Explorer Letter Writer Says,"Oro Valley Bond Backers Must Be Out Of Your Minds"

The following letter from Dottie Eagley in the Oct 8 Explorer needs no further comment.

A 2nd letter saying the same in another way is mine.

Art
*******************************************************************************************

OV park bond backers must be out of minds

There were at least three items in today’s Explorer extolling the proposed park. How can you even suggest such a thing? The economy is in the toilet, Wall Street has gone to its worst condition since the depression in 1929, and banks are failing every day. I haven’t even mentioned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but they are in trouble, too.

The very last thing Oro Valley needs to do is to saddle itself with a $48.6 million bond debt to build a park that won’t even be operative for at least five years and that will saddle all of us (even those of us who live so far away that we will never use it) and raise our taxes (thus lowering the value of our homes) for the next 25 years. Have you been to the grocery store lately? Have you put gas in your car? Utilities are going up, too. Not to mention that this would use 30 percent of the town’s bonding capacity. And we haven’t even mentioned the cost of upkeep.

You must be out of your minds. A nice park sounds like something we’d all like to have, but not now and not at the expense of our daily living.

Sincerely,

Dottie Eagley
Oro Valley
*******************************************************************************************
Prudent vote on OV park bonds is a ‘no’

In the Oct 1 issue of The Explorer, Mr. Dave Perry, editor and publisher, espoused the worthiness of voting “yes” on the Oro Valley $48.6 million Naranja Bond issue on the Nov. 4 ballot. Mr. Perry writes: “Over the last 100 years, Americans have approved the issuance of government bonds, to be paid for with property tax revenue over time, to build public facilities, such as schools, libraries and parks.”

On the same date, the renown financial publication, Bloomberg.com, had an article concerning rising borrowing costs that are starting to pinch states, cities and towns across the country, forcing municipalities to cut back on everything from road improvements to maintenance on schools.

We ask all Oro Valley voters to go to our blog, www.letorovalleyexcel.blogspot.com/ and read the Bloomberg article. If this article does not convince you to vote “no” on this park, nothing will.

While I agree a park is good for the youth of our community, this park, with 40-plus fields and courts, is just too much, especially in these terrible economic times.

One last point. The cost for the park and the suggested 5 percent interest rate the town uses are quite misleading. The initial bond rate will be almost 40 percent higher, and if funding can be secured, there’s a good chance the rate will be higher than 5 percent, which relates to a higher secondary property tax.

The prudent thing to do is vote “no” on the Naranja Park.

Art Segal
Oro Valley