Hyde wants to be Jacksonville's mayor in 2011

[thelakelander]

Jacksonville City Councilman Kevin Hyde entered the mayor’s race Tuesday, becoming the third high-profile candidate in what is likely to be a crowded field for the open seat in 2011.

Hyde, a lawyer who has been on the council six years, said his top campaign issue is renewing the city’s focus on creating jobs and building the local economy.

The city, he said, needs to show fiscal restraint â€" to keep taxes low and have money available if the opportunity arises to land a corporate headquarters or other large economic development project.

“We don’t need to be running so close to the bone,” Hyde said. “We want to be able to do what we have to do to bring somebody in.”

full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-11-10/story/hyde_wants_to_be_jacksonvilles_mayor_in_2011

[mtraininjax]

Hyde... said his top campaign issue is renewing the city’s focus on creating jobs and building the local economy.

He is the only candidate I have heard that is discussing the jobs and the desire to bring more corporate HQ to Jacksonville. We need more jobs now to put people back to work, and generate the velocity of money for our local economy.

[tufsu1]

Didn't Peyton campaign on the same premise?

[copperfiend]

No.

Hot dog carts.

[Springfielder]

He would, IMO, just be more of the same...and we don't need that

[JeffreyS]

I would like to hear a candidate say something along the lines of Jacksonville should do "this" great thing. Lets make Jacksonville more attractive to businesses by improving the quality of life here.

His basic premise seemed to be less spend less money on Jacksonville and it's people so we can give it to a corporation.

[copperfiend]

I want someone who isn't satisfied with landing distribution warehouses and call centers.

[thelakelander]

I hope "stimulating" economic development equates to about enhancing Jacksonville's quality of life and is more than just keeping taxes low.  He's been a council member for two terms.  What type of visionary economic development producing ideas has he bought forward or helped implement during this time?

[civil42806]

Another political Hack

[thelakelander]

Wasn’t Hyde the Council President during the taking down Aunt Jemima/Uncle Tom cotton balls fiasco that ended up on national news?

[cline]

Wasn’t Hyde the Council President during the taking down Aunt Jemima/Uncle Tom cotton balls fiasco that ended up on national news?

That's correct.  He had Jackie Brown banned from meetings for a period of time.

[heights unknown]

Who is he, who was he, who does he hope to be?

Heights Unknown

[jim minion]

We should also remember that Hyde is the richest lawyer on the Council who wanted taxpayers to pay his legal bills because he was a subject of the toothless investigation for ethics violations on the Council. Also, his actions against Jackie Brown cost the city a lawsuit which Jackie won and funded her campaign for Mayor. That's the kind of leadership we got from CM Hyde as Council President. What can we expect from him as Mayor?

[stjr]

Hyde, a lawyer who has been on the council six years, said his top campaign issue is renewing the city’s focus on creating jobs and building the local economy.

Code words for "I want to bail out developers by encouraging more urban sprawl"?

The city, he said, needs to show fiscal restraint â€"

Let's see, we just undercut our property tax revenues, suffered more revenue losses due to the economy, and had the most ardent budget hackers on the City Council Finance Committee fail to find any significant areas to continue cutting in, and we STILL need to show fiscal restraint?  Where was Councilman Hyde when we needed him?  What is he going to propose as mayor he couldn't propose as a councilman?  Did he forgo his council pay?  His aide?  Travel budget?  Sky box? Is he prepared to do battle with the police and fire unions over pensions?  I didn't see him talk about that?

...to keep taxes low and have money available if the opportunity arises to land a corporate headquarters or other large economic development project.

Yep, let's gut our quality of life with even lower taxes than now.  And, with that "fiscal restraint" where do we find money to bribe a corporation to move here?  Close a few libraries to make it happen? That will go far in attracting a corporate HQ's staff from the "big city".

Pandering to votes is now back in season.  Bring out the "Truth Squad". MJ should keep a thread going on each mayoral candidate from now to the election so we can accumulate all their public quotes and review them for double talk, hypocrisy, back sliding, vagueness, pandering, misstatements, inconsistencies, impossible promises, special interests catering, etc.

[vicupstate]

As far as incentives for a major HQ or plant, the city alone could not possible set aside that much money.  SC is paying $450 million for Boeing.   It's a huge investment but the payoff may be huge too.  Time will tell.  Regardless, the city can't spend that kind of money.  The heavy lifting has to be done by the state.

Hyde seems to be talking 'low taxes' while also saying a ton of money is needed for economic develpoment incentives.  The two are at cross purposes. 

Jax was worked the 'low taxes, low wages' route long enough. It doesn't work too often any more, and when it does, it is quite expensive (ie Boeing). It's time to work on quality of life instead. It worked in other big cities like Austin, SF, Boston, Charlotte.