Question from Anonymous

According to the 2000 census 16%of Richmond families and 25% of those under age 18 and 20% of those over age 65 are below the poverty line. What policies will you support to help Richmond's lower income community?

Ian Ward answered:

Thank you for your question. Such issues are common to a number of communities across our country. Lessening the cost of city taxes through a line by line review would help reduce a portion of the burden as well as greatly improve efficiency. Secondly, while retail and industry are growing in our area, we lack a significant number of jobs. While it isn’t the case that a large portion of our citizens are unemployed it is true that a good deal of folks live here in Richmond but drive back and forth to work in Lexington or Georgetown. Those are the jobs we have to compete with here at home. Finally we have to help alleviate the burden through existing programs such as public transportation as well as examining new ones such as alternative health care for the uninsured.

www.ianward.org