Crime & Safety

PASS ELECTIONS 2012: Banning City Council Candidate Don M. Peterson

There are six candidates running for three spots on the Banning City Council. The next forum is scheduled Monday Oct. 8 at Sun Lakes. In the coming days, Banning-Beaumont Patch will devote space to each of the six candidates.

The next Banning City Council candidates forum is scheduled Oct. 8 at Sun Lakes.

In the coming days, Banning-Beaumont Patch will devote space to each of the six candidates.

At the first forum Tuesday Oct. 2, businessman Don M. Peterson was the first to make closing remarks in Banning Council Chambers:

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Peterson: I had a closing statement prepared, but I think I'm gonna change it and go off the cuff, just on what's been said. Tonight I've heard several comments about a balanced budget.

A balanced budget to me, and coming from the business world, is a CPA term and it really doesn't mean a whole lot. When I see that well, we've balanced the budget and we've had to cover, correct a five million dollar loss, whatever, and balance this five million dollar deficit, well that five million dollar deficit comes from the interest that we're paying on bonds that we've hocked the city in.

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But when you take five million dollars of tax base that's no longer now going into the fund as revenue, yeah, then you know what, we need to make five million dollar cuts. In law enforcement, in whatever, parks, recreation, infrastructure, repairs, underground utilities, whatever that five million was going to go to, and keeping city hall open five days a week.

So for me the balanced budget doesn't really mean a whole lot other than the fact the CPA said 'You know what, we move these figures around and we've got us a balanced budget.' But the fact remains is that we're still five million dollars short on revenue. And the city's going to remain five million dollars short until like Art Welch says, that we get tax revenue and the tax base back in there.

The redevelopment agency took out a lot of money. You know, it took out a lot. The water bond issue, we can't count that, but the utility bond issue, that took out another two-and-a-half million per year in interest payments. And the city's coming into a shortfall. We're going to end up now having to pay interest on bonds at a higher rate than what we're getting for our money, which means that possibly with the shortfall we're going to have to dig into the general fund and bring that money out in order to pay . . . .

So we're not out of the crisis. The city's in a crisis, and I think really the people need to look at this. Thank you.

The candidates as they appear on Banning sample ballots are Art Welch, Larry L. Tucker, Edward Miller, Don Robinson, Adam Buchanan and Don M. Peterson.

Every registered voter in Banning will be able to vote for three candidates on Nov. 6.

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