The two candidates for county judge that will be facing off in the May 26 Polk County Republican Primary runoff election were each allowed four and a half minutes to speak during the regular meeting of the Republican Club of Polk County Monday.
They spoke in the same order in which they will be listed on the ballot, with Challenger Larry Pfeil speaking first and Incumbent Sydney Murphy speaking second.
“Thank all of you for showing up to hear us speak. By this time, I think I’ve met most of you, if not all of you. Three months ago I really had no idea I’d be making a run for county judge and it’s been quite an experience. The last three months has been a real challenge and it’s been fascinating to see the county get energized. It’s been exciting to see people actually get engaged,” Pfeil said.
“Though the turnout was fairly low for a primary, it was pretty high for a midterm. I think a lot of people showed up that otherwise would not have shown up and I think it speaks well to the Republican Party. We live in a deep red county and I think it presents a lot of opportunities for the Republican Club and the Republican Party,” Pfeil said.
“But it’s time for us as a party and it’s time for us as voters to make some choices, to make some decisions and those decisions are, are we going to continue with the status quo? Are we going to continue supporting tax and spend policies where every year the taxes go up the maximum amount allowed and that spending goes up significantly higher than the rate of inflation? Or do we want a county government that’s going to address the core issues, the core responsibilities of county government? And that is public safety, supporting our law enforcement and first responders and updating, upgrading and maintaining our infrastructure. Or are we going to continue to spend on projects that don’t contribute to the county?” Pfeil asked.
“The second big choice that we have to make is term limits. As the Republican Party, I believe that term limits should be something that we’re striving for and they are not the law today, but we as voters can impose our own term limits. How long is too long? Is eight years enough in office? Is 12 years too long in office? And is 16 years too long in office?” Pfeil asked.
“At some point it’s time for a change. It’s time for a fresh vision. We need somebody that’s going to bring sensible economic development. We need to bring commercial and industrial development into the county and give our taxpayers a break. Let’s give the residents a break on their taxes. Let’s actually see not tax rates go down, but let’s see the tax bill go down. My name is Larry Pfeil and I’m asking for your support as the next county judge,” Pfeil concluded.
“What I have right here is multiple ads that all have misinformation in them. I actually went through and corrected some of them, so if you want to see them you’re more than welcome,” Murphy said as she held up a handful of mailers.
“So let’s talk about tax rates. Tax rate and tax revenue are two different things but they’ve all been mixed up together. Your tax rate has gone down and furthermore, we did not wait for the legislature to correct what was happening to some of our homeowners. Some of our homeowners were being tax-appraised out of their properties. We all heard Trent Ashby. Trent Ashby very clearly said this is something that the legislature is going to take up in the next legislative session. My recommendation to the Court was that we consider having an adjustment made to the appraisal of 20%. So, if we provided our homeowners with a 20% reduction to the appraisal, if your taxes can only go up by 10% and we provide a 20% exemption then we’re helping you stay ahead until the legislature is able to come back and correct it and figure out how we’re going to proceed from there. But nevertheless, you have received a homeowners 20% tax exemption. Now, that does not include what the state did in terms of your school taxes. So your taxes have gone down. Revenues have gone up. And so the question is, how can revenues go up if my property tax is not going up?” Murphy said.
“Your revenues have gone up because of the economic development and the tax abatements that have expired, so now those properties are coming onto the tax roll and paying taxes. Furthermore, we’ve had extreme development around here. We’ve had subdivision after subdivision, construction has gone nuts. Businesses have come into the area. All of those bring in new revenue, so the increase in revenue is due to new development, our tax abatements going onto the tax roll and us moving forward, so that’s two different things,” Murphy said.
“Furthermore, we have already reached the $50 million mark with grants since 2018. That provides tax relief. The purpose of grants is to provide tax relief to the property owners and to allow the county to be able to move forward in projects that need to be done,” she said.
“Now the big question – and I know my opponent said he would return the $5 million – is why would you return a grant if it’s something that you know you need. So, returning the $5 million from the courthouse doesn’t make any sense because if you can provide a 30-35% discount as opposed to 50%, don’t get me wrong, I wanted 50 %, but the new courthouses now are coming in at $20-25 million for a courthouse similar to ours. Can a grant be returned? You bet it can,” Murphy said.
“Last time I spoke to y’all about the public defender’s office. My job is to protect the taxpayers and protect programs in the county, so when we received information saying that they did want to move forward with a public defender’s office, we did it. So now, it’s up to the judges, it’s not up to me to return the money. If the judges do not wish to accept the $760,000+ that would provide tax relief to the $900,000 of your money that is in the budget, that is entirely up to them. It’s not my responsibility to reject a grant, just seek it,” Murphy said.
