Homeless in Arizona

I suspect the real reason Greg Stanton doesn't want to repeal the sales tax on food is because he knows that most of the tax goes to pay for the 3,000 or so Phoenix cops and he knows if he keeps the tax he is guarentted 3,000 votes from Phoenix Police Officers.

It sounds like Phoenix City Mayor Greg Stanton is selling us little people out to the police in exchange for a few votes.

Didn't Judas sell Jesus out for 13 pieces of silver?

I guess Mayor Greg Stanton is selling out the people Phoenix to the police for for a lousy 2 percent tax on food.

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Is Greg Stanton waffling on food-tax repeal?

During his 2011 campaign for mayor – a campaign in which his opponent Wes Gullet pledged an immediate repeal of the city’s food tax — Greg Stanton said he supported an early end to the 2 percent tax. Specifically, April 2013.

The delay, Stanton explained at the time, was simply to give the city time to consider the consequences of losing the estimated $50 million a year the city reaps by taxing residents who wish to eat.

Stanton’s had a year to consider those consequences. Given that he supported City Manager David Cavazo’s 33 percent, $78,000 pay raise last fall – a raise retroactive to July 1 – I’m guessing Stanton and the crew has had ample time to consider the matter.

Now along comes a pair of city councilmen, calling on Stanton to keep his word. (Don’t you just hate it when people remember what you said on the campaign trail?)

“Since imposing that tax, Phoenix has made great strides with a much improved financial position,” Councilmen Sal DiCiccio and Jim Waring wrote, in a memo to the mayor.

The tax, approved in 2010 with a whopping 24 hours of notice to the public that must pay it, is now set to expire in 2015. Two other council members — Bill Gates and Thelda Williams — also support an early end to the tax, which would make Stanton the likely swing vote.

Stanton told The Republic’s Dustin Gardiner that he won’t make a decision on the repeal until he’s gotten the lowdown from Cavazos about whether the city can afford it.

“I’m going to ask the city manager to give us an honest assessment about the food tax,” he told Gardiner. “My commitment was to do as little harm to public safety as possible.”

Actually, mayor, your commitment was to repeal the tax.

Is Greg Stanton waffling on food tax repeal?

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Is Greg Stanton waffling on food tax repeal?

In 2011, Greg Stanton was campaigning hard for Phoenix mayor so, naturally, he endorsed a repeal of the city’s 2 percent tax on food.

“I join (Councilwoman Thelda Williams) in advocating for a tax that will expire in April 2013, saving taxpayers $100 million,” he said in a statement issued Sept. 9, 2011.

“We can do this as soon as April 2013 and save taxpayers $100 million while also protecting key city services,” he told ABC15 on Nov. 6, 2011.

“I support ending the food tax and was the first candidate to give a deadline by when to do so,” he told The Republic in a piece published Oct. 3, 2011.

Stanton said one other thing worth noting that day: “The people of Phoenix deserve a mayor who can give a straight answer to an honest question.”

I agree, which is why I was surprised this week when Stanton wouldn’t talk to me to clarify his plans for the food tax.

April, after all, is only 71 days away.

Councilmen Sal DiCiccio and Jim Waring last week called on the mayor to keep his word. They, along with Williams and Bill Gates, support an early end to the five-year tax, which was enacted in 2010 with just 24 hours’ notice to the public that must pay it.

So that’s four votes. They need only one more….hmmm.

Stanton told The Republic’s Dustin Gardiner last week that he won’t decide on the repeal until he gets the lowdown from City Manager David Cavazos about whether the city can afford it.

That is, City Manager David Cavazos who recently got a 33 percent, $78,000-a-year pay raise, retroactive to July 1.

“I’m going to ask the city manager to give us an honest assessment about the food tax,” Stanton told Gardiner. “My commitment was to do as little harm to public safety as possible.”

I’ve tried calling Stanton several times this week to pin him down about what happens when that honest assessment inevitably comes back as these things always do – that axing the tax will mean sacrificing public safety, that ever-more police jobs will go unfilled, that chaos will reign.

That’s basically what city leaders said in 2010. Then they proceeded to use the general-fund proceeds from the tax to give a pay raise to city employees.

In fact, employees have gotten raises and bonuses every year during the lean times, to the tune of $50 million this year. I don’t actually mind that city employees were getting pay raises when virtually nobody else was. But providing those raises by taxing the food of people who haven’t been so fortunate just seems wrong.

Which is why I wanted to ask Stanton directly whether he planned to repeal the tax by April. Instead I got this, from his spokeswoman.

“The mayor will not be giving further comment,” Sarah Muench replied, in an e-mail.

Muench was kind enough to send me a memo, in which Stanton on Monday asked Cavazos to prepare “budget-cut options that are sized to match the revenue loss that occurs when the food tax is eliminated.”

What do you want to bet those budget-cut options will laser right in the cops? At present, the city has 301 police vacancies and a hiring freeze.

Which leaves me to wonder: if police are the top priority, why has the city spent $107 million on employee raises and bonuses since the food tax was enacted?

Why is the city spending $1.8 million this year on lobbying and “government relations”? And another $1.8 million to belong to groups like the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors?

One would think if police are the priority, the city wouldn’t be spending $2.6 million a year to employ 21 full-time and two part-time public information officers.

Or $8 million to operate six golf courses that lose $2 million a year. Or $2.3 million this year on middle manager and executive pay raises.

I would have asked Stanton about all that had he not dodged me.

Oh, I’ve read his recent statements, about how he supports “the transparent repeal of the food tax as part of a smart-and common-sense economic plan.”

What I haven’t read is whether he plans to keep his promise to end the tax by April.

In October 2011, the City Council fell one vote short of ending the tax. In those days, Stanton the candidate was readily available to talk about the pressing need to end the tax.

“The food tax needs to be repealed as soon as possible,” he said on Nov. 6, 2011. “If I was able to vote last week, I would have supported a repeal of the food tax two years early.”

That was then, two days before the election.

These days, he’s curiously unavailable for comment.

(Column published Jan. 19, 2013, The Arizona Republic.)

