I’m running to keep Wilson County affordable for the people who live here. That starts with fair, predictable property taxes—and honest conversations about who’s really paying what. For too long, the county has leaned on one-time money from growth and quiet tax breaks for large projects, while regular homeowners and renters feel the squeeze. I believe tax increases should be a last resort, not the first answer. Before anyone talks about raising your bill, we should be making growth pay its share, scrutinizing Tax Abatement agreements, and chasing state and federal dollars that can relieve pressure on local families. My goal is simple: a budget that works beyond the next election cycle and doesn’t leave regular folks one bad day away from losing their footing in the place they call home.

If you’ve ever tried to get documents from Wilson County, you’ve probably had the same experience I have: you finally get a PDF that’s really just a crooked scan of a printed document. It’s not text-searchable, it’s hard to read, and it’s barely usable. The county could send the original PDF, or better yet a simple Excel sheet—but right now, our system makes public information hard to work with and hard to trust.

I believe if it’s public, it should be easy to find and easy to understand. Certain things should be on the county website by default: when a major corporation gets millions in tax breaks, you ought to be able to see it. Annual financial statements, major contracts, and key reports should be posted in one “Documents & Data” hub so people can see where their tax dollars are going, anytime, without a records request. Open government isn’t a slogan—it’s the basic respect of letting people see how decisions that affect their daily lives are being made.

Good local government works best when it’s not a spectator sport. Right now, too many people experience county government as three rushed minutes at a microphone after decisions are already made. I want to change that. I support holding quarterly open houses in the district where we walk through upcoming issues, explain the options in plain language, and listen before votes are cast. I’d like to create simple advisory groups around growth, schools, roads, and budget priorities so input is ongoing, not just crisis-driven. We should also make room for youth and student voices, since they’re directly impacted by our choices on schools and transit. And where it makes sense, we can pair county projects with well-organized volunteer opportunities to stretch resources and strengthen community. My goal is a culture where people feel informed, respected, and invited into the process—not shut out by default.

Growth is coming to Wilson County whether we plan for it or not. The question is whether it works for the people who live here, or just for whatever project comes along next. I want us to plan growth around real daily life—commutes, school drop-off, emergency response—not just lines on a map. That means focusing higher-density development where roads, utilities, and services can handle it, and protecting our rural areas on purpose instead of losing them one rezoning at a time. It also means “infrastructure before people” for big projects: turn lanes, signals, drainage, school capacity, and emergency coverage should be part of the decision, not an afterthought. We should be using crash and congestion data to prioritize the worst bottlenecks and most dangerous stretches of road, especially near schools, so people can get to work, home, and class safely and on time.

If you talk to families in Wilson County, you’ll hear the same themes: crowded classrooms, unreliable buses, and roads near schools that feel unsafe. None of that is inevitable—it’s the result of decisions that treated growth on paper as more important than the people already here. I want us to be honest about school capacity, with clear, public numbers on enrollment and available seats, portables included. School construction and renovations should track where families are actually moving, so we’re not constantly scrambling to rezone. On transportation, bus reliability isn’t a luxury—it’s the backbone of many parents’ workday and kids’ education. We should be looking at routes, driver pay, and chronic delays as a system to fix, not a headache to accept. And we must prioritize safer school-area roads so every kid and caregiver can get to and from school without fear.