Supervisors Carroll and Day are First Elected Officials to Sign Tax Pledge

Inside Tucson Business
Published on Friday, May 30, 2008

http://www.azbiz.com/articles/2008/05/30/opinion/columnists/guest_opinion/doc4840441c0395d807129778.txt

At the Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting May 20, Supervisors Ray CarrollAnn Day became the first Tucson-area officials to sign the 2008 Tax and Spending Pledge from the Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity. and

Carroll and Day pledged to be "Friends of the Taxpayer," promising to vote against any county budget for fiscal year 2009 that is greater than the 2008 budget, against any increase in total property tax levies, and against the imposition of a sales tax. Barney Brenner, a candidate for supervisor in the district currently represented by Sharon Bronson, also signed the pledge.

With state-shared income and sales tax revenues in steep decline, it should not be too difficult for all Tucson-area officials and candidates to sign the Tax and Spending Pledge. For example, the tentative budgets for Pima County and the City of Tucson project lower spending than last year.

However, as meetings to approve final budgets approach this month, officials will be tempted to look for new revenue sources (tax and fee increases) and to let spending creep up beyond the limits set by the relatively modest tentative budgets. If anything, officials need to go in the other direction. Pima County, for example, needs to further reduce its budget by about $8 million (less than one percent) to avoid increasing overall property tax levies on homeowners and businesses during a time of economic slowdown.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Arizona created its "Local Government Tax and Spending Pledge" this year with the hope of preventing some of the low scores that so many Arizona officials earned on its first annual scorecard (See chart). Too many local government officials seemed to be operating under the assumption no one was watching them, and that their job was simply to spend as much money as they could.

2007 Elected Officials Scorecard

Each elected official was evaluated by the Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity based on their votes of budgets, property taxes and sales taxes. Reductions in each area resulted in higher scores. Negative scores were given to votes to increases and are based on the percentage amount of increases. Elected officials who missed votes on all three measures were not evaluated; those who voted on at least one measure were given zeros for votes they missed. The South Tucson City Council failed to post documents on its website as of Aug. 31, 2007. Only currently serving elected officials are listed.

Marana Town Council

Russell Clanagan - Friend of big government

Patti Comerford - Friend of big government

Ed Honea - Friend of big government

Herb Kai - Friend of big government

Carol McGorray - Friend of big government

Roxanne Ziegler - Friend of big government

Oro Valley Town Council

Paula Abbott - Ally of the taxpayer

Kenneth "K.C." Carter - Ally of big government

Helen Dankwerth - Ally of big government

Barry Gillaspie - Ally of big government

Al Kunisch - Ally of big government

Paul Loomis - Ally of big government

Pima County Board of Supervisors

Sharon Bronson - Champion of big government

Ray Carroll - Champion of the taxpayer

Ann Day - Friend of the taxpayer

Richard Elías - Champion of big government

Ramón Valadez - Champion of big government

Sahuarita Town Council

Phil Conklin - Not bad

Scott Downs - Not bad

Roger Minor - Not bad

Marty Moreno - Absent for key votes

Charles Oldham - Not bad

Lynne Skelton - Not bad

John Sullivan - Not bad

South Tucson City Council--Failed to post documents

Tucson City Council

Steve Leal - Ally of big government

Shirley Scott - Ally of big government

Nina Trasoff - Ally of big government

Karin Uhlich - Ally of big government

Bob Walkup - Ally of big government