Go Green Campaign News

Louisville's mayoral candidates have first debate

WHAS11 News, June 25, 2010

In the first mayoral debate since the May 18 primaries, candidates Hal Heiner and Greg Fischer both painted the election as a critical decision for Louisville, with jobs the top priority. Fischer calling it a "pivotal, turning point in Louisville history," while Heiner suggested it is a do or die moment for Metro Louisville. "We're a great city but I'll tell you that greatness will slip away if we do not grow jobs in Louisville Kentucky," Heiner said. About 400 real estate and building industry professionals packed the Olmsted on Frankfort Avenue for the debate, sponsored by the Commercial Council of the Home Builders Association of Louisville. Both candidates called for an easier planning and zoning process. Both called for Louisville to get more of its tax dollars returned from Frankfort. The men were asked to compare how the culture of their administrations would be different than the outgoing "mayor for life" Jerry Abramson. "Anybody who gives a quarter century of his life or her life to the city I think we should say thank you and look to the future," said fellow Democrat Greg Fischer, who shares many of Abramson's key supporters, "and that's certainly what I would be doing. I come from a different place than he does. I bring a fresh new outside perspective to the mayor's office based on my career of growing jobs and developing people and customer satisfaction." Yet, Republican mayoral candidate Hal Heiner said Fischer would merely offer a "continuation" of the Abramson administration. Heiner called for a major culture change away from "the arrogant governing style" of Abramson. "Flip that pyramid completely over," Heiner said, "where we have employee driven efforts at efficiency." Fischer repeatedly drew on his experience in his family's businesses and called for a "culture in the city that is a 'can do' culture, so Louisville can be known as one of the great entrepenurial cities in the world." Both candidates stressed that the city needs to be viewed as county-wide, and not just Downtown, or the pre-merger city limits. "Why don't we use TIF's (tax increment financing) in the suburbs?" Fischer asked, "We should use all of our economic development tools to thoughtfuly locate businesses and residences in our community."

Echoing the tension between the pre-merger City of Louisville and county residents dissatisfied with merger, Heiner said "the next administration needs to make sure that those dollars aren't concentrated in a five or six block area. We need to invest in our entire city."

Independent candidate Jackie Green was not invited to debate and says he would have offered a balance to urban sprawl.

"That growth pattern has left us with neighborhoods, existing neighborhoods that are in decline," Green said, "These are hard choices we have to make and they don't want to wrestle with them."

Saying he was met by a police officer when he entered the Olmsted for the debate, Green said he agreed not to take the stage and was allowed to attend the event as a private citizen. He mocked Heiner and Fischer's call for "open and inclusive government."

"This was not a debate. Both of those guys are joined at the hip," Green said.

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