Each week through the General Election, The Breeze will ask the candidates for Cape Coral City Council an issue-related question. In the interest of fairness, each candidate is limited to the same amount of words, about 100, for their response.

This week’s question:

What is your first impression of the city’s working budget for the next fiscal year?

District 7 candidates’ answers:

Michael David Harper

I was happy to see that the initial proposed budget had a 10.18% reduction, or $111 million dollars decrease. However, with all the issues that we face with our roadways, I would like to see some of the money being saved go towards fixing those issues now before they become more of a problem down the road.

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Rachel Kaduk

RachelKaduk.com

At first glance, it may look like a tax cut, but taxes will increase. The millage rate proposed is lower than the current rate, however, we have had growth, and our assessed valuation has increased in most cases. The budget is planning to increase assessments and water bills. The FSA is increasing by 16.47%. The Roll Back Rate keeps taxes the same as the prior year except for growth. Growth is $1.8B this year in assessed valuation, a tax increase of $10.5M. Homestead exemption does not protect against assessment increases. There’s work to do to keep our taxes low.