Smith running for mayor because Madison is at ‘crucial time’

MADISON — Steve Smith says he’s running for mayor because Madison is at a pivotal point in its growth. 

“I just think we’re at a crucial time right now,” Smith said. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress over the past 15 years and trying to get ahead of where we were.” 

Smith served two terms on the City Council from 2012-20 before becoming Madison’s city administrator. Mayor Paul Finley is not seeking reelection. 

“I think it takes a lot of teamwork,” he said. “And I think I’m the most qualified individual to lead us. I’ve got the experience on council.

“I’ve got the experience being in the mayor’s office for the past five years. I know who we work with.”  

Smith said he believes the biggest challenge facing the city is traffic.  

“I think we’ve done a good job over the past several years of getting a plan to address it,” he said. “We work very closely with our state and local partners with the county to try to push, stretch our dollars as much as we can in order to get as much done with them.”

While other Alabama populations are in decline, Smith said, “like it or not, people are moving here.” 

Madison is one of the 10 largest cities in the state with a population of more than 64,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“North Alabama is growing,’ he said. “I read a report earlier today that South Alabama and Montgomery, they’re not growing and even the Birmingham area is declining in population. People are moving to this area whether we like it or not.

“”People are coming. So we have to have a plan to account for that.” 

Smith also pointed to continued investment in public safety, parks, and quality-of-life amenities. 

“We’ve had over 100 acres of green space in the past two or three years,” he said. “We’ve added this Community Center, we’ve added Sunshine Oaks park, we’ve had the Hexagon facility with 16 new pickleball courts.”  

Smith said he’s also concerned about the half-cent sales tax.  

“That was passed back in 2012 to build James Clemens (high school),” he said. “That sunsets in 2027; that has to be addressed.” 

To address that, Smith said the school system and the city need to work as partners.  

“We’ve been trying to reach out to our schools to address that situation, but we have to account for that sunset because we’ve got to support our schools, but at the same time we need to partner with them to make sure not only are our schools taken care of, but our roads to get there are as well,” he said.

The half-cent sales tax should be split between the city and the Madison City School system, according to Smith.    

“I think the most important thing we got to do is split that half-cent,” he said. “There’s some people that say just give them the half-cent, we’ll just tack on another half- cent to the city.

“I totally disagree with that.” 

A resident of Madison for 31 years, Smith said he and his wife moved here to start a family. 

“We moved to Huntsville in 1992 and then moved to Madison in 94 because we knew kids were on the way and we knew this is where the schools were,” he said. “So, this is where we wanted to be.”

Smith said his now-grown children are following the same path.   

“It’s been a blessing because now both my sons have gone through the school system and now they’re having kids,” he said. “And they’re going to be starting going through the school system. So it’s very important to me that our schools remain strong.” 

The municipal election is Aug. 26.