CRG What do you believe are the most relevant issues currently facing the County right now? Wjhat would be your six-month plan to tackle those issues?

Seth Benham:

I think these issues are obviously things that we're facing here in the district and in the county, but also they're statewide issues as well. You know, so Number one is, supporting, businesses of all sizes in Josephine County. We've obviously lost some in the last couple years, some larger. It's unfortunate. So those are issues that, take away, losing companies obviously, hurts the economy, takes away jobs. So that is one of my number one priorities. But so supporting business.

Second, creating less friction to develop single-family housing market rate and bringing more development, spurring more development in the county and the city. We have strict city limits and UGB boundaries in the state altogether but we need to figure out ways to increase that, ideally to hopefully bring costs down for, especially new young families that can and may not be able to afford current prices and just more inventory because we lack that right now.

And then thirdly is, public safety and community standards with a big emphasis on, the homeless crisis that we are dealing with in Grants Pass and Josephine County and across the state. That is an issue that I've dealt with on council over the last year. And, one that we're just trying to make the right steps forward.

So, if I get elected to the position, obviously you go straight into the long session, and so working on legislation that'll affect all three of those is going to be super important as far as supporting business, I think we need to take a look at where we stand with taxes on, larger corporate corporations within Oregon. We also need to think of incentives for starting small businesses and how we can get them off the ground, whether that's some kind of tax break for your first few years or down that line, right? I think the tax burden's huge on small businesses in Oregon and just any size business really.

And then, housing, it's really looking at the permitting timelines, I think, for certain projects, obviously, how we can incentivize market rate housing. I mean, we do a great job incentivizing low income, and that's definitely a section of the public. And people that live, down here but, I think the market rate is something that we need to think about and how we can work on making, easing up regulations for developers, obviously within the UGB, but also outside, in the county, areas like that.

And then, the public safety and community standards, again, House Bill 3115 has been a big issue. That's going into this session right now. They're trying to repeal that. Ultimately, repealing that would be ideal, but if not possible, I think reform is needed for that legislation to give more power back to the individual communities and districts, because one size doesn't really fit all when it comes to that.

But with that, the homeless crisis that we're currently in, we need to have compassion, but we also need to have accountability. We need to figure out how to bring those two together.to hopefully progress in a better direction as a state and as a community.

So, again, first six months, those are the top three issues in my mind. And yeah, and again, I think too, bringing some dollars back to the district to help fund certain projects, infrastructure projects, things that we've missed out on in the past is super important as well.