Archive for May, 2009

It looks like the Cloth are trying one last gambit to maintain control over the debacle called Rio Nuevo.  With them circling the wagons, it seemed just like a bad western:”Last Stand at Rio Nuevo”.  As I type this, the  meeting is going on.  Watch out for some shenanigans between the Downtown Partnership and the Rio Nuevo Board before this whole thing is over.  In DTP news, I am hearing that Lord Hecker may end up with 2 new board positions before it’s over.  He seems bored, so let’s approach him with new leadership postions! 

 Let us all stand together and pray for the downtown business owners getting sold down the “New River”. They are going to need it.

Anyone who may have gone to the meeting is welcome to post a report under comments

Rio Nuevo unit sets closed meeting
 
Members may move to hire new director before Legislature’s reforms take effect, lawmaker fears

By Rob O’Dell
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.02.2009

Even as the Legislature is looking to shut down or reform Rio Nuevo, the board that is supposed to oversee the Downtown redevelopment district will meet in closed session Monday to talk about possibly hiring a new director.
Board members and City Council members won’t say exactly what they are discussing, offering only the vague explanation they’re “looking at options” and finding the right “flexibility” to hire contractors and management in the future.
But critics of the district, such as Rep. Frank Antenori, R-Tucson, fear the city is trying to make an end run around the Legislature by appointing Downtown Tucson Partnership Executive Director Glenn Lyons to run the tax-increment financing district.
Antenori said his concern is that the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District Board will appoint Lyons to run Rio Nuevo before the Legislature’s reforms of Rio Nuevo go into effect, likely on July 1.
What is worse, Antenori said, is the district board could be trying to approve a provision so that Lyons will get paid even if he gets fired. That would leave a new board installed by the Legislature to choose between firing Lyons, which would cost taxpayers money, or keeping him, which is what he said city officials want.
Antenori likened the situation to the December Rio Nuevo bond sale, in which the city sold bonds despite bad market conditions in order to encumber the redevelopment district’s share of state sales taxes so the Legislature couldn’t take the money away. Lawmakers have threatened to shut down the district because of a lack of progress, despite $100 million spent. More than $600 million is expected to be brought in by the district before it ends in 2025.
Antenori said he warned city officials that “if you covertly obligate money in a back-door underhanded deal, it’s going to blow up in your face.”
Lyons said he has been working with Rio Nuevo board members Anne-Marie Russell, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s executive director, and Jeff DiGregorio, owner of Downtown’s Royal Elizabeth Bed and Breakfast Inn, along with Larry Hecker, a Downtown partnership board member.
“We might end up doing some work for Rio Nuevo, we might not,” Lyons said.
He said the Rio Nuevo district board wants to amend its agreement with the cities of Tucson and South Tucson so the board can take on more responsibility. That agreement says all three entities have to sign off on major changes to the agreement.
There are four board members, two appointed by Tucson — Russell and DiGregorio. A weighted voting system gives them the power to override the two members from South Tucson, former Pima County Supervisor Dan Eckstrom and Roman Soltero, a former South Tucson City Council member.
Although the board is supposed to oversee the district’s finances, it did not meet for nearly 11 months between September 2007 and July 30, 2008, when it met three days after an Arizona Daily Star investigation revealed for the first time the city had spent $77 million on Rio Nuevo.
DiGregorio said the board wants to meet in closed session to see “what is legally available to us.”
He said, “We want the district board to be as flexible as possible,” adding that included amending the agreement with the city and finding new management for Rio Nuevo at a later date.
Councilwoman Nina Trasoff also said the board is looking at changing the agreement so the board has more flexibility. “This is a very intelligent and deliberate group that is simply looking at options,” she said.
The board is working collaboratively with the Legislature to make the right moves, said Councilwoman Karin Uhlich. She said she would not “hypothesize” whether she would support Lyons heading Rio Nuevo.
“Everybody locally has made clear there’s no attempt to circumvent the Legislature,” Uhlich said.
But Councilman Rodney Glassman said he hopes the board is not making any moves that could cost Tucson its tax increment financing money.
Sen. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, said he hopes the city does not take any action before the Legislature implements its reforms. Right now, the plan is to get rid of the current four-person Rio Nuevo board and replace it with a nine-member board — three members each appointed by the speaker of the House, the Senate president and the governor.
“I don’t think they should obligate a future board. That would be a mistake,” Paton said. “The city has done enough to lower the confidence of the Legislature as it is.”

