- Democratic county candidates spoke at the Erlanger library about conservation, planning and growth this week
- The candidates believed there needed be a greater degree of intention and deliberation behind county decision making
- Being smart about planning and economic growth was another recurring concern
Democratic county candidates from around the region came out to the Erlanger branch of the Kenton County Public Library this week to discuss conservation, planning, economic growth and other issues on the minds of local voters.
Questions spanned a variety of topics but mostly focused on conservation, land use and infrastructure planning, environmental issues and how different institutions interact on a local, countywide and regional level. A theme quickly emerged among the discussions: The candidates believed there needed be a greater degree of intention and deliberation behind county decision making.
Not every Democrat running in the region participated in the forum. The ones that attended are all running for county commissioner positions: Ben Bach for Kenton County District 2, Jordan Baldridge for Kenton County District 3, Sarah Froelich for Kenton County District 1, Lianna Nguyen for Boone County District 2, Brant Owens for Campbell County District 3 and Debra Waller for Boone County District 1.
The event was organized by Green Umbrella, a Cincinnati-based regional climate collaborative. Other local organizations contributed to the event’s planning and furnished questions. Constituents also furnished questions to Green Umbrella prior to the event.
“At some point it feels like growth became the goal–more development, more growth,” said Owens. “When in reality, the goal should be… are our counties good places to live?”
This emphasis on being smart about economic growth was a repeated concern among the candidates, as it inevitably affected people’s quality of life.
“If you get more intentional about where you’re building houses, you can build infrastructure,” said Bach. “You can build transportation. If you have increased transportation, you have better workforce development. You can get the people to go to the jobs where they need to go. Everything starts having a virtuous cycle, instead of a negative cycle.”
Speaking of transportation, nearly all of the candidates emphasized the need for greater investments and better planning around public transit and multi-modal forms of transport. Nguyen also pitched the idea of mandatory recycling in Boone County.
This dovetailed with other points about planning and how the region is spending its money and energy generally. At one point, the moderator referenced a 2022 study that suggested counties in Ohio could expect an increase in municipal spending between $1.8 billion and $5.9 billion per year as climate problems worsen. Although the study didn’t take place in Kentucky, the moderator argued Kentucky counties would likely see similar increases.
“Our county focuses a lot on development and a lot of building things, but we don’t focus on prevention,” Baldridge said, adding he would be in favor of curtailing PILOTs and other tax incentives to increase tax revenue.
Nguyen echoed this, saying that “big corporations within the county [need] to start paying their taxes so that money can flow back into the county.”
“We need to pass universal pre-k for all,” Nguyen also said, as a way of planning for the future. Several other candidates also called for investments in various educational programs.
“All of these different issues, they seem to be different, but they meld together,” Waller said.
There was also a call for greater connectedness between the region’s many communities and green spaces. Froelich discussed the Brent Spence project and argued that connections between green spaces hadn’t been prioritized.
“One way that could be so much better is having bike trails, having better pedestrian accessibility, but that hasn’t been built into the Brent Spence bridge project,” Froelich said. “And I think there’s still room for it.”
Check out profiles and previous coverage of the candidates below, and head over to LINK nky’s Election HQ to stay up to date on election news throughout Northern Kentucky.