In what must be considered a bold action, the Oro Valley Council voted 6-1, with Mayor Loomis opposed, to direct the Town Manager to curtail all future payments on all existing Economic Development Agreements and to advise those affected as to the action taken.
The motion made by Bill Garner and seconded by Paula Abbott will affect the EDA's to The Hilton El Conquistador (bed tax), Vestar's OV Marketplace, Oracle Crossing, Steam Pump Village and Town Centre.
The decision to put the funds in an escrow account is based on The Goldwater Institute's success in the Turken vs. Gordon lawsuit that was heard by the Az Court of Appeals. The 3 member court voted unanimously that a $97 million subsidy to an out-of state retail developer violated the Az Constitution Gift Clause.
Unless, the court ruling is appealed to the Az Supreme Court and a petition for review is heard, by Feb. 23, 2009, the court decision will stand. Potentially, the Supreme Court may be petitioned but determines not to take any action, allowing the decision to stand.
We congratulate Bill, Paula and the 4 other council members that took this bold action. The alternative would have been to not take action and possibly be in violation of the Az Constitution.
We fully expect this is not the end of this issue.
9 comments:
Thank You to the Goldwater Institute and Clint Bolick and also to the council for the courage to take this move
And thank you to Art for posting this to the LOVE blog
We need to spread the word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We received the following email from Tom Jenney, including the link to our blog posting. We certainly appreciate the support from Tom and the Az Federation of Taxpayers.
*****************************************************
Thanks to the six councilpersons for putting economic development handouts on hold, and thanks to the legal team at the Goldwater Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation!
For Liberty,
--Tom
Tom Jenney
Arizona Director
Americans for Prosperity
(Arizona Federation of Taxpayers)
www.aztaxpayers.org
tjenney@afphq.org
602) 478-0146
We are thrilled! It's about time!
Ferlin
I couldn't be happier. Thank you Bill Garner for having the courage to make this motion and to the other 5 council members who supported it.
Now we have to pray that the Supreme Court will not overturn this decision. In any event, Malin should be having a lot of sleepless nights between the state of the economy and now this decision by the OV Town Council.
This whole thing is like a game of chess with 6 different players: Vestar vs. Oro Valley; Goldwater Institute vs. CityNorth Developer; AZ Court of Appeals vs. AZ Supreme Court.
The first 4 players have been placed in "check" on various occasions and have managed to save their "king" from checkmate each time. Vestar had OV in check when the voters approved the EDA. Now Oro Valley has Vestar in check. And the GWI has CityNorth in check.
So what will Vestar's next move be?
Looking into my crystal ball, I see Vestar and Wal-Mart taking their combined megabucks and funneling it to the CityNorth developer so that he can appeal this to the AZ Supreme Court.
Unfortunately, my crystal ball isn't showing me what happens beyond that.
I wonder who will finally get to call "checkmate!"
Last night Bill Garner presented this issue in a very clear and concise manner. It is much appreciated that he followed through on the subject relative as to how the prevailing court decision (at this time) might be pertinent to the Town of Oro Valley.
Once again hizzonor Loony has voted against our best interests.
2010 is coming soon.
Who can we support for mayor???
Does this decision apply to all EDA's in AZ or just the one heard by the court?
Observer77---- If, hopefully the Az Court of Appeal's decision stands, it will probably take another court decision to make a determination as to the impact it will have on previously approved EDA's.
Without trying to speak for our Town Attorney, I would think that he (and other lawyers) would agree that the unanimous ruling would cover all EDA's as being in violation of the Az Constitution, unless something commensurate was given in return.
Wouldn't it be great if the prestigious Goldwater Institute got involved should it come to that.
The next step will occur by Feb 23, if there will be an appeal. After that, who knows?
Congatulations to Bill Garner and the other five council members who showed the courage to end "corporate welfare" in Oro Valley.
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