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This article will discuss some of the lies that Steve Solomon is currently telling along with some of the lies he told when running for election in 2016.
Solomon’s golf course lie
We present this one to show you that Solomon has a history of lying. Solomon told this whopper when running for Town Council in 2016. He distributed this lie in a campaign flyer that was delivered to the homes along the town-owned golf courses in Canada Hills. At that time, he (along with Bill Rodman and Rhonda Pina) was running against incumbents Brendan Burns, Bill Garner, and Mike Zinkin. The flyer stated:
“Save your home value! The incumbents running for re-election have pledged to close and sell your golf course destroying your home value!” The flyer was “Paid for by Solomon for OV Council.”That was an outright lie. Burns, Garner, and Zinkin had never pledged any such thing and when an Oro Valley resident asked Solomon to prove that they did, he couldn’t. He made it up. It was a complete fabrication designed to trick uninformed voters into voting for him…and they did.
Solomon’s $3 million deficit lie
Solomon actually used the adjective “whopping” in his next lie. A Freudian slip, perhaps? Because it’s another whopper of a lie. And he not only told this whopper when running for council in 2016, but he is repeating it again in the current 2020 election. He stated it during Jim Horn’s Town Hall podcast held on June 25th.
Here’s what he said during that Town Hall:
“During my time on council, I helped guide the town to financial success. From 2008-2010, the council generated a whopping $3 million dollar deficit. When I first took office in 2010, myself and the other new council members balanced the budget, eventually generating $2 million in annual surpluses.”He also said it during the January 9, 2019 council meeting:
“…when I first came on council in 2010, we discovered that the budget that was approved by the prior council…had a $3 million deficit which they never bothered to point out or emphasize and we had to deal with it."There was never a deficit
The Hiremath Council did not inherit a $3 million deficit in 2010 as Solomon claimed. Here’s the real story.
• First of all, it is against State law to have a deficient budget.
• The tentative, proposed budget showed a $3.1 million difference between requested spending and forecasted revenues. That’s not a deficit. A deficit only occurs when actual spending exceeds actual revenues. That never happened. This is the $3 million to which Councilmember Solomon refers. This was the Hiremath council’s budget. They did not inherit it from any previous council.
• The Council was told by the Town Manager (Jerene Watson at that time) that they needed to increase revenues or the staff was going to suffer layoffs and/or 4 day work-weeks.
• The Hiremath Council, including Steve Solomon, decided to raise those revenues by doubling your Utility Tax from 2% to 4%. Solomon doesn’t tell you that part.
Here’s another 2020 campaign lie
During the Sun City Candidate Forum held on June 30th, Steve Solomon said this during his closing statement.
“Dr. Greene, Bill Rodman’s, and my campaigns are all positive. We have not gone on the attack against our opponents. That’s something you may want to take into consideration in your evaluation.”After implying that you shouldn’t vote for people who engage in attack ads, just 10 days later, Solomon and Rodman posted an attack ad on their Facebook pages where they attack “The Other Guys.” We assume that this same postcard will soon be arriving in your mailbox. But the biggest problem is, that once again, the accusations made against Bill Garner and Tim Bohen are all lies.
If time permits, LOVE will dissect those lies for you in an upcoming article.
The ESLO lie
In Solomon’s continuing campaign of self-promotion, during that same forum, Solomon took sole credit for creating the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Ordinance. He said,
“I’ve also put in place our environmentally sensitive land ordinance.”He put it in place? Well, that will come as quite a surprise to all the other people who worked on that committee. Back in 2010, Solomon was just one member of the 7-member Public Advisory Committee assigned to work on ESLO. There was also a 10-member Technical Advisory Committee including people from Arizona Game & Fish, Arizona Geological Survey, and the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection to name a few.
But to hear Solomon tell it, he alone devised the plan and implemented the policy!
Campaign promises don’t matter
During the June 30, 2020 Sun City debate, when asked if there were any situations in which he would increase taxes, Solomon replied, “Read my lips. No new taxes.” But keep in mind what he said during the January 23, 2019 town council meeting:
"There is a major difference between campaigning and governing. It is really irrelevant what your campaign promises were.”The inference is that Solomon believes that one can say whatever they wish in order to get elected, but once elected, there is no need to follow through.
If you’ve missed any of The Solomon Chronicles, the links are provided below for your convenience.
Part 1. Favoritism
Part 2. Voting Record 2016-2018
Part 3. Who funded Solomon's 2016 Town Council campaign
Part 4. Conflict of interest
Part 5. A pattern of incivility and disrespect
Part 5. A pattern of incivility and disrespect (Cont'd.)