Phoenix Mayor Stanton - Don't cut my government pork

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Phoenix Mayor Stanton: Keep Valley airport towers open

By Erin Kelly Republic Washington Bureau Wed Mar 13, 2013 12:34 AM

WASHINGTON -- Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton met with Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Michael Huerta to plead the case for keeping open the air-traffic control towers at Phoenix Goodyear Airport and Glendale Municipal Airport.

“We’re trying to do our best to protect these important resources,” Stanton said Tuesday.

The two West Valley airports are among more than 100 nationwide that could see their control towers close in early April because of the automatic, across-the-board federal budget cuts known as sequestration. Other Arizona airports that face tower closures are Ryan Airfield in Tucson and Laughlin/Bullhead International in Bullhead City.

Cities have until today to make their cases to the FAA. Stanton said he and West Valley mayors will send a letter to Huerta today, urging him to keep the Goodyear and Glendale towers open.

That has ramifications far beyond Arizona, Stanton said.

“Closing the tower at Goodyear would have geo-political implications for our NATO partners,” said Stanton.

Both the Goodyear and Glendale towers also help protect Glendale-based Luke Air Force Base by ensuring that their air traffic remains outside Luke’s airspace, Stanton said. If the towers close, it would likely increase the potential for airspace violations by civil aircraft, he said.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton will say anything to get elected???

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Will Greg Stanton honor his pledge to ax food tax?

“The food tax needs to be repealed as soon as possible. If I was able to vote last week, I would have supported a repeal of the food tax two years early, and in a way that does not require termination or layoffs of sworn police officers and firefighters. We can do this as soon as April 2013 and save taxpayers $100 million while also protecting key city services.”

–Greg Stanton, Nov. 6, 2011, two days before the mayoral election

“The question for me is, ‘Can we repeal this emergency measure without gutting public safety and compromising the city’s fiscal health?’ That’s the bottom line.”

–Greg Stanton, State of the City speech, Feb. 28, 2013.

Stanton ran for mayor insisting that he didn’t suffer from city hall syndrome, a common malady in which our leaders identify more with the people inside city offices than outside. Of late, however, Stanton – the swing vote on the food tax — has shown distinct symptoms as we inch ever closer to April.

The Phoenix City Council enacted the five-year 2 percent tax on groceries in 2010 with no public input, warning that to do otherwise would result in criminals running amok and padlocks gracing the doors of libraries and senior centers. Then it basically used the proceeds of the tax to fund employee pay raises [And most of the Phoenix city employees are COPS or police officers].

Phoenix employeess’ pay has increased by an average of 4.8 percent every year since the food tax was imposed – far outstripping the temporary 3.2 percent cut to pay and benefits in 2010. (Half of that was restored last year, with the rest likely coming next year.)

Normally, I’d applaud an employer for finding a way to raise pay in tough times. But not when the raises were made possible by taxing the food of people who haven’t been so fortunate.

Repeal of the food tax fell one vote short in fall 2011, when then-candidate Stanton announced he would have voted for immediate repeal and then pledged to end the tax by April 2013.

Given that April is just 19 days away, I thought a little follow-up was in order.

Me: Are you going to keep your commitment to voters and end the tax in April?

Stanton: “During the campaign, we obviously thought that revenue would be better, that our budget situation would be better. I have a long-term commitment on protecting public safety and so I’m going to let the city manager present information so we have the full information in front of us.”

City Manager David Cavazos – the guy who scored a 33 percent, $78,000 pay raise last fall – will release two versions of a proposed budget for next year on March 26, with and without revenue from the food tax.

Any bets on what’ll be on the chopping block in the no-food-tax budget?

I’m guessing it won’t be the city’s 23 public information officers or any of the $3.6 million spent on lobbying and dues to groups like the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. I’m guessing it won’t be the golf courses that lose $2 million a year and it certainly won’t be any piece of next year’s pay raise, approved in last year’s labor contracts.

No, it’ll be a pick-ax to police and firefighters, cuts choreographed to stop this silly talk of ending the food tax early.

But if public safety really is the top priority, why has the city spent $106 million on employee pay since the food tax was enacted – coincidentally just about what the tax has generated? Why not hold off in order to avoid public safety cuts, knowing that Stanton’s vote would end the tax in April 2013?

Or, as it turns out, will it?

Stanton continues to dodge the question, talking instead about how revenue projections are off by $20 million and pension payments are $15 million higher than projected.

In other words, he’s about to renege on his pledge and he’ll use Cavazos’ doomsday budget as political cover.

“I, as the mayor, have an obligation to do what I believe is in the best interest of the people of this city,” Stanton told me repeatedly.

Funny how that view changes on this side of an election.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton pulls a fast one on voters

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Posted on March 22, 2013 5:00 pm by Laurie Roberts

Masterful Mayor Stanton pulls a fast one on voters

A round of applause going out today to Phoenix’s own Greg Stanton, mayor to masses – or at least, those among the masses who can afford groceries.

To channel another politician, one also didn’t hold much stock in silly campaign promises: “Read my lips,” Mr. Mayor.

Masterful work, simply masterful.

Here’s a guy who runs for mayor on a platform of repealing the city’s food tax – the most regressive tax around, one that forces people to pay a tribute to city hall in order to eat. This, as 30 percent of the residents in some parts of the city go without food because they simply can’t afford enough to eat, according to the Washington D.C.-based Food Research and Action Center.

Not only does Candidate Stanton promise to repeal the tax by April 2013 but in his zeal to get elected, he announces just before Election Day 2011 that he would have already voted to ax the tax, had he been on the Phoenix City Council.

Now, 16 months after his election when the economy is actually better, Mayor Stanton says he couldn’t possibly consider forgoing the 2 percent tax on the groceries of single moms and senior citizens and others who are barely scraping by.

He’d like to, you see, but though revenues are up, they haven’t increased as much as the city expected. Meanwhile, employees are due raises, and taxpayers’ share of pension costs will jump a startling $35 million next year – ironically, just about what the food tax brings into the general fund in a year.

End the tax on milk and eggs? Why, it would mean chaos on the streets, city workers thrown to the curb, old people and young alike cut off from library books and recreational activities but fortunately not subsidized golf.

