Jobs and the economy will be a campaign focus for Rachel Barnhart. The former TV reporter and New York State Assembly Candidate has officially declared her candidacy for mayor of Rochester.
Barnhart says she’s building her campaign around a “bold plan” to reduce poverty and grow the Rochester economy, laying it out in a powerpoint slide show that’s also on her Facebook page.
Barnhart wants to double city support for childcare for working poor families, supporting an additional 1,000 children so their parents can work. She pledged to cut property taxes to make the city more business and jobs friendly. Barnhart says she’ll establish both a one-stop business center and one-stop jobs center at City Hall, and push incentives for locating workplaces near where people live.
Barnhart says every home in the city should have an internet connection: regular broadband speed for free, high speed service for a fee. The city will share the costs with the school district.
Barnhart says the city could start paying for these improvements by consolidating its independent water system with Monroe County’s, and looking for other ways to merge costly services.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren didn’t comment directly. The head of her campaign committee said he’ll be interested to see what job Rachel Barnhart runs for next year.
Former Rochester Police Chief and County Legislator Jim Sheppard is already in the race, and incumbent Mayor Lovely Warren is taking all the right steps to run for re-election even though she hasn’t announced yet. This sets up a three-way Democratic primary for the mayoral nomination.