The Galveston County Daily News

During the past several months, several people contemplating running for mayor of Galveston next May have come to see me. I’m not really sure why they do that.

Still, I’ve been telling them we need a mayor who will fight for Galveston’s shrinking middle class. That suggests a specific set of priorities — small but competent government, low taxes and a pro-business, pro-development environment.

It seems to me there are several issues that are critical:

1. The vision thing. I usually ask candidates to describe their broad vision for the future of Galveston. If they say something like, “Duh,” or speak in glittering generalities (a shining city on a hill), I keep looking.

2. Taxes. I want the next mayor to pledge that the city will cap taxes and fees for the next three years, at least. This should include a pledge to protect the existing cap on new property taxes. Every now and then, somebody proposes throwing out the cap. Bad idea. Taxes already are far too high.

3. Business-friendly policies. Galveston has in recent years adopted a number of policies — from high taxes to restrictive zoning and planning regulations — that inhibit business growth. The change last year requiring a special-use permit for any building more than nine stories high is a good example.

4. UTMB and health care. I think the University of Texas board of regents may be lying about its long-term commitment to Galveston. The next mayor should commit now to playing an integral part in holding UT to its promises.

5. Collective bargaining. There’s no point trying to end collective bargaining with firemen and policemen in Galveston. However, the mayor and city council should back the city manager in bargaining hard with the city’s politically powerful unions.

Candidates should neither seek nor accept the unions’ endorsement.

6. Gambling. All else being equal, I’d probably vote for a candidate who pledges to work to bring casinos to Galveston. I think a lot of other people would, too.

7. Public housing. The next mayor should appoint a Galveston Housing Authority board that favors: Limiting GHA’s mission to serving the real needs of Galveston’s poor; homeownership options where possible, not more rentals; dispersed, mixed-use housing as opposed to concentrations of old-style barracks-like projects.

8. Old versus new. Do we want to sacrifice our future to protect the past, especially when the past is ugly?

Prime example: Somebody dubbed the drab old Coast Guard housing on Seawall Boulevard and 45th Street as “historic” and integral to the aesthetics of the neighborhood. So, when a developer wanted to remake the area with spanking new condos and retail, the project died.

Net effect: That prime Seawall Boulevard property now is a crumbling, weed-choked rat ranch.

Leadership can make a big difference. Galveston needs leadership desperately, and it needs a mayor with a commitment to ordinary middle-class families, the kind that own homes, pay taxes, buy cars and have kids in the city’s schools.

It’s not that those people are better than anyone else. They are not.

It is just that, without them, Galveston will surely die. And those are the families Galveston is losing, steadily, week by week.

Dolph Tillotson lives in Galveston and is publisher of The Daily News.