“As a leader, Stanton says. “You lead with the facts as they actually are.”

Indeed, you do. So let’s review a few of them.

Stanton took office last year and rather than immediately instructing City Manager David Cavazos to begin planning for the promised day when the tax would end, he supported employee pay raises.

Stanton talks often of the 3.2 percent in pay and benefits that employees gave up in 2010, half of which was restored this year. What he doesn’t often mention is that nearly half of Phoenix’s employees have gotten raises averaging 4.8 percent every year throughout the downturn in the economy. The rest, those at the high end of the pay scale, have continued to receive “longevity” bonuses of up to $4,000 a year.

In all, the city has spent $106 million on raises and bonuses since the food tax was enacted in 2010, just about the amount the city would lose had Stanton stood by his promise and ended the food tax two years ahead of its scheduled March 31, 2015 sunset.

The truth is, the city had no intention of ending the food tax early. If it had, Stanton and company would not have approved a 5 percent increase in city spending this year.

If it had, they would have frozen employee pay, explaining that we’re sorry but it’s simply wrong to offer raises on the backs of “emergency” taxes on people who are struggling to buy food.

If it had, they wouldn’t have handed Cavazos a 33 percent pay raise last fall, one that equates to nearly twice the median household income ($43,960) of a Phoenix family.

If it had, they would have begun planning last year for a budget that wouldn’t have required taking a hacksaw this year to public safety and libraries and programs people care about.

That is, if they really wanted to end the food tax.

Instead, they constructed the perfect PR setup, giving Stanton the cover he needs to renege on his promise and emerge unscathed. While the rest of world sees the economy improving, in Phoenix it’s the old sky-is-falling-and-police-officers-will-be-cut routine that cities perform every time they sense a revenue stream slipping through their fingers.

“This is a tough, tough choice,” Stanton told me.

Not nearly as tough, mayor, as the choice of which of your kids will go to bed hungry tonight.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton reneges on food-tax repeal

When Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton he promised to repeal the 2 percent tax sales tax. Now Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton says he isn't going to repeal the tax.

I suspect Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton is selling out to the people of Phoenix in exchange for the special interest groups on the Phoenix Police Department and the 3,000 or so votes they can give him in the next election.

Since the police budget is probably around 60 percent of the total Phoenix budget, if the tax is repealed it will cause cops to be laid off.

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Posted on March 21, 2013 4:07 pm by Laurie Roberts

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton reneges on food-tax repeal

As expected, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton announced this afternoon that he’s weaseling out of his campaign pledge to repeal the city’s 2 percent tax on food.

Right on cue, Phoenix City Manager David Cavazos said early repeal of the tax would result in the layoffs of 100 police officers and 288 other city employees.

“That’s not a choice I’m willing to make,” Stanton said.

Yet two years ago, the then-mayoral candidate said it wasn’t a choice he would have had to make. During his campaign for mayor, Stanton repeatedly vowed to repeal the food tax by April 2013 without harming public safety.

In fact, he went even further than that in his zeal to get elected. Who can forget this now-infamous quote, just two days before the election and a week after the City Council had rejected a bid to repeal the tax:

“The food tax needs to be repealed as soon as possible. If I was able to vote last week, I would have supported a repeal of the food tax two years early, and in a way that does not require termination or layoffs of sworn police officers and firefighters.”

Me, to the mayor today: So why could you get rid of the food tax two years ago, when the economy was worse, and not affect public safety but now, when the economy is better, it would affect public safety?

Stanton: “If I said that I was mistaken.”

Reasons given today for the rollback in a rather important promise: revenue increases are lower than the 6 percent hike the city expected, employee pension costs are 42 percent higher than projected and voters are 100 percent guaranteed to forget this by the time he’s up for re-election in 2015.

(OK, that last reason was something I added.)

Stanton backs off repeal of food tax

Stanton backs off repeal of food tax

By Dustin Gardiner The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:37 PM

Ending Phoenix’s controversial food tax two years early would require sweeping budget cuts, including the layoffs of 99 police officers and about 300 other employees, city leaders announced Thursday.

That’s just a portion of the spending cuts City Manager David Cavazos said the city would need to cover a nearly $55 million shortfall if officials repealed the tax this spring, as some council members have urged.

The projected loss of police officers and other cuts to city services were enough to prompt Mayor Greg Stanton to back away from his campaign pledge to end the tax.

Stanton said he will not support its repeal this year, leaving little chance such a proposal could pass the City Council.

“That’s not a choice I’m willing to make,” he said of public-safety layoffs. “When you’re in a leadership capacity, you don’t do what’s politically expedient.”

Opponents of the food tax are skeptical of the grim budget scenario, suggesting that city leaders are using public-safety cuts as a scare tactic to justify a tax on the backs of Phoenix’s poorest. They were quick to criticize Stanton.

“I don’t buy that argument anymore, and neither does the public,” Councilman Sal DiCiccio said of concerns that it would require cuts to public safety. “It gives absolutely no thought to a campaign promise.”

Political pressure to repeal the tax early has been mounting in recent weeks, with a few council members calling on Stanton to follow through on his pledge to end it by April 1. An effort to repeal the tax in 2011 narrowly failed a council vote.

The council created the tax to help cover a record $277 million budget shortfall during the economic slump in 2010. If nothing changes, it’s scheduled to sunset in March 2015.

Residents pay the 2 percent tax on their grocery bills. For a typical family that spends about $100 per week on basic groceries, it adds up to $104 per year.

Steep cuts

Although city staffers signaled their reluctance to repeal the tax in recent months, the full impact of the potential cuts came to light Thursday when Cavazos released his proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

His budget plan indicates that an early repeal would require drastic cuts to everyday services, such as police, libraries and mass transit.

Here are some of the significant impacts. It would:

Eliminate the fire-prevention section within the Fire Department, which would result in fewer code-compliance inspections of buildings and end a pool-fence safety permitting program. Savings: $1.97 million.

Reduce spending for a graffiti-cleanup program, potentially increasing the time it takes to address graffiti complaints. Savings: $413,000.

