Dan Liedtke Against Increasing Taxes, Eliminating City Positions

Name: Dan Liedtke

Ward: Council Member for Ward 1

Opponent: Incumbent David Hastings

Occupation: President of DRL Consulting Inc. (founded in 2001)

Education:

• Texas State University
• Richland College
• Brookhaven College
• South Dakota State University

Liedtke plans to bring his life experience in the private and public sector to the Gulfport City Council, if elected to represent Ward 1. Liedtke has lived in Gulfport for nearly nine years. In that time, he's become a board member of the Pasadena Yacht and Country Club and President of the Kipps Colony Estates. He is a member of Pasadena Community Church and has served as a past council member and volunteer with the church.

Liedtke is vying for your votes, because he wants to improve the city's future by finding ways to generate revenue without "putting the burden on the taxpayer or eliminating positions within the city."

He believes his experience with organizations such as the Hillsborough County Public Schools, Hillsborough County Government and AARP will aid him in making tough budget decisions for the City of Gulfport.

“I’ve never run for public office before, but I have over 10 years of public sector experience including at the federal, state and county levels, some of them with multi-billion dollar budgets,” Liedtke said.

Priorities for the City

Liedtke says his priority, if elected, will be to shift the focus of City Council to "matters that will help lead the city's government on a path to long-term prosperous sustainability."

He believes that previous decisions by the Council is "not helping the long term future of our city's government." He says the city has cut services, eliminated long-term employees, raised property taxes by 15 percent and raised water, sewer and garbage collection by more than 10 percent.

"Due to the focus of the current City Council, I expect another property tax increase next year."

"However, if we start looking now at ways to increase revenue from existing assets and start looking now for new streams of revenue, then maybe in two to four years we can start to bring property taxes back down," Liedtke adds.

Ideas

Liedtke says contrary to popular belief, Gulfport is not "built out." He believes there are undeveloped land and vacant lots "just waiting for a house to be built on them."

"With the largest military cuts since the end of WWII looming we should be looking at incentives to entice veterans to build and/or retire in Gulfport. Working with the Department of Housing, Urban Development and Veterans Affairs we can take advantage of existing programs and possibly develop new programs that will lure some to Gulfport."

Ward 1 Issues

Liedtke says there are three main issues in his ward: taxes, flood insurance and public safety. He says the City Council and city leaders need to find ways to increase revenues without increasing taxes or eliminating city positions.

As for flood insurance, Liedtke says some residents in his Ward have been paying $5,000 to $10,000 a year for coverage since FEMA re-zoned the city in 2003. He says that FEMA will be re-zoning for hundreds of properties in Gulfport "in the near future." And that the new map will "drop flood insurance rates by 80 to 90 percent for those affected."

"What I would like to know is what happened to the $10 million-$15 million in inflated insurance premiums those properties have been paying since 2003? If there was an error in 2003 we need to uncover it and look into compensating those who paid the inflated insurance premiums."

Liedtke's says his third issue is public safety. He says he will not support outsourcing any component within the Gulfport Police Department.

For more information

Liedtke does not have a campaign manager. He does have a campaign website at www.gulfportspirit.com. You may contact Dan Liedtke at (727) 233-0469 or email him at Dan@gulfportspirit.com.

The citywide vote is Tuesday, March 13. For more information about the municipal elections, refer to the the city's website.

Gulfport Patch has a Ward Map with this story.