Happy New Year!

The Pima County Board of Supervisors will finally vote on the Discretionary Spending policy proposed by the County Administrator at the upcoming, January 13th meeting.  

In his recent memorandum, Mr. Huckelberry provided 3 options in regards to Supervisors who wish to allocate funds to non-profits of their choice.  The Board will vote to approve one of these options:

1. Do nothing & continue to allow the practice

2. Put $7500 aside in a 'pool' per each Supervisory office to utilize for donations

3. End the practice of Discretionary Spending (following the recommendation of the Goldwater Institute who is threatening legal action if the practice continues)

To view his memorandum in its entirety, click here for a copy.

The meeting starts at 9am on Tuesday, January 13th at 130 W. Congress in the Downtown Administration building and I hope many of you can plan to attend.

Gas Tax Increase & Our Roads

In the past month I have had numerous meetings with our newly elected State Legislators.  I have been building relationships and presenting solutions to the many issues we face as residents in Pima County. While Supervisors Carroll, Bronson, Elias and Valadez support a gas tax increase, I will not support a higher gas tax or a separate Pima County gas tax.  In fact, data shows there is no correlation between higher/additional gas taxes and better roads. 

Some states that have much higher gas tax rates are ranked as having some of the worst roads in the Country while other states that have a lower or similar gas tax rate as Arizona hold the distinction of having some of the best roads in the Country.  In addition to the fact that Pima County already has a 1/2 cent countywide sales tax, we also have the highest property tax rate in the State.  

I will not support an additional, regressive tax, which will impact those among us who can least afford it. We already have a gas tax and receive money for our roads but the County leadership has chosen not to prioritize our infrastructure over the past 20 years; giving them more money is not a reasonable solution. 

As 2015 kicks off, I want you to know that I will continue to:

• work hard for all Pima County taxpayers  
• analyze and propose solutions to ensure we are investing our economic development dollars wisely to support current businesses and bring new businesses to Pima County. 
• work to eliminate non-essential spending and identifying existing funds to address the issues

Thank you for allowing me to serve you!

Sincerely,