Eliminate Friday and Saturday light-rail service from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Savings: $288,000.

Close five of the city’s 13 large recreation centers: Deer Valley, Desert West, Devonshire, Mountain View and the Washington Activity Center. Savings: $1.73 million.

Cut nearly half of the city’s after-school programs for school-age children. Savings: $604,000.

Reduce hours at libraries across the city and close Burton Barr Central Library one day per week. Savings: $1.2million.

Several council members already have voiced concerns that the tax’s repeal could hurt the public more than a 2-cent-per-dollar food tax. Much of the focus has been on the impact to public safety.

“It would have been wrong to cut police and fire two years ago, and the same is true today,” said Ann Malone, a Phoenix neighborhood leader who supports Stanton’s decision. “The people of Phoenix value safe neighborhoods and demand safe schools.”

Cavazos said that he focused on making cuts in other areas before looking to police and fire services but that some cuts would beneeded because public safety makes up 70 percent of the city’s budget. In addition to laying off police, the city would cut $3.8million from the Fire Department, including seven sworn positions.

“We believe that in order to have a quality of life that Phoenicians have come to expect, we need to have (services) that are not only public safety,” Cavazos said. “There had been a long-standing practice of always cutting everything but public safety. I took a different path.”

Cavazos’ budget projections are a starting point as the council begins its spring budget negotiations in earnest. Council members must approve a budget to take effect with the new fiscal year.

The city’s ability to repeal the food tax has been complicated in recent months by rising pension costs and lower-than-expected sales-tax returns. General-fund revenue is about $18 million less than projected in the current year’s budget. City officials said consumer spending, especially during the holiday season, was hurt by talk about the “fiscal cliff” and federal budget cuts.

Without removal of the tax, Cavazos projects a balanced budget next year, with the additions of some minor services.

Council divided

But the food-tax debate isn’t likely to end without a sizzle. DiCiccio and other critics have vowed to continue pressing the issue, taking the fight to 19 public hearings being held throughout the city next month. Residents can weigh in on essentially two budget plans: one with cuts to cover a loss of the food tax and another with current revenue.

Councilman Bill Gates, who is still evaluating his stance, said he’s disappointed by the way the conversation already has been framed. He said public-safety cuts are being dangled before residents from the get-go instead of city leaders taking time to evaluate all the options first.

“Here we go again,” Gates said, adding that the tax was originally created with just one day’s notice to the public. “That happened in 2010, and it seems to be happening again.”

Although several council members did not receive the proposed cuts until late Thursday, critics acknowledge it’s unlikely they have the votes to overturn the tax.

DiCiccio has raised concerns about the impacts of the tax on the working poor. He said that the city used a “regressive” tax to pay for tens of millions in raises and bonuses for city employees in recent years and that the vast majority have received pay bumps every year throughout the downturn.

“Mayor Stanton fulfilled his commitment to the union bosses and failed the middle class,” DiCiccio said.

Meanwhile, Stanton and other community leaders stressed Thursday that the impact of massive service cuts could also harm many of the city’s most vulnerable, who depend on services such as senior centers or support to domestic-violence shelters.

“These are incredibly difficult choices,” Stanton said. “But as a leader, you lead with the facts as they actually are.”

Phoenix’s mayor has shed his scruples in record time

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Phoenix’s mayor has shed his scruples in record time

Wed Mar 27, 2013 7:50 PM

The most remarkable thing about Mayor Greg Stanton is the arrogant and skillful ease he has displayed in becoming the consummate politician.

For most politicos who feed at the public trough, it takes years to morph into a weather-vane leader whose words and scruples become meaningless and totally self-serving. Stanton has accomplished the transformation in record time. He has cast off his reptilian skin in less than a year regarding his position on the city food tax.

He once filled our hopes, as a man of the people, by the people and for the people, with lofty promises, but sadly, he’s nothing but handshakes, smiles and empty words.

Remember how bold he was in the closing days of his campaign, grabbing headlines and votes, with his “I will repeal the tax!”?

Not so today.

If the tax is repealed, he said, you Phoenix citizens will be punished with less police and fire protection, closed parks and libraries and disgruntled city employees.

In poker, a four-flusher is one who bets with an empty hand.

In politics, it’s one who bets with empty words! How disappointing! How predictable!

Dale Douglas
Phoenix

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton is a lying hypocrite?????

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Reach Robert Robb at robert.robb@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8472.

Posted on March 28, 2013 4:45 pm by Robert Robb

Sanctimonious Phoenix food tax fight

The City of Phoenix hasn’t been especially profligate when it comes to spending. It wouldn’t give me heartburn if the temporary sales tax on food ran its course until its scheduled expiration in 2015.

Nevertheless, the city council fracas over its early expiration is highly revealing – about the political character of Phoenix’s new mayor, Greg Stanton; and about how city government in Phoenix remains very much an insiders’ game.

Stanton and city management are donning hair shirts and flaying themselves over how virtuous they have been in managing city finances through the recent recession. And, truth be told, Phoenix and other big governments around the Valley have managed through an extraordinarily rough fiscal storm rather well.

But that only tells part of the story. Before the recession, Phoenix did ramp up spending incontinently.

From 2003 to 2007, the city’s general fund budget grew, on average, nearly 9 percent a year. Then the recession hit, and the city basically has flat-lined spending. The general fund budget proposed by the city manager for Fiscal Year 2014 is only modestly higher than it was in 2007.

That’s the part the city stresses in trying to make the case to retain the temporary food tax. But, from a longer perspective, the story is different. If the city manager’s budget is adopted, city spending will have increased at a rate of more than 3 percent a year since 2003. That’s not giving drunken sailors any run for their money. But it’s hardly a starvation diet either.

The fiscal path taken by county government and other major Valley cities isn’t materially different than that taken by Phoenix. All rode the housing bubble and ramped up spending. After the recession hit, all admirably managed restraint with a minimum of disruption. Tempe and Glendale also adopted temporary sales tax increases to help cope.

The difference is that no other major Valley government is so sanctimonious about it.

