The Katz campaign is stunned today at their failure to garner the endorsement of the Austin Gays and Lesbians, Katz made a soulful, impassioned appeal to the organization which left many wondering how the organization could have endorsed Will Wynn. Austinmayor has exclusive videos of the event and the appeals to organization made by both Will Wynn and Marc Katz. Watch the videos and judge for yourself, and let us know how you feel in our chat room and our newly revamped forums. We now have an entire austinmayor conference devoted to the Austin Mayor's race!
When contact the Katz campaign said they were shocked at the failure to get the ALG endorsement but that they had another shot at it with the upcoming Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce Forum.
Katz Says City Lobbyists Must Go!
Says, as Mayor, he will put a stop to Million Dollar Lobby Spending Spree
March 26, Austin, Texas--Mayoral Candidate and Restaurateur Marc Katz said today when elected he would put a stop to Austin's one million dollar paid lobbyist spending spree. Katz said that a time when the City of Austin faces a $77 million dollar budget shortfall, spending over a million dollars a year on high paid lobbyists was a luxury that city could no longer afford.
"At a time when Austin faces a huge budget crisis it just doesn't make sense to pay a group of lobbyists over a million dollars a year to represent our city before the Texas Legislature," Katz said.
Katz said instead of paid lobbyists, Austin's Mayor and City Council should take their concerns directly to legislators and state officials.
"Instead of paying dozens of lobbyists hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to talk to legislators on behalf of the Mayor and City Council, perhaps the taxpayers would be better served by having the Mayor and City Council speak for themselves," Katz said.
Katz said with Austin as the State's Capital, it should be easy for Austin's elected officials to represent the city's interests before the legislature. He said that one of the reasons the City has not had a cordial relationship with the legislature in the past is because Austin elected leaders have chosen to leave selling the city's interests to others.
"If I am elected Mayor, I plan to be at the State Capitol letting our State Legislators know that I will work closely with them to insure that Austin's interests are well known and acted favorably upon," said Katz.
"Instead of passing resolutions about the war in Iraq, perhaps city leaders should change their focus from international relations to improving city/state relations right here at home," Katz added.
Katz said that he would direct the estimated one million dollars in annual savings which would come from ending the practice of hiring lobbyists to hiring more police officers and fire fighters.
"Instead of more hired guns, I think we need to hire more men and women to carry guns and protect our citizens and our quality of life," Katz concluded.
Independent Texans forum
The Independent Texans forum pitted Brad Meltzer, Marc Katz, and Max Nofziger against each other in a civilized, well mannered debate. The bombshell comment came afterward, when Linda Curtis, chair of the Independent Texans, aimed her heavy artillery at the Mayor's race. Full coverage on her outrageous comments in the Indy page on this website. Full coverage of the Mayor's Forum at this Indy page as well.
Friday March 21 - The first ever online mayor candidate forum will be held on Monday March 31 from 6 till 10 am. Candidates and voters will meet and get instructions at
http://austinmayor.com/forum on how to proceed� At the online forum, all candidates are invited to be there for a four hour question and answer forum, all the voters and interested citizens are invited to be there also. They will be able to pose questions to each other. They will be able to answer questions from citizens.��
So, please, if you're a candidate or voter or someone interested, please meet us Monday, March 31st from 6 till 10 am at
http://austinmayor.com/forum and be prepared to answer some very detailed and in depth questions about your vision, as a Mayor's candidate, for the future of Austin, Texas. This is a historic event in the civic life of Austin, Texas.��
The Good Life magazine, a free publication available all around Austin, has published an excellent guide to the candidates in the Mayor's race. Pick up a copy. Highly recommended!