Senator Kyle and Larry Kudlow interview – HERE.

Friday, April 24, 2009

An Interview with Senator Jon Kyl: Is Government Taking Over the Economy?   [Larry Kudlow]

On last night’s Kudlow Report I asked Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) his thoughts on President Obama’s first 100 days in office and whether he believes that government is taking over the economy.

LARRY KUDLOW: All right, back to our theme of the night, Obama’s first one hundred days almost over. Is the government taking over the economy? Well we’re honored to welcome back Republican Whip, Senator Jon Kyl from Arizona. Hello Mr. Kyl, thank you sir.

SENATOR JON KYL: Hi Larry.

KUDLOW: All right no one does this better than you do. I want to run the table on four or five really important issues. First of all, we’re coming down to the first one hundred days, Obama’s supporters are saying he’s the best president in history. You got a quick thought on that one? It’s an easy one.

KYL: Well, if the test is has he spent more money than any president in history, the answer is yes — in the first one hundred days. How about increasing the debt? Yes. As a matter of fact, the budget that both the House and Senate have passed doubles the debt in five years; triples it in ten years. More debt than every president from George Washington through George W. Bush, just in one Obama budget. I would say that he’s really accomplished a lot on his agenda.

KUDLOW: All right, let me go on to expansion of TARP. And by the way, the TARP Inspector General himself says this thing could be a whole totally corrupt program. $3 trillion dollars, it’s a separate budget. But the expansion of TARP, throwing out GM CEO Wagoner, we may see some bank CEOs thrown out — we don’t know that yet but that’s a possibility. What is your take? Is this a state takeover of the economy? Are they riding roughshod over investors and shareholders?

KYL: Yes, and yes. And this is what you get when you have a lot of government involvement in your life. Good lesson: Don’t invite the government in, the government will take over. Now, TARP originally was intended to provide credit to the markets. That’s a good thing. But, it has been expanded beyond its original intent — especially with regard to bailing out, for example, the auto companies. And as quickly as these banks can get out from under it, they need to do so.

KUDLOW: Are you ready to bailout the Boston Globe and The New York Times with more TARP?

KYL: No.

KUDLOW: I was shocked to hear you say that. Okay. What about the next step in this, cap-and-trade. The president was out there on earth day yesterday in Iowa. Now to me, cap-and-trade, I’m obviously not a supporter. It would be one of the most incredible restructurings of our economy in the nation’s history…

KYL: It would kill the economy, kill it…

KUDLOW: Will cap-and-trade pass though?

KYL: No. No I don’t think so. It’s flopped in Europe. The president has now gone to a version of it that is simply, or primarily, a revenue raiser. That was not what was intended. And no, I don’t think it will pass. Even my colleague John McCain from Arizona, who supports a version of cap-and-trade, said not this version. All this does is provide the president with a big source of money to perhaps pay for something like healthcare. What’s the sense in that?

KUDLOW: Is anybody talking about an exit strategy from TARP that we were talking about a moment ago?

KYL: Yes indeed. And incidentally, just to go back on the cap-and-trade, when the president talked about reducing taxes on 95 percent of America, remember, this is a tax increase for everybody. Well not everybody, if you turn on a light switch, it’s a big tax increase. If you use any energy, it’s a big tax increase. As the president has said, under his cap-and-trade program, “energy prices will skyrocket”. That’s a quote from the president.

Exit strategy from TARP? Those that are under it right now can’t get out from under it fast enough. I think what we’re going to try to do is promote in the Senate a way for them to get out of it as quickly as they can without any residual obligations. And incidentally, when they repay the money, not to have it go back into a revolving fund, but to go back to the Treasury to reduce the debt.