Stanton wrote a column for the Arizona Republic making the case for not ending the temporary sales tax on food early. It begins with an unctuous recitation of commitments Stanton made “when I took office last year.” Unmentioned was the commitment that he made while running for the office: to eliminate the temporary sales tax on food early, no later than next month. [Translation he promised to cut the sales tax BEFORE he was mayor in an attempt to get people to vote for him. And it probably was a bold faced lie considering his current position on the tax.]

This was not a trifling aside; it was a major campaign plank for Stanton. While city revenues are running a bit behind estimates, in reality there has been no material change in the city’s financial situation since Stanton ran in part on shutting down the tax early.

Stanton’s a bright and informed guy. So, there’s only one possible conclusion: He was insincere when he made a big deal to voters about eliminating the tax early. He was just saying what he thought he had to say to get elected. [Again he seems to be saying Mayor Greg Stanton LIED and promised to cut the tax solely to get people to vote for him]

One of the issues in that campaign was whether city government had become too much of an insiders’ game, run too much for the benefit of city management, staff and favored constituencies.

The temporary sales tax on food was supposedly an emergency measure enacted because there were no other options to keep houses from burning down and crooks from running free. [That's lie is a universal lie crooked politicians tell us to get temporary taxes passed, and of course those temporary taxes almost always turn into permanent taxes as this 2 percent tax will.]

Phoenix city government, while practicing reasonable overall spending constraint, has acted in some respects inconsistent with the existence of a fiscal emergency requiring the imposition of a temporary food tax. Most city workers have continued to get decent raises. City Manager David Cavazos got a whopper.

In most cities, the politicians and senior managers would find it unseemly to give out, or accept, raises while asking voters to suck it up and pay more in taxes to get through a fiscal crunch. But not in Phoenix.

There are clearly ways to manage an early termination of the food tax without allowing homes to burn down or crooks to run free, if the will existed to do so. And the will would exist if Stanton had meant what he said during the campaign.

On the other hand, city spending remains relatively constrained even with the tax. But if the tax is kept, please at least spare us the sanctimony.

(column for 3.29.13)

Phoenix city council bans gun ads at bus stops???

If the Phoenix City Council says the First and Second Amendments are null and void in the city of Phoenix it won't be long before the rest of the Constitution is also null and void in Phoenix.

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Unlikely allies in Phoenix pro-gun advertisement case

By Dustin Gardiner The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Apr 20, 2013 10:32 PM

Two prominent legal watchdog groups are teaming up to fight Phoenix’s decision to remove 50 pro-gun advertisements from city bus shelters.

The large posters, which said “Guns Save Lives” and advertised a website for firearm-safety classes, were removed in 2010. Phoenix officials said the signs conveyed a political message, violating its policy against non-commercial advertising on buses and transit stops.

Arizona’s conservative Goldwater Institute has been waging a legal battle to overturn the city’s move, and it recently got a powerful ally in the case: the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The seemingly unlikely legal partners say the case has broader implications for free-speech rights in Arizona. They argue the city’s “vague” policy is unconstitutional and allows for censorship.

“It involves the scope of the Arizona Constitution’s grant to all persons of the right to freely speak, write and publish on all subjects,” the ACLU argued in a recent court brief.

The lawsuit stems from a dispute between the city and gun-rights activist Alan Korwin, who manages the website TrainMeAZ.com. After the 2010 passage of a state law expanding concealed-carry rights, Korwin and other gun-safety instructors created the website and launched the advertising campaign.

Korwin purchased ad space at city bus stops and the controversial posters went up across the city. He said the purpose of the ads was to capture business for the website, which links gun owners to training classes.

But Phoenix officials saw the message of the ads much differently, and the pro-gun posters were removed within days.

They said the ads, which had been installed by a billboard company that contracts with the city, did not have a commercial purpose, as required. City policy does not allow the use of transit ad space for political advertising or public-service announcements.

The ads said “Guns Save Lives” in large writing against the backdrop of a red heart. Below that, also printed in large lettering, were “Arizona Says: Educate Your Kids” and “Train MeAZ.com.” Smaller text promoted the state’s expansive gun-rights laws and the website’s offerings.

Last fall, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Brain ruled in the city’s favor, stating that the city had created reasonable guidelines for what it will and won’t allow on transit billboards.

“What we want is advertiser’s commercial products that do not get into ideological, political debates as part of the proposed ad,” David Schwartz, an attorney for Phoenix, argued in court. “This is not going to stop (Korwin) from putting the ad, if he wants, anywhere else.”

Korwin and Goldwater are now challenging the ruling in state Appeals Court, and the case is expected to be argued later this year.

Goldwater and ACLU attorneys contend that Phoenix’s ban on non-commercial ads is too broad. They say content-based restrictions on ads should be stopped entirely or, at the least, the city should have a more objective standard.

“The city’s arbitrary decision making is exactly the type of censorship the U.S. and Arizona constitutions forbid,” said Clint Bolick, Goldwater’s vice president for litigation. “This odd-couple alliance between the Goldwater Institute and the ACLU highlights the importance of the case to our fundamental freedoms.”

Will Mayor Stanton do double flip on Phoenix food tax?

Posted on April 22, 2013 5:30 pm by Laurie Roberts

Will Mayor Stanton do double flip on Phoenix food tax?

I can just imagine how Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton must be feeling this week.

Jubilant, right?

Here’s a politician who ran for office on a pledge to repeal the city’s 2 percent food tax by … well, now. Alas, Stanton announced a month ago that the heavy mantle of leadership which falls upon his shoulders requires that he renege on his oft-repeated promise to voters.

“Phoenix would have to eliminate more than 100 police officers, plus shutter half the city’s after-school programs,” Stanton wrote, in a March op-ed piece explaining his flip. “We’d have to close five rec centers, slash the schedule for the Burton Barr Library and cut $550,000 from domestic-violence and child-advocacy programs.”

Or, as it turns out, perhaps not.

Thanks to Councilman Michael Nowakowski, the Phoenix City Council is poised to vote next week to cut the tax in half in January. This, without cutting so much as a single police officer, a single firefighter or a single city service that residents enjoy.

