Dana Wefer for Morris County Freeholder

Background:

Dana is a 24 year old female that will graduate from Rutgers Law School in May of 2007. Dana has been active in her community since a young age, selected to be vice-chair of the Economic Advisory Board in her town at the age of 19 and to serve as the county liaison to the board of trustees to a regional community action program serving the elderly and children.

Dana is a 3rd time candidate. She set records as a Democrat in Morris County by garnering 41% of the vote in 2005 and set records again in 2006 by garnering 44%. Dana has a strong command of the issues and has worked hard as a candidate to bring openness, accountability, and fiscal responsibility to Morris County government.
Dana has never shied away from conflict, even suing the county when they refused to produce records under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act.
Over the last several years Dana has developed a strong base and won the attention of the media, garnering 17 newspaper endorsements in 2006 alone. She was endorsed by Democrats2000, a statewide organization, NJ4D, and Morris County for Democracy in both 2005 and 2006. She was also endorsed by 21st Century Democrats in 2005.

Goals:

See Below.

Issues:

The top three issues of the campaign are lowering property taxes while expanding and increasing the efficiency of social services through consolodation, improving government openness, and improving affordable housing and public transportation. All of these issues are interrelated. In particular, every aspect of county government is directly related to fiscal responsibility. Fiscal waste means that social services and people suffer.
We must end waste by ending pay-to-play, combining social services with municipalities and reducing our debt burden. Not only do we have to stop spending money where is not necessary, but we must make sure that when we do spend money it is an investment.

We must lower property taxes because people are being forced from their homes. The county, instead of making excuses and blaming municipal and state entities, must work to lower the burden the county puts on its residents. We can do this by ending waste as outlined above.

We must increase the efficiency of social services by ensuring that they are handled by the correct level of government. Right now the county runs the meals on wheels program. However, the sheer size of the county makes the program inordinately expensive and means that many seniors fall through the cracks. Many, in fact, are not even aware of this program. Instead of trying to administer a failed program at an incredibly high cost to the very seniors the program purports to serve, the county needs to work with municipalities to administer the program. 37 of the 39 municipalities in Morris County already have dial-a-ride programs; it makes sense to merge the meals on wheels program with the dial-a-ride programs. The county can encourage regionalization among the dial-a-ride and meals-on-wheels programs by offering technical and fiscal support through the Morris County Improvement Authority. Combining programs like this will mean more seniors are served at a lower cost.

Finally, we must increase public transportation. Every $1 invested in public transportation yields $6 in economic returns, and that does not even account for future savings made by reducing damage to the environment and people's health.

Grassroots Support:

This year's campaign will be entirely grassroots as was last year's.

DFA Values:

Fiscal responsibility and social responsibility are inseparable concepts.
If our senior citizens are taxed out of their homes or leave to go to a county that provides better social services, there is a good chance that they will sell their home to a family with young children, who will then attend the school system. When our senior citizens can afford to stay in their homes (i.e. are not taxed out) and have practical help (i.e. "home repair programs" and "meals on wheels" programs) we all benefit. Expenditures on such programs are an investment and must be viewed as such. The same reasoning applies to education, rehabilitation and a plethora of other social programs.