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Like many in the East Valley, we were happy when Mesa Representative Kirk Adams was named Speaker of the House. In fact, we offered him congratulations and said, "Hopefully, this will allow Mesa and the East Valley to have a greater influence and some greater attention paid to our needs."
As the budget debate heated up, we implored Speaker Adams and Senator Russell Pearce, who is chairman of the Senate appropriations committee, to look to Mesa for ideas on how to solve the budget challenges. Needless to say, their latest plan is NOT what we had in mind.
To put in bluntly, the Legislature's latest plan balances the budget on the back of the local taxpayers by merely shifting the burden. This is a cowardly grab of local and school monies to fill a hole that the legislature is otherwise unwilling to fill. They have said that they are philisophically against taxes, and it looks like they have finally seen the hypocracy in being against borrowing before they were for it, so in the end, they decided to make some one else deal with the problem.
Our greatest disappointment in this process is directed at Adams and Pearce because they are Mesa residents and they already know what Mesa has had to go through. So far, Mesa has had to make some of the biggest cuts of all, and they already went to the voters last year to a secondary property tax for several specific projects. These monies that they are going after are already committed to other projects or are being used to pay back things that are already built.
So how would Mesa cover these costs? How can they go back to their homes and look at their neighbors in Mesa and say that they have done the right thing?
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4 comments:
I can't speak to the Adams situation because I'm not that familiar with his career, but the fact that Pearce was behind this should have surprised anyone in Mesa.
More than once, Pearce has stated that the interests of the cities and towns in AZ are secondary to those of his party and its ideology.
So to answer the question in the last question of your post, Pearce thinks that throwing cities and towns (and school districts) under the budgetary bus *is* doing the Right thing.
oops...I meant "should *not* have surprised anyone in Mesa."
That's what I get for trying to type while trying to get out the door. :)
Not surprised. I feel these two loonies are cowards in how they approach the real issues that face our state. They do not want more taxes, (im fine with that) but want to take money from vital pots and cut it down even lower. Say what you want about Crow, but the latest tactics is why Arizona in general is in its condition. Education system is a joke, we should be attracting higher quality jobs, but they do not want to get creative in attracting them here like neighboring states and we keep on with the sprawl machine that pads their pockets. I did not vote for Pearce because of how he leads and his ignorance towards reality. Same goes with Grey out in East Mesa. Just some guys do not get it and it’s funny that the city council gets it. I hope we can replace some of these reps who represent us poorly with the same type that is in the city council now.
one more thing.
You said, "Hopefully, this will allow Mesa and the East Valley to have a greater influence and some greater attention paid to our needs." I think the reason why the east valley has seen less attention from the stimulus package to past projects is because of our representatives who serve us. Some or most ran on limited government, less taxes and illegal immigration. They are very emotional issues that really swing voters one way or the other. This is what they vote for not the person and the job they have done. I sincerely think they have done a poor job in representing us and being creative in attracting more high tech jobs to our region. But no, we don’t want to get creative or offer special tax breaks to provide JOBS.
You don’t have to go all out left wing, but geez, I think the city council in most part gets it.
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