Salt Lake City business owner Dave Robinson says he would do a better job of running Salt Lake County Government than current Democratic Mayor Ben McAdams.
Robinson, who lost his bid last year to become the mayor of Salt Lake City, now has his eye set on county government. He’s concerned about what he says is an expanding county budget and the Mayor’s recent decision to extend the life of a $9.4 million jail bond to pay for criminal justice reforms.
“So I would roll back the tax increase from 2015. We have seen the budget increase from about $800 million to about $1.2 billion. And we can find enough savings in that budget to offset that tax increase.”
Salt Lake County Mayor McAdams says when the state legislature passed justice reforms but didn’t pass comprehensive Medicaid expansion, counties were left footing the bill. He says he’s dedicated to criminal justice reform.
“The council adopted that with bipartisan support last year,” McAdams says. “And we’re working now to make sure that that’s deployed in a way that’s effective and evidenced-based, and really I’m pretty proud of that.”
Both candidates have publicly supported LGBT issues. As a State Senator Ben McAdams pushed for state-wide anti-discrimination laws. Robinson, who is gay, says that’s too often associated with being a Democrat. He believes he can build bridges to include more politically moderate people in the LGBT community.
Campaign finance disclosures released Wednesday show McAdams’ campaign has raised roughly $118,000, while Robinson has raised about $11,000.