So, you can imagine Stanton’s reaction.

“He’s kind of pissed off, yeah,” Nowakowski acknowledged.

That’s an understatement. City hall is sizzling over the temper tantrum thrown by Stanton on Friday, when he learned that City Manager David Cavazos is preparing a budget that halves the food tax at the request of Nowakowski and Councilwoman Thelda Williams.

Multiple sources have told me the mayor pitched a fit.

“He was very, very upset that the city manager didn’t come to him, get it preapproved, that council members didn’t go through him,” Williams said. ”I’m trying to find a negotiated peace with members of the council. To me, it is over the sales tax. It has had a very mixed review at public hearings. Half the people say keep it, the other half say you’ve got to get rid of it now.”

The council approved the five-year tax in 2010 with no public input, when Phoenix faced a $270 million shortfall. In his zeal to get elected in 2011, Stanton not only promised to repeal the tax by April 2013 but just before Election Day, he announced that he already would have voted to ax the tax had he been on the council.

Two years later, the city is far better financial shape yet Stanton has backed out of his pledge. To end the tax early, he says, would be to invite civic chaos – and, I’d imagine, no small amount of grief from city employee unions.

Because Stanton was the swing vote, it appeared that Phoenix residents would continue to be taxed 2 percent in order to eat.

But on Thursday, Nowakowski, who has supported the tax, was talking with Williams and Councilman Sal DiCiccio, a staunch opponent of the tax, after the three attended a Soroptomist awards luncheon. As they talked in the parking lot of the Phoenix Country Club, Nowakowski says he broached the idea of cutting the tax in half in January en route to its expiration in March 2015.

Nowakowski, who runs nine radio stations for the Cesar Chavez Foundation, says it makes sense from a business perspective to phase out the tax in order to cushion the impact when it sunsets. When DiCiccio agreed, Nowakowski says he approached Cavazos about whether the tax could be halved without harming police, fire or community services.

“He believes he can do it,” Nowakowski told me. “He feels very confident that he can do it but he needs to sit down with his staff and figure out what he needs to do to accomplish that.”

Cavazos, who has been asked to present the new half-tax budget on May 1, didn’t return a call. DiCiccio, Williams and Councilman Jim Waring also say the city manager has assured them the tax can be halved in January without hurting city services.

Add in Councilmen Bill Gates, who also opposed the tax, and Stanton suddenly finds himself on the hot seat.

The mayor didn’t return my call to talk about his predicament.

Does he stick with his sky-is-falling and chaos-will-reign routine and vote with the minority to support the tax he pledged to eliminate?

Or does he change his mind yet again to save face, making him a frequent flipper?

It’s a sticky situation for a guy who fancies himself a leader. Either way he winds up with a sizable feast of crow.

Fortunately, I have it on good authority that the tax on the fixings for such a meal is about to be cut in half.

Phoenix to phase out food tax....maybe

Phoenix to phase out food tax....maybe

Posted on May 7, 2013 5:00 pm by Laurie Roberts

Phoenix to phase out food tax….maybe

The Phoenix City Council has voted to phase out the food tax …

… Maybe.

… Or possibly not.

OK, it depends.

If you’ve followed the ever evolving saga of the city’s emergency food tax, I suspect that like me you’re nursing a painful case of whiplash.

From the mayor’s pre-election pledge to get rid of the tax to the mayor’s post-election pledge to break his pre-election pledge.

From the city manager’s sky is falling no-food-tax forecast in March to his assurances last week that he could cut the tax in half by January, no sweat.

From plans by a bare majority of the council to vote last week to halve the tax in January to last Wednesday’s actual 8-1 vote, to put off a decision until October.

Giving the city’s employee groups five months to pick off one vote in order to keep the tax intact and the revenues flowing forth — at least until 2015, when the emergency five-year tax will expire… [Well, it's not the city employees, it's mostly cops and firemen. Cops and firemen get about 60 percent of the Phoenix budget, with cops getting 40 percent, and the firemen getting the next 20 percent. All other city employees combined get the remaining 40 percent of the budget]

Presumably.

The 2 percent food tax – hastily enacted in 2010 as the city faced financial freefall — vaulted into public view this spring as the time approached for fulfillment of Mayor Greg Stanton’s campaign pledge to repeal the tax by April 2013. Because the council was deadlocked 4-4, all eyes were on Stanton who did as many suspected all along. [Mayor Greg Stanton used that lie to get elected]

He changed his mind. Citing the no-food-tax budget put together by City Manager David Cavazos – the one that required laying off 100 police officers, closing recreation centers and slashing library hours – Stanton said in March that good leadership required him to support the continued collection of the most regressive tax around. [Why are they closing recreation centers and slashing library hours when the police and fire departments account for 60 percent of the Phoenix budget. They should be firing cops and firemen!!!]

Imagine Stanton’s surprise in April, when one of the food tax supporters, Councilman Michael Nowakowski, called for a phase-out of the tax. Nowakowski told me he’d been assured by Cavazos that the tax could be cut in half in January without cutting public safety or city services.

He and Councilwoman Thelda Williams called for a May 1 vote.

By last week, however, the plan to vote on the tax cut had softened to a vote to take up the issue on Oct. 1, giving Cavazos until then to factor in the $12 million loss of food-tax funds from next year’s budget.

Understandably, city employee groups oppose the move. [And 60 percent of those employees are cops and firemen] Though most employees continued to get annual raises or “longevity” bonuses through the recession, only half of their agreed-upon 3.2 percent cut to pay and benefits has been restored.

Meanwhile, the insatiable piranha that is the public pension program eats up every dime the food tax brings in – and more. Much more. [again most of these fabulously expensive pensions go to the cops and firemen.]

So it was no surprise when union reps stood before the council last week and branded the tax cut “irresponsible.” I imagine they’ll be busy over the next few months, trying to pull Nowakowski back into the fold.

I’ve long suspected that the end game is to preserve at least half of the food tax to fund future raises and pension costs. As Stanton likes to point out, 22 of the Valley’s 25 cities have a permanent food tax.

But that’s a story for another day.

