LEWISTON – It’s little surprise that education is one of the top issues for former School Superintendent Robert Connors.

“It does translate to some amount of fiscal return for the city,” Connors said. “The more a person is able to make out of their employment, that contributes to a city’s economic development. You have the people to fill the jobs. So that has to be one of the top issues of economic development.”

Connors is seeking to unseat Councilor Mark Mason in Ward 5. Education is one of the most important services the city provides, Connors said. Fire and police service rank at the top, too.

But that doesn’t mean Connors wouldn’t look at them critically if elected.

“People have to recognize that dollars are finite,” he said. “You cannot raise taxes continually, or else people lose their homes. On the other side, people want services. You have to weigh those, as a councilor. It’s what a budget is all about.”

Connors said he wouldn’t promise tax cuts or to maintain services.

“Politically, the wise thing to say would be that I will maintain all services and not raise taxes at all,” he said. “But you cannot say that, at least not until you’ve looked at the budget once and for all.”

Increasing the city’s tax base is another priority, he said. He’s a big fan of tax incentives such as tax increment financing deals.

“One of the greatest contributions to economic development has been the concept of the TIF,” he said. “You can return a portion of the tax revenues to a business in exchange for coming. The trade-off is that you don’t get all of those tax revenues. But used wisely, I think it’s a great long-range economic development tool.”

Connors said he also wants to encourage shorter-term small business development.

“But I don’t know the best ways to do that yet,” he said. “You can’t do that with a TIF, but if the city can aid them in some other way, I’d be encouraging that.”

He also supports efforts to turn the Bates Mill over to private developers.

“We need to get it into the private sector,” he said. “But I think maintaining the mill for all of these years has been the right decision. It’s a major structure and it’s been a major part of the historical development of our city. So keeping it honors that period of our history.”

Mayor Larry Raymond’s letter to the Somalis last year was misunderstood, he said.

“The way I understood it, it was an economic letter, not a social letter,” he said. “It was saying our finances are stretched, not saying the city was anti-any group.”

And while the letter generated an avalanche of negative publicity, there have been positive changes since then.

“I think there has been some positive coverage, too,” he said. “Especially later on. And now, the Somalis are settling in and working and starting businesses of their own. So it appears that the system has worked.”

Connors said he also hopes to make the council feel more welcoming to everyone.

“I’m going to do what I think is best for the community,” Connors said. “Whenever you do that, some are pleased and some are not. That’s the nature of making decisions. But what I will strive to do is listen to everybody and treat them with respect.”

– Scott Taylor

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