SHAMOKIN - Robert Gilligbauer is a candidate for Shamokin City Council on the Republican ticket.
Gilligbauer is a lifelong resident of the Shamokin area. He considers himself "not to be a politician," and said he is running in this year's election to rid the city of wasteful spending, to put an end to friends and family hiring, to stop local tax increases and prevent any more sewer tax increases.
If elected, Gilligbauer said his first motion will request that all councilmen and the mayor give up their salaries and their medical benefits provided by city taxpayers. Also included in the motion will be that the councilmen and the mayor not receive any income or extras such as cell phones, meals and fuel miles from the taxpayers' pockets.
Gilligbauer feels that to get Shamokin pointed in the right financial direction, it must start at the top with the spending. He also feels that anyone in the position of councilman or mayor should be serving for the good of the city, not for the pay and benefits.
If elected, he promises that he will never vote to give any administrative employee a huge pay raise just as he said was done with the current city clerk, Steve Bartos. "The taxpayers just cannot afford this type of wasteful spending, especially in our current economic climate," he said.
He feels that the city should get out of the parking meter business. "It hurts the few businesses we have left. Meters were meant to control traffic in a municipality and Shamokin is abusing the meters by using them to make revenue, which is illegal," he said. "The meters are killing the businesses and are simply not fair to the citizens of the area."
If elected, Gilligbauer promises he will work with Northumberland County officials to begin using the skills and labor of prisoners (at little expense to the taxpayers) to repair or tear down the many dilapidated, tax-abandoned properties that are ruining the Shamokin community. He states, "Over the last 30 years, the city should have focused its efforts on tearing down the blighted properties rather than waiting for them to collapse and spend triple the taxpayers' money."
Gilligbauer said he believes that the current state of the city demands new faces and ideas. He added that, if elected, he will be one new faces and promises to bring in new ideas that will benefit the community.