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Hot News Tip? Call Phil Yocom's Cell Phone at 936/275-6206 |
I am Phil Yocom and it is with a profound sense of the great potential for our county and our citizens that I ask for your support in my candidacy for election as Sabine County Judge.
I am a small business owner, a Vietnam era veteran, having volunteered for the U.S. Army, a member of Littleton Fowler Masonic Lodge, American Legion Post 197 in Hemphill, current president of the Sabine County Hospital District and past president of G-M Water Supply Company, the Sabine County Chamber of Commerce and served twice as president of Hemphill Lions Club. I was the charter president of the Rural East Texas Health Network that established the emergency psychiatric facility in Nacogdoches. I retired in 2007 after serving as Postmaster of Hemphill for over 14 years.
I have worked hard for many years to put in place those things necessary to move this county forward. I have succeeded in leading improvements to the infrastructure of water distribution and treatment and stabilizing the delivery of medical care in our county.
I believe we must look to the future with a plan to improve the county for the betterment of all citizens, within the boundaries of manpower and finances.
As a fiscal conservative, I am the only candidate that has lowered your tax rate and I pledge to ensure Sabine County has the lowest tax rate of any county in our area.
My focus is economic development for our county, moving to attract businesses, retirees and create jobs in our area and through that effort, improve the lives of our fellow citizens.
Like any other business, we must develop a five-year plan to guide us on improvements. County government is similar to any business in that if you want more customers you must make your store or product more attractive or easier to use. We should be attracting more retiree’s to our area, which in turn increases the amount of property and sales tax, stabilizing current tax rates.
We should not attempt to create something out of whole cloth, but rather work with the assets we have including the lakes, forests, railroad, natural gas and highways to establish businesses and industries.
I pledge to work with and lobby power companies, the SRA and our state and federal officials to build a gas fired electric generating plant on Toledo Bend. The county would benefit from the over 100 construction jobs, the permanent 50 to 75 jobs when complete and generate tax revenue from ad valorem and mineral taxes. All at no cost to us, the taxpayer.
We must revisit or tax abatement policy and make it more attractive to small businesses who want to open in our county.
We must take a hard look at beginning to pave many of the roads in our county. The initial cost is much higher, but the lower maintenance cost may offset the overall expenditure.
I will lobby and work with private companies, state and federal officials to establish full cell phone and broadband service in our county, which is essential for future growth.
I will open a dialog with the U.S. Forest Service about acquiring by lease, in cooperation with the SRA, the Sabine National Forest Headquarters building, and use federal stimulus funding for tourism infrastructure to convert the facility into a site for large fishing tournaments. All at no cost to us, the taxpayer.
I will use creative sentencing of law violators to keep our roads clean and perform other worthwhile community services, including help for the non-profit entities in our county who do so much for our citizens.
We must immediately develop a plan to deal with the shortfall of Forest Service funds that will cease after 2011 and amounts to 35% of actual 2010 road and bridge expenditures. I will also lobby our federal officials to remove the restrictions on how the funds can be used as I believe local officials know how best to spend our money, not Washington, D.C.
We must keep the lowest tax rate in our area if we are to continue to attract retirees who, according to economists, have an economic impact in a community equal 2.7 manufacturing jobs.
I will implement “zero-based budgeting” which requires each department to justify funding for each line item. This will “right-size” the nearly $5 million county budget and gets money where it is needed and removes it from areas it is not. I have overseen and successfully managed multi-million dollar budgets, always with an eye on efficiency and waste.
Funding for the Sheriff’s Department must be reviewed and a system established to recruit and retain the best personnel available and stop the revolving door of Deputies who leave after a few months for higher pay.
I will continue to work with the Texas Motorized Trails Coalition to establish an ATV trail to attract tourism dollars to our county. A similar facility in northeast Texas has an economic impact on that community of $1.7 million per year, according to a study by SFA.
After receipt of the results of the 2010 census, I will work to incorporate precinct boundary lines to include the citizens of Pineland in one commissioner precinct and to include the Thomas Johnson Community in the same precinct as Hemphill.
I pledge to seek grant funds to establish a reverse 9-1-1 system that will allow emergency information to be sent immediately to each telephone in the county to warn our residents of impending natural or manmade emergencies.
I pledge to maintain a continuous dialog with all elected county and city officials to generate ideas and solutions to move Sabine County forward in a cooperative manner.
I am committed to using my contacts and relationships with state and federal officials to find all funding available for the betterment of Sabine County.
We must begin to work together to make our county what it can be.
I enlist your support and humbly ask for your vote in the March 2 Democratic Primary election.
I will be pleased to discuss more specific plans at anytime. I can be reached at home at 787-4042, cell 936/275-6206 or by email at philyocom@yahoo.com
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Yocom
Announces Candidacy for Sabine County Judge
