Douglas County Commission candidate Straub talks business-to-business

WENATCHEE - Douglas County Commission candidate Marc Straub spoke to members of the Wenatchee Network Group Wednesday, July 11 during their weekly noon meeting at the Eagles Club here. Straub told the local small business owners, managers and directors about the platforms in his candidacy, focusing especially on "embracing economic development."       

Straub stressed the importance of affordable housing and explained to his audience that the main revenue resource in Douglas County are property and sales taxes, not tourism like Chelan County.

He cautioned that bringing jobs to the county wouldn't be enough if there wasn't a place for the workers to live that they could afford.

He also said it was a must to maintain the county's roads so its farmers and ranchers can get their harvest and livestock to market. During his half hour talk, Straub assailed the state and federal unfunded mandates that cost rural counties millions.

One of those mandates is the care of indigents, which causes a burden on rural counties in order for those unfortunates to be housed, fed and medically cared for.

Straub said the state only pays five percent of the costs and the county must pick up the tab for the other 95 percent.

Taxes raised by the legal sale and production of marijuana are also mainly gobbled-up by the state, even though most of the law enforcement and other regulations must be done by small county governments, according to Straub.

He said that though he isn't a pot smoker, he is okay with the industry as a whole bringing jobs and revenue to rural counties as long as the growers respect the rights of their neighbors.  

Straub is currently the Executive Director of "Building NCW," a non-profit construction trade organization. BNCW's monthly member newsletter appears each month in the four-page center-spread of the Wenatchee Business Journal. The WBJ is also a member of the NCW Media family of newspapers, which also owns and operates the Quad City Herald, Lake Chelan Mirror, Leavenworth Echo and the Cashmere Valley Record.