Mega-Resort goes to the ballot

In the continuing tradition of all Mesa projects going before the voters, the Gaylord Project will be on Mesa's March 2009 ballot (Republic Version here). The developers DMB and Gaylord have agreed to pay for the election, and it looks as if all three groups agreed that the ballot was the best course of action.

Sadly, looks like we are not going to get a repreive from the campaign signs dotting our roads. Its been so long, it seems, since we have gone without them. First, it was the Mayor's race, then the Primary Elections, now the General Elections. The ones for March will probably pop up right after.

From the comment sections you can already tell that this is going to be a whole new conversation about incentives and if they are right and appropriate. The people who oppose them are once again going to point to some etherial "taxes" that are being given away. The funny thing is, from everything in the article, you can glean that this is actually very different from the other elections we have had in the past. Riverview and Waveyard were about sales taxes.

This project is about property taxes and bed taxes. Well, Mesa doesn't charge a property tax, so any money being refunded certainly isn't coming from Mesa. Secondly, according to the Republic story, the bed tax revenue must be "used to promote their Mesa sites and regional tourism in general." Isn't that what the bed tax revenue is used for in the first place?

All in all, its going to be another exciting season, which is good for me because there will be more to blog on. It will be interesting to see how this election unfolds compared to the last few we have seen in Mesa.