WESTFIELD – Andrew Surprise is stepping up.
The Ward 3 resident hopes to bring his neighbors’ concerns to light as their Westfield City Council representative.
“I want to get more involved,” Surprise said. “There have been a lot of people complaining about issues in the city.”
Topping the list is taxes and road conditions.
“Residential property taxes in Westfield have increased on average 71 percent in the past dozen years, if we include the 4 percent rise slated for next year, property will have increased by 75 percent in 13 years,” he said. “It’s one thing to ask our property owners to contribute to city services, but when things like roads are in the terrible condition they are in, people ask, ‘what are my tax dollars being used for?'”
Surprise said cuts to Chapter 90 funds have put the burden on residents.
“Property owners should not be expected to shoulder the city’s ever-expanding revenue needs alone. We must look at generating new sources of revenue, instead of raising taxes,” said Surprise.
Attracting new, small business is Surprise’s solution.
“I am a supporter of TIFs, or Tax Incremental Financing, to attract new small businesses to Westfield,” said Surprise. “According to the SBA, small businesses account for 97 percent of employers in Massachusetts, and they employ almost 45 percent of our workforce. Having the ninth highest commercial property tax rate out of 351 cities is not a good way to attract business to Westfield.”
Surprise said since many small businesses do not own their property, he would be a proponent of a renter’s tax break to small businesses newly locating in Westfield to help them get started and on their feet in the first few years of operation.
Continuing the Retail Visioning – Best Retail Practices training and grant program and improving the parking situation downtown are also ways Surprise sees that could increase revenue.
Surprise would like to see the proposed bike lane on Western Avenue moved to Russell Road/Franklin Avenue.
“Western Ave. is not particularly wide, and the current proposal has been to take land from the homes on Western Avenue to widen the street for the bike lane. I don’t see the logic in this at all,” he said.
Surprise also supports a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement with Westfield State University.
“They can afford to kick-in a little for city services,” he said.
Surprise would also like Westfield to apply to be an arts and cultural district.
“They did this in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and in six years they reinvented their downtown,” said Surprise.
Surprise was raised in Springfield’s Hungry Hill and is a political and communications consultant working with several political and issue campaigns and groups throughout the state. He serves as the western Massachusetts regional director for the End Common Core Ballot Initiative.
Surprise said he is intimately familiar with the issues facing the city.
“I want to be a voice for the people in my ward,” he said.
Surprise is engaged to Amy Brown and can be found at the YMCA or golf course in his spare time.
