Colligan is a proven leader

To the editor:

In July, the Mat-Su Borough had nearly 3,500 people out of work and looking for jobs. We need local jobs.

Roughly one third of the Mat-Su workforce, or 14,000 people who have jobs, must commute out of the borough to work.

Add these two numbers together and we can see the borough needs to pursue economic development that will produce 17,000 local family wage jobs. We need local officials with expertise and drive who will lead the borough to jobs and a strong economy.

Steve Colligan is a proven business leader who knows how to create jobs, plan for the future, develop proper budgets and control costs — not just talk about it.

Steve’s opponent is a liberal Democrat, a genuine supporter of the Friends of Mat-Su who has been on the Platting Board and Planning Commission for more than 10 years.

His record is one of support for the programs that have limited economic development and local jobs. He is not a solution; he is a large part of the problem. He talks about being a conservative, but under his watch the cost of a building lot in order to meet regulations he helped put in place has increased approximately $37,000. Now a homeowner must annually pay an additional $518 in property taxes thanks to Mr. Johnson’s liberalism. He obviously is not the conservative he professes to be.

We need proven leadership like Steve Colligan who gets things done, not proven liberals who only talk about things and cost us money.

Aaron Downing

Palmer