Thursday, August 21, 2008

Az Federation Of Taxpayers Gives Low Score To District 26 Reps.

We received the following (excerpted) email from Tom Jenney, Az Federation of Taxpayers.

Art

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August 21, 2008

Dear LD26 Taxpayer,

Legislative District 26 (NW Tucson, Oro Valley) did very poorly on the 24th annual “Friend of the Taxpayer” Legislative Scorecard from the Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), formerly the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers.

The top performer in LD26 was Rep. Pete Hershberger (GOP), who earned a score of 10 percent and the designation of Champion of Big Government. Sen. Charlene Pesquiera (Dem) and Rep. Nancy Young Wright (Dem) qualified as Heroes of Big Government, with scores of 7 and 6 percent, respectively.

Arizona’s FY 2008-2009 state budget, which is out of balance by well over a billion dollars, produced sharp divisions in legislators’ scores. Legislators who voted against the budget bills scored 82 percent, on average, while legislators who voted for the budget bills scored 10 percent, on average.

Widening the division in scores were the failure of the Governor and legislative majorities to prevent a possible $300 million increase in property taxes next year, advance school choice legislation, allow for private enterprise to provide for Arizona’s transportation infrastructure, or enact budget reforms that would help to rein in runaway spending.

For AFP, the brightest spot in the 2008 Legislative Session was the passage of transparency legislation that will allow Arizona taxpayers to go online and view all state expenditures made to all vendors. One of AFP’s major initiatives for the 2009 Session will be to extend transparency to the county and city level.

The average Republican legislator scored 70 percent (Friend of the Taxpayer), while the average Democratic legislator scored 10 percent (Champion of Big Government). Last year’s party averages were 65 percent and 32 percent, respectively

To view the Scorecard, visit www.aztaxpayers.org.


Tom Jenney
Arizona Director
Americans for Prosperity
(Arizona Federation of Taxpayers)
www.aztaxpayers.org
tjenney@afphq.org
(602) 478-0146

4 comments:

OV Objective Thinker said...

Once again Nancy Young Wright comes out on the wrong end of the peoples wishes.

She need to fold up her tent nd go away!!!!!

travelling dancer said...

ov objective thinker you forgot to mention that Pete Hershberger was the only Republican in LD26,who voted to have the 250 million dollar Property Tax kept in the budget. All the other Republicans, except for a few, wanted to protect the people by removing it. Now thanks to Pete Hershberger, we will all enjoy a 2009 big Property Tax hike, which I am sure many rsidents, especially those folks on fixed incomes will appreciate. People need to look at his voing record not his false literature.

OV Objective Thinker said...

TD....Your primary error is identifying Pete Hershberger as a Republican.

travelling dancer said...

ov thinker---well I must agree with you on this one, except, unless the Mail-in ballot, I received was incorrect, Pete Hershberger was listed as a REPUBLICAN. What did your ballot say?