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I attended the candidate forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters and WakeUP Wednesday night. All of the at-large candidates were in attendance, as well as candidates for districts A, B & D. The event was videotaped and should run on RTN. Each candidate was allowed opening and closing statements, and was asked questions from the moderator and the audience. One particular question that the audience seemed very earnest to get an answer to concerned special interest money and endorsements, particularly from homebuilders and realtors. I shared that at this time I haven't received endorsements from these groups, and to date haven't received a dime in campaign contributions from any homebuilders or realtors. My position on tax restraint and impact fees specifically, thus has nothing to do with support from the development and real estate community. Instead I reject increased impact fees due to my antipathy towards higher taxes generally, and because I think we run the risk of killing growth. We don't want to make the same mistakes Cary made years ago when their attempts to curb growth killed it, and actually resulted in reduced tax revenues. I believe the economy is considerably weaker than many imagine. For much of this year we've seen an inverted yield curve in the economy, which is often a good predictor of recession. The weakness in the housing market, the subprime crisis, and recent comments by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan also suggest that proceeding with caution here is warranted. At the forum I also had the opportunity to speak to issues of greenspace, spending, stormwater runoff and my proposal for activity-based costing. I thank WakeUP and the LWV for inviting me to their forum!