Vice Mayor Mary Snider & Council Member Lou Waters saw fit to respond in this week's Explorer to the letter last week written by Mike Zinkin, and posted on our blog,
They end their letter by writing----and I quote: "--judge us by what we do, not by what others say we’re doing."
That sounds fair to us. So we'll judge them by the fact that they saw fit to do the following:
1) On the upcoming May 4 council agenda: Add an increase to the Utility Tax that was initially scheduled for ONLY one year, and now these two are pushing for it, only at a higher percentage rate. Keep in mind, it was initially imposed for one year so more cops (that we didn't need)could work for Oro Valley. (Let's see how they vote)
2) On the upcoming June 1 council agenda: Add a 1/4% sales tax to our 2% tax that Oro Valley imposes. Let's see if these two feel it is smart business sense to increase a sales tax when shoppers can easily travel to the Foothills Mall and avoid the OV tax.
Let's not forget that three of our shopping centers, including the "infamous" Oro Valley Marketplace keep approx 1/2 of OUR sales tax revenue.
3) They have been outspoken about giving the OV police raises to the tune of $200,000,
while at the same time, are seemingly happy to tax the "heck" out of the citizens. (Will they vote "yes" for this and other employee raises & bonuses?)
4) Let's not forget that Snider & Waters voted to "kill" the Police Management Study. Why? Not because they wanted to save money. They were afraid an outside consulting firm would tell us we have more police than we need and more police than we can afford. Safety is not the issue. The issue is their "love affair" with the police. (We "judged you" on that action, and you were "judged guilty."
There's plenty more, but we'll judge them on their own words---at least until we see different actions.
Don't hold your breath on that!
Here's their letter to the Explorer. Judge for yourself who & what to believe. (Below it is another letter by Chuck Davis on the budget)
http://explorernews.com/voices/article_62970dca-5a3d-11e0-9b87-001cc4c002e0.html
