Oro Valley Neighbor Says Naranja Bond Defeat Was The Right Decision

In a letter to The Explorer, Oro Valley resident Ray Lewandowski says why the Naranja Bond vote was the right decision.
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OV made the right decision on park bonds

To those of you who may be having second thoughts about the way the Naranja Park vote turned out, let me set your mind at ease.

We wouldn’t be the first community that was lured into starting a property tax for an attractive sounding project, only to find out later that it is a a lot easier to add new taxes for other projects once a new taxation practice is started.

If you think that it was a mistake to turn the bonds down, just call down to one of your neighbors in Tucson, with a property of similar value, and ask then what they are paying in property taxes.

Let me put it another way. On page three of Henry Suozzi’s book “A History of Oro Valley,” an interesting tidbit appears. It seems that the original petitioners of the town’s incorporation (there were 644 of them ) signed in large part because there would be no property taxes, but annexation by Tucson would have meant the tax would be imposed. This occurred in 1970.

These petitioners are now much older, of course, but we owe them everything, especially the power to run our own affairs. The ones that are left find themselves vastly outnumbered by us “newcomers,” and it would have been easy for us to impose a tax on everyone, including them. Well, this is Oro Valley, not Tucson. We don’t do stuff like that here.

You did a good thing with this vote, Oro Valley! Please stick to your guns! You were right.

Ray Lewandowski

Oro Valley