George Kruse

Q. What will be the top issue impacting businesses in 2021?  What role should the County play in addressing it?
A. The top issue businesses will face in 2021 will continue to be the fallout from the Coronavirus. We’re going to continue to see unemployment drop as businesses are allowed to reopen but the concern of many businesses, especially those which are customer-facing, will be attracting sufficient business to once again be a viable enterprise. Some of our industries such as food and beverage, arts and entertainment and tourism will be slower to get back to pre-virus levels due to the uncertainty of customers and continued regulation from government. These are the businesses that attract foot traffic to retail centers and make for a dynamic community. Manatee County can assist these businesses by removing some of the regulations creating these uncertainties such as outdoor space accommodations to allow for the comfort of social distancing. The more we can give these comforts to consumers, the more they will be willing to frequent the establishments and get them back on solid ground.

Q. Anticipating a decline in revenue during upcoming fiscal years for Manatee County, how would you address budget shortfalls?  What are your priorities within a decreased budget?
A. Manatee County will see some level of revenue decline, but it will be through a shortfall in consumption taxes such as gas, sales and bed taxes. These are predominately earmarked for specific usage and those line items and budgets, for instance tourism marketing, will need to be trimmed down and focused toward critical items in the near term. Fortunately, our revenue is heavily weighted toward real estate taxes and utilization fees, both of which are presently holding up well with no meaningful shortfalls being reflected. I believe we always need to revisit our budget to ensure efficiencies and avoid waste, regardless of current situations and now is as good a time as any to internally-audit our government to make sure we’re being good stewards of the taxpayer money. As we finalize our review, we need to ensure we’re focusing our primary efforts on the safety and welfare of the citizens of our County as well as looking for previous shortfalls in areas such as past-due infrastructure improvements.

Q. How would you support economic and workforce development in Manatee County?
A. Manatee County sees outsized declines during downturns due to a heavily-cyclical employment base. We rely on industries such as tourism, construction and services, which are the first to see a drop when economic issues arise and they also typically promote lower-wage jobs. We need to use our assets such as Port Manatee and our higher-education schools to attract higher-wage jobs to the area to avoid these dips in the future. The first step is to work toward retaining the students and young professionals from these schools in the area. With an educated, skilled workforce, we will be better able to attract industries to Manatee County. I hope to work on this retention through more mentoring of the students within the community and a more favorable cost of living, especially when it comes to housing near employment bases and services.

Q. Manatee County lacks a sufficient supply of attainable housing to support the local workforce.  This impacts businesses in terms of attracting and retaining talent and affects the community’s quality of life.   What role should the County play in the supply of attainable housing and how would you address this issue?
A. My background is in commercial real estate and it began in affordable housing finance. I have always been involved in this area and currently sit on multiple boards in Manatee County working toward a solution to this growing problem. The County plays a major role in assisting in the availability of attainable housing as it’s difficult (although not entirely impossible) to provide without assistance. While a simple fix is through straight funding, that’s a small solution as there are limited funds, especially as the Sadowski Fund gets swept each year. A more meaningful and longer-lasting program would be to remove excess regulations on housing and promote non-monetary incentives to developers in the creation of homes for those burdened by the current cost. These incentives include smaller units, more density, parking ratio adjustments and priority on surplus land.

Q. Transportation continues to be an issue within Manatee County, both in terms of existing options as well as long-term planning and projects.  What are your top 2 transportation priorities and how would you fund them?
A. Transportation and infrastructure are at the top of everyone’s minds, especially while they sit in traffic. Our current issue is more on timing than funding. We rely heavily on future impact fees to improve our roads for a better quality of life but that leaves people on inadequate roads for extended periods of time. It also ends up, due to immediate necessity, prioritizing vehicular fixes over other improvements such as sidewalks and bike lanes, which can ultimately take some of the cars off our roads for capacity. Manatee County needs to continue, and expand, our public/private partnerships to get this infrastructure completed in a more efficient and timely manner. We also need to look at expanding our bonding options to find ways to make these improvements for all our benefit without always looking to impact fees as the sole solution.