Election 2026 | Question of the Week 10, District 1
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 space, about 100 words, for their response.
Cape Coral City Council races are non-partisan races. Council members qualify in their respective districts but are elected at-large. This means all registered city voters may cast a ballot in each race regardless of where they live and the party to which they are affiliated, if any. This year’s General Election, on Nov. 3, features four Cape Coral City Council races: Mayor and the seats for District 1, 4 and 6.
The candidates below are running for the District 1 Cape Coral City Council seat:
Question of the Week: If Amendment 3 passes, how would you address the drop in revenue from property taxes?
• David Newton
I believe Amendment 3 will pass, and as a city we must prepare now for its impact on our budget. We need to get our spending under control and balance the budget before the revenue decline occurs. That means eliminating frivolous spending and prioritizing essential services and the needs of our residents. We also need to recognize that Cape Coral is still growing. I will work to expand our commercial tax base and attract responsible businesses to help offset property tax shortfalls. We need to work smarter so we are not continually relying on taxpayers’ backs.
• Tom Shadrach
Much of the problem can be solved with the surplus funds that are generated from our conservative financial budget policies. In addition to correcting our policies, our largest costs is staffing. Freezing hiring would be a starting position to allow the time to deep dive into our costs to better determine cost savings. Our city management does not know how to cut costs, this will be a new learning curve for them to do. Also, lobbying the state for a larger piece of municipal sharing need to be pursued. The state has large surpluses that need to be used to help Cape Coral through this change.