 $109,000 in new property taxes ($34,752 City Portion) will be generated in our community for the City, County and School District.

$33,000 in Park and Recreation fees

$92,532 in SAC/WAC fees

$24,100 in Trunk Utility fees

$36,000 in Collector Street fees

11,082 in Signal Light fees 

First year of tax and other payments to the City is $231,898. By year 4 the total $350,000 in economic incentives will have flowed back to the City. 

Voters Guide of all Local Races

http://isanticountynews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9109

Email Down

My email is down today so if you need to contact me call or text me at 763-442-8749

Main Street Rail Crossing getting Fixed

Should be completed by Thursday 

Poll Results

The results for "Should there be at least 1 person from the City of Isanti on the Cambridge/Isanti School Board"

Yes 60

No 25

Lets get Erika Zdon elected to our School Board

Churchill's Wisdom

Throughout a campaign there are good days and bad and sometimes the grind can wear on a person. Things like every morning waking up to some intellectuality lazy person try to post "Wimmer is a F%$&ing Idiot" on this blog as an example. The rumor mongers also seem to get extra energy for their lie spinning in October - my personal favorite of late is that I want to sell the City liquor store so I can buy it - crazy lie but entertaining at least.

Sometimes I let this nonsense get to me which then causes my family great stress. Sir Winston Churchill has a great quote I often use - "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give". Service is incredibly important to me and my family. This will not ever change and as the nonsense grows so does my resolve to win this election and to fight everyday for the City of Isanti. 


Now on to the great news of the last week. We sent out over 1600 post cards and the response has been wonderful. Over 100 emails, text and phone calls supporting our campaign. Blog and website hits have shot through the roof. Our message of "Realistic Optimism" as Churchill put it is resonating with the voters. Isantians know we have an incredibly difficult time ahead of us with tough choices to make but are optimistic that together we will triumph over the Great Recession. 


We have 3 more weeks to get the message out and each week will see another layer of that message being shared with the Citizens and Taxpayers of Isanti. I want to thank everyone for their tremendous support. To help in the last 3 weeks call or text me at 763-442-8749 or email me at george@georgewimmer.com 

A Rosey Scenario it is Not

I have heard a few interesting comments from some critics that do not grasp the gravity of the situation Isanti and many other cities are in. Cities across the state are having their revenues slashed by 20% to 60% in many areas. This is not a simple lets just hope things get better on their own and lets not cut any cost. Isanti has lost over $500,000 in revenue and we have had roughly $500,000 in non-payment of taxes and assessments. This compares to a total budget of $3.35 million dollars. The new businesses we just added will help and the ones in the pipeline will be positive as well but as anyone who knows how property taxes work it will be several years before the full value of those businesses come online.

I am truly amazed how my critics and my opponent in this election keep taking digs at the tough decision we must make in the City especially since they were never ever at any budget meetings or work sessions or Council meetings. I hope everyone caught that... my opponent was never at any single meeting where the budget or any other items were discussed yet seems to be pontificating solutions to problems he does not understand.

These are serious times and we need serious people to solve the problems we face. The millions in unnecessary debt the previous Council took on for east 65 expansion that should have been paid for by the developer is weighing us down. I voted against these bad decision but have inherited them and must continue to work to fix them. This is what governing is all about - taking the problems we face and creating solutions. The situation with our labor dispute with our police union (it especially pains me that the possibility an officer getting cut exist since it was my proposal to hire the last officer) and issues facing us with our liquor store operations all are parts of a much bigger picture. The Police budget accounts for $930,474 out of $3,354,000 or  28% of our budget. To think we can continue expand this budget and not have to raise taxes is ridiculous. The Police budget must be cut as all other departments were cut. With property values going down throughout the country, our state and our county we face a fall off of revenues and increased demands for services and employee cost - something must give. You can not honestly promise all things to all people.

We have cut over 10% of our City work force since I became Mayor in anticipation of the new economic reality. Not one Police Officer or public works employee was released due to the budget but now with the Police Unions actions this may have to change. The numerous new businesses we have in town help offset the harsh reality of City revenues but we face a new reality.

We have had over 3 dozen new and expanding businesses in Isanti and now this month we added 5 more with several more in the pipeline. The added tax base and good paying jobs are helping to transform our City into a self sustaining entity. We are transitioning from a bedroom community dependent upon the state to a community that can make its own way. We face tremendous challenges but together we can accomplish this goal.

We have improved the City's credit rating to A+ and have aadministrative cost 33% less than other cities in our peer group. We have done great things preparing our City for these tough times But since my opponent has never attended any of these important meetings I can understand why he has no idea the issues we face as a city.... I just hope at some point he will take some interest in the actual meat and potatoes of running the City.....

November 2nd will decide who you want to solve all these and many more problems we will face as a City..... We did not cause the Great Recession but together we will face each challenge and painful decision. There are no pie in the sky easy answers and there will be tough times ahead but I will work every day to help move our City forward.

Many ways to stay in Touch

Follow me on Twitter @  http://twitter.com/MayorWimmer

on Facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/GeorgeAWimmer

online here or at www.georgewimmer.com

Call or text me at 763-442-8749

Candidate Forum

October 28th Candidate Forum 7pm at the Isanti Middle School

Only thing I do not like about the Forum is several of the questions have been supplied to candidates so they can be "prepared" to answer. So who knows who is really answering the question - the candidate may just be reading someone else's words....

BNSF Confirms Main St Crossing Repair

We received a confirmation from BNSF that they will fix the Main St Railroad crossing starting October 12th and that the work should be completed in 3 days.

The Great Recessions impact on Cities

A pretty good article on the impact of the Great Recession on cities.... cities are faced with years of declining revenue and escalating employee cost. It is critically important to have a Council that will make the hard decisions.

http://www.nlc.org/PRESSROOM/PRESSRELEASEITEMS/CityFiscalConditions2010.aspx

Interesting Council Meeting

I will write more tomorrow but wanted to comment on a few items from tonight's Council meeting. We had a good introduction to the 5 new and expanding businesses in Isanti this month. We talked about the millions in added tax base, dozens of new jobs and the infrastructure fees that will be paid to the City.

************ We will be receiving over $140,000 in back taxes and assessments along with tens of thousands of dollars of sac/wac and other fees to help fill our dwindling coffers. *****************

The other item of note tonight was the on going liquor store discussion. We basically summed it up this way - we need good information to make good decisions. I want to keep the store if we can prove it is doing what it should. I also left the Council with a statement at the end of the meeting. I am done bringing this issue up until the Council is willing to make a decision on what to do. It does no good to keep rehashing the issue with zero progress. If the Council is willing to let the liquor store continue on its current path then so be it - I have raised the alarm what that will do to our general fund budget in the years to come.

63 Police Departments have Folded or Merged in Minnesota

Interesting follow up story to Mora's decision to eliminate their police department....

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/09/09/ground-level-cities-in-crisis-public-safety/