KUDLOW: What about the rumor that Senator Schumer and Senator Dodd want some kind of emergency freeze or immediate disclosure so that the credit card companies cannot raise rates or increase charge offs. We’ve been talking about it. Mr. Frank, Barney Frank, and the House has a much better version. But have you heard anything about this immediate emergency cap on the credit card companies?

KYL: No I haven’t. But there is a lot of talk about it. They need to be careful about the way that they raise their rates and the kind of disclosure they give to their users and so on. But hopefully we’ll have time to do whatever we do in a sensible way so that it doesn’t kill the very industry that provides us the credit that we need to continue to buy things.

KUDLOW: All right what about universal healthcare insurance — the big expansion, Medicare, Medicaid, the threat of rationing and the threat of allocation of resources?

KYL: The threat of rationing is very, very real. And if you want the government to get in between you and your doctor, if you want the government bureaucrats to delay or to deny you coverage, then I think supporting the kind of thing that we’ve heard is predicted to come out of the administration is what you want to support.

KUDLOW: Can Republicans stop it sir?

KYL: Oh I think we can. I am sure that the American people can stop a program that puts bureaucrats in between patients and their doctor, and that delays and denies care to them. Yes.

KUDLOW: It’s a big issue. When’s this going to heat up? When’s it going to come down to votes?

KYL: This will take a while Larry. I think that you’ll see through the month of May, the legislation being written in the Senate. Not sure when it will come to the Senate floor. It’s actually pretty quick. But there is at least some time to try and stop this kind of “healthcare reform.”

KUDLOW: And Senator Kyl can you stop an overseas tax on business profits which could be decimating to business? Can you stop it?

KYL: I hope so. Because people do not realize that when we ask our companies to go abroad and do business, they have to make money. And when they do they shouldn’t be taxed on all of it. Bottom line is I hope we can.

KUDLOW: Senator Jon Kyl, nobody does it better sir. We really appreciate your time.

KYL: Thanks Larry.

04/24 12:04 PMShare

Gigantic school, gigantic budget, gigantic mess

Matthew Ladner

Goldwater Institute Daily Email
March 25, 2009The New York Times printed a must read article on Arizona State University and its President, Michael Crow:

He quickly made a name for himself, increasing enrollment by nearly a third to 67,000 students, luring big-name professors and starting interdisciplinary schools in areas like sustainability, projects with partners like the Mayo Clinic and Sichuan University in China, and dozens of new degree programs. But this year, Mr. Crow’s plans have crashed into new budget realities, raising questions about how many public research universities the nation needs and whether universities like Arizona State, in their drive to become prominent research institutions, have lost focus on their public mission to provide solid undergraduate education for state residents.

With a four-year graduation rate of 28 percent, I include myself among those raising questions about ASU’s focus. In addition to dozens of new degree programs, the article also notes that ASU has spent lavishly on certain types of student aid:

Arizona State University recruits National Merit Scholars nationwide with a four-year $90,000 scholarship, a package so generous that Arizona State enrolls 600 National Merit Scholars, more than Yale or Stanford.

The Education Trust identified the University of Indiana Bloomington as the highest performing peer institution to Arizona State based on four-year graduation rates (over 50 percent for IU). Last year, their National Merit Scholars had an average scholarship package worth $13,609 each.

Shelling out almost seven times as much per National Merit Scholar as the top performing peer institution is disturbing. Touting the number of National Merit Scholars as some sort of proof of quality is perverse. Perverse may be a strong word, but consider this: the fact that so few ASU students graduate on time inflates the number of students that you have on campus to brag about.

The fact that only 56 percent of ASU students manage to graduate after six years would be amusing if they weren’t doing it on your dime. Arizona’s university students and taxpayers would benefit from expanded options through a more robust higher education voucher program.
 
Dr. Matthew Ladner is vice president for research at the Goldwater Institute.