As we wait for October, there are questions to ponder…

… Like why Cavazos – who rated got a 33 percent pay raise last fall – didn’t propose a phase-out plan himself rather than defaulting in March to the usual police-officers-will-be-fired-if-you-touch-the-tax stance? Why now, after mayor reneged on his campaign pledge, is it doable to start ramping down the tax? Did the sudden appearance of an unexpected fifth council vote change the budget numbers?

And why was Stanton so quick to throw in with Cavazos’ sky-is-falling budget without first considering other options? Why is it that a mayor who opposed the tax (before he supported it) left it to a councilman who supported the tax to plow solid middle ground? [Probably because Mayor Greg Stanton is a puppet for the special interest groups in the police and fire departments]

And finally, will Nowakowski, the new swing vote, be able to withstand the inevitable pressure over the next few months to resist pulling a Stanton and changing his mind?

Honestly, the player to watch will be the city manager, who says that he can cut the tax in half in January without affecting services or the city’s AAA bond rating.

“I believe it’s achievable but it does require a second vote in October,” Cavazos told the council last week. “But the basic direction is that this tax is going away.”

So he says in May.

The question is, what will he say in October?

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton is a gun grabber???

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Gun buyback in Phoenix is a ‘success,’ officials say

By Amy B Wang The Republic | azcentral.com Wed May 8, 2013 10:25 PM

The first of three planned gun-buyback events in Phoenix drew so much interest that it nearly exhausted the program’s funding, forcing organizers to scale back the two remaining buyback dates.

The Saturday gun buyback, held at three churches across the city, netted 803 weapons: 442 handguns, 162 shotguns, 198 rifles and one assault rifle, according to Phoenix police.

Those who turned in guns received Bashas’ grocery gift cards: $100 cards for handguns, shotguns and rifles; $200 cards for assault weapons.

Based on those calculations, police last weekend distributed $80,400 in gift cards — the bulk of a $100,000 anonymous donation that funded the program, a partnership between Phoenix police and the non-profit Arizonans for Gun Safety.

As a result, the buyback this Saturday will take place at only one location: Betania Presbyterian Church, 2811 N. 39th Ave., in west Phoenix. City officials said they likely will cancel the May 18 date unless the program receives more donations.

“As far as I know, there has been no additional money that has been raised,” said Sgt. Steve Martos, a police spokesman.

Originally, officials had planned to also give $10 to $25 gift cards for high-capacity magazines that accompanied a weapon, but Martos said they scrapped that plan for the sake of efficiency.

Before last Saturday’s event had officially started, police at the south Phoenix location had already collected 50 guns, with waiting cars backed up for 10 blocks, Martos said.

“I understand it was the same situation up north (at the third location),” he said. “It was just lines of cars down the street.”

The program will continue to distribute free gun locks along with lessons on how to store guns safely.

Phoenix officials have acknowledged that a buyback is unlikely to dramatically decrease gun deaths but said that such a program is an important service for residents to safely dispose of unwanted firearms “with no questions asked.” Residents who want to turn in an unwanted gun even without receiving a gift card may do so.

“This was really (for) people who have weapons that no longer want them and perhaps want to dispose of them in a responsible manner,” Martos said.

Mayor Greg Stanton announced the program in his State of the City speech in February. On Wednesday, Stanton called the first buyback event a “success” and encouraged donations in order for the buybacks to continue through its third planned weekend.

These events could be the last for Phoenix.

Phoenix officials plan to destroy the guns residents bring them during this program. However, a new state law — once it goes into effect — will require police to sell any weapons they receive, whether the guns are abandoned, lost or forfeited to the agency through a court order.

More details: phoenixgunbuyback.com

A Phoenix welfare program for rich yuppies????

Source

Phoenix Councilman Simplot: City needs more high-end housing

By Eugene Scott The Republic | azcentral.com Fri May 10, 2013 11:22 PM

If Phoenix is going to attract more professionals to the city’s center, it needs to shift direction from building so many affordable-housing projects and focus on higher-end development instead, according to Councilman Tom Simplot.

Simplot estimates that in the past few years, 90 percent of the city’s multihousing projects have been designated affordable housing.

And that’s too much, Simplot said. Phoenix should focus on making city-owned lots available for market-rate and high-end development projects.

He plans to introduce a proposal to offer up city land for this kind of development at a subcommittee meeting this month.

But not so fast, some real-estate experts say. Not only are recent low-income residential projects a good thing, the country’s sixth-largest city needs even more.

Simplot, president of the Arizona Multi-housing Association, a trade organization for apartment communities, said new affordable-housing projects have been popular throughout the city.

The Phoenix City Council recently approved a loan of up to $1 million to help the United Methodist Outreach Ministries Phoenix build an affordable-housing community in north Phoenix. The Lofts at McKinley, an affordable-housing project for low-income seniors, opened downtown in October. And the Arizona Housing Department awarded $20 million in tax credits last year to 18 projects, including six in Phoenix.

“During the recession, the primary source of financing for new residential construction was through low-income-housing tax credits and other assorted subsidies, so that’s what we generally saw built,” Simplot said.

Simplot, who represents many low-income residents in his central and west Phoenix district, does not deny the need for affordable housing, but he fears that not offering market-rate options could keep professionals from moving to Phoenix.

“It’s never healthy to warehouse low-income folks, and it’s never healthy to isolate wealthy folks,” he said. “A healthy community has all of that and is a mix of all economic levels.”

The councilman hopes to introduce his proposal at the Finance, Efficiency and Economy Subcommittee on Wednesday. He wants the city to put out a request for proposals for real-estate brokers to find developers to build on vacant city land.

“The city owns a lot of land, and we’re not a good land owner,” Simplot said. “We don’t pay taxes, and the land sits idle. It’s not productive.”

Phoenix officials are not certain of just how much land the city owns.

Governments can’t significantly change the issue alone, said Kaid Benfield, co-founder of Smart Growth America, a Washington, D.C.,-based group advocating for diverse housing options in cities.

