Edited March 20, change in district
Mike Holden of rural Scranton announced his candidacy for county supervisor from District 3, the position now held by Tom Contner.
Holden, a Democrat, made the announcement at the Democratic off-year caucus Thursday evening in Jefferson. His announcement was met by applause from the 15 persons at the caucus.
Contner has previously said he intends not to run for re-election in 2019. Holden said he would run even if Contner decides to run again.
Holden said he considers himself a Progressive, not a Liberal.
He served on the Jefferson-Scranton school board for 14 years and is currently on the Greene County Development Corporation board and the Greene County Chamber board. He said he’s been on the Greene County Cattlemen board “forever.”
“I think this is an amazing time in Greene County. We are two or three years into an economic boon but we haven’t made enough progress. We need to capitalize while the window of opportunity is here. We need to be more assertive, more aggressive, and look at options that will build the future of Greene County 50 or 60 or 70 years down the road, and not worry about today’s budget.”
He said that being debt-free “is not necessarily a good claim,” and talked about managed, calculated leverage of debt to build the tax base.
He predicted one of his platforms will be that tax levy rates should not be lowered as the tax base grows. “We should be looking at ways to build more…. We have opportunities. Let’s not squander them.”
He named infrastructure improvements as a use for increased revenue available by keeping levy rates steady even when valuations increase.
He told the Democrats that he knows he differs in opinions with some of them, “but there is enough common ground with us that we need to keep moving everybody forward.”