“The market is so weak that developers can’t take the risk to put up market-rate housing, so it’s really a matter of market forces rather than policy,” he said. “In a lot of places, the hope would be as the economy recovers that there will be a stronger market for other kinds of housing.”

Finding a good mix

There are projects in the works that aren’t considered affordable housing.

Matt Seaman, a principal at Phoenix-based real-estate development company Metrowest Development, hopes to open a mixed-use, market-rate project in downtown Phoenix by fall 2014. He said his company hopes to develop more in the area.

“The problem with Phoenix has been that we kind of sprawled so fast that we didn’t incorporate different housing types and price points in the neighborhoods,” Seaman said. “And as a result, we might have too much of one and not the other.”

Metrowest’s project is several blocks west of Roosevelt Point, market-rate apartments scheduled to open near Roosevelt and Third streets this summer. Developers also are bringing some high-end projects to the area like the Residences at CityScape, scheduled to open this year.

Benfield said that ideally, Phoenix and developers will discover how to make both work in the same place.

“If the affordable housing is what’s able to be built right now because of the market, then can you create mechanisms in those properties so that additional floors could be added that could be market rate?” he suggested. “That way you can have more of a mixed-income situation, which is really kind of the holy grail.”

Just three blocks west of the Lofts at McKinley, developers are building a project that will offer both affordable and market-rate housing. The project is set to open by early next year.

Still more needed?

Despite the increase in the number of projects, many poor Phoenix residents still struggle to afford housing, said Mark Stapp, executive director of the master’s of real-estate development program at Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business.

“There remains a very, very big gap between the demand and the supply for affordable housing, especially what’s known as extremely low-income housing,” he said.

A family of three living at 30 percent of the median annual income of metro Phoenix, which the federal government defines as “extremely low-income,” can afford only about $470 a month for rent at best, Stapp said.

“You’re looking at an annual income for a single person at this income level making roughly $14,000,” he said. “Nobody’s building units for people living in that range.”

Housing has become so hard to find for the extremely poor because many who lost their homes to foreclosure during the economic downturn were forced to become renters, increasing competition for affordable housing, Stapp said.

“The problem has been exacerbated by the economic problems that have forced people that had traditionally not required more affordable rental housing into that market,” he said.

But developers are not likely to build more housing for the lowest income residents without more government help.

“We need a state housing trust fund to provide subsidies for private developers to build affordable apartments for low-income families,” Stapp said. “We don’t have that any longer, and the private sector will not build at this level without government subsidies because you simply can’t afford to build it.”

Reach the reporter at eugene.scott@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-6827.

Mayor Stanton shovels pork to the Phoenix police and firemen???

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Phoenix pension spiking is a slap to taxpayers

Two years ago, then-candidate Greg Stanton called for an end to the city’s longstanding practice of allowing employees to use pay for unused vacation and sick leave to artificially boost their pensions.

So you can imagine my surprise this week, when I read Republic reporter Craig Harris’ account of pension spiking by Phoenix police and firefighters. This, despite a state law that appears to make the practice illegal.

Rank-and-file police and firefighters enjoy a modest increase in their retirement checks as a result of pension spiking. But those in the higher echelons are cashing in eye popping amounts of unused leave, allowing them to earn more in retirement than they ever did while working – courtesy of Phoenix taxpayers.

Stanton didn’t return a call to talk to me about whatever happened to his pre-election call to end to pension spiking. He said via an email from his spokeswoman that the city will review the practice this fall, when contract negotiations begin.

“I support compensating police officers and firefighters with salary, health-care benefits and retirement at the market rate,” he said, in a response e-mailed by his spokeswoman. “This will allow us to retain and attract top talent. Pension spiking should not be a part of that.”

And yet it has been, as part of the labor contract approved on Stanton’s watch in 2012.

Harris’ report this week highlighted what long has been a boondoggle in Phoenix and other cities. City employees are given astonishing amounts of leave time – an entry-level Phoenix worker gets 40.5 days off a year – and when they don’t use it all, they can get paid for a portion of it when they depart.

That cashout, along with any deferred compensation, is then counted as part of the salary upon which their pension is calculated.

Last year, the city decided that sick leave accrued after July 2012 can no longer be used to boost the pensions of civilian employees, though unused vacation and pre-2012 sick leave will still be used to inflate pension pay.

City leaders have been unwilling to touch pension spiking by police and firefighters, however.

Or to consider ending these insane payouts for unused vacation and sick leave.

“Everybody at the city of Phoenix, every government employee gets a golden parachute,” said Phoenix Councilman Sal DiDiccio, who wants to rein in employee pay and benefits. “Some of them range in the tens of thousands of dollars and then others range in the hundreds of thousands of dollars but everyone is guaranteed a golden parachute because political leaders are refusing to deal with it.”

Surely they will have to deal with this. Won’t they?

ARS 38-842, governing the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System, says that compensation “does not include, for the purpose of computing retirement benefits, payment for unused sick leave, payment in lieu of vacation, payment for unused compensatory time or payment for any fringe benefits.”

Yet Phoenix offers “monthly pay in lieu of sick or vacation leave accrual” in the final years before retirement – something the city claims was legally negotiated with the police and firefighter unions.

How you can negotiate away a state law is beyond me but the city’s law department puts it this way:

“The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) … states that in certain circumstances, a member may cease accruing sick leave and have additional salary paid instead. Likewise, the MOU states that in exchange for accruing prospective vacation leave, a member may be paid additional salary instead. These are not payments for sick leave or vacation earned but not taken. Rather, they are bargained for salary increases in exchange for accepting a lessened benefit package.”

Or, to put it another way, they are thinly disguised attempts to dance around state law and to heck with Phoenix taxpayers who must foot the bill.

Consider the former assistant fire chief who retired in 2011. After converting $110,877 in sick leave, $14,528 in unused vacation and rolling $42,152 of deferred compensation into his final few years of paychecks, his pension increased by more than $40,000, according to records obtained by Harris. A city spokeswoman says those payments were not used to spike his pay but city records submitted to PSPRS show otherwise.

So the assistant fire chief who retired with a base salary of $112,320 now earns $130,046 in retirement.

And you wonder why the unions want to hold onto the food tax?

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