Archive for December 4th, 2009
‘See you in court’ should get local governments’ attention
WAKE UP TUCSON: Level the playing field
By Joe Higgins and Chris DeSimone, special for Inside Tucson Business
Published on Friday, December 04, 2009
The Tucson business community needs to enact fundamental reforms to level the playing field and become the healing factor in our area’s economic malaise. Everyone is struggling including our local governments. Conversations are under way to try to make the City of Tucson business friendly. The solutions will have to involve business leadership, changing engrained thinking and devising a plan and then sticking to it.
Tucson hates to emulate anything from Phoenix. While Tucson fought growth for the past 40 years, the Phoenix region planned for it. While we bickered and couldn’t get out of our own way, they pumped millions of dollars into transportation, urban revitalization and set the table for economic opportunities that provide jobs.
On the flip side, Southern Arizona’s difficulty in getting much done has kept big national developers out and reduced the hyper-growth hangover that has hurt Phoenix and Las Vegas. It’s about balance. Print this story
What Phoenix and Maricopa County business leaders have done exceptionally well is that when all else fails, they use the court system to effect policy. The fear of reprisal is not as prevalent in Maricopa County so taking a city or the county to court is more commonplace.
Tucson’s business community needs to take the gloves off and realize that sometimes a strong legal offense is better than dozens of meetings that go nowhere.
An example of this can be found in the statewide watchdog group, the Goldwater Institute. Perhaps its biggest impact has been in the legal arena. Two examples of cases they’ve taken to court are:
• It championed the case of a tattoo shop that had it’s small business permit revoked by the Tempe City Council after neighborhood opposition didn’t like a certain type of business being opened next door. Two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees later, the tattoo owners have won each round of their fight.
• It has taken the City of Tucson to court with the first test case of the 2006 voter-approved Proposition 207 property rights amendment. There is a good chance city residents will wind up paying damages to the developer. Whether or not you like mini-dorms near the University of Arizona, the core of the argument is government’s ability to devalue your property without just compensation. Private property rights happen to be a big part of the U.S. Constitution.
If you want to see the power of using the legal system, look at the late 1990s and the pygmy owl. There are between 800 and 1,600 pygmy owls in west Texas. There are hundreds more in northern Mexico. In fact it’s quite common in southern Mexico, central America and south America. On the northwest side of Tucson, it’s numbers went from a dozen in 1996 to just two a decade later. The Center For Biological Diversity made the owls’ plight a big court fight.
The court fight locked down development on the northwest side for a decade. Fifteen projects went through extensive environmental review lasting anywhere from a few months to two years. Many projects were scaled back or required to preserve and buy additional land for owl habitat. Dove Mountain went from 9,000 homes to 6,000 and its developer is having to pay $10 million over 100 years to lease 2,400 acres of state land as a preserve.
It is time for the business community to question everything. Why are our local governments putting up road blocks? Is it time to look into city officials’ micromanagement and questionable ordinances? We need to level the playing field. Three great equalizers keep government honest and transparent:
• A watchdog media. Tune in to Wake Up Tucson, from 6 – 8 a.m. weekdays on KVOI 1030-AM
• The U.S. legal system
• The power to un-elect politicians who no longer match your views
Local governments must be challenged every time lopsided rules and regulations are enacted infringing on every individual’s constitutionally granted rights. To fix long-term structural issues in our region, we must be willing to go to court to get a level playing field.
A little shift in momentum is already happening. Last month’s election was a good indicator of that. The business community is starting to get it. Keep it up. We must unite with a common voice and a common vision. Convince your city that business is good and needs to be nurtured, not strangled. If that doesn’t work and elected officials — and the bureaucrats they’re supposed to direct — maintain this stagnant environment, the business community must show its serious displeasure at the polls.
It’s like house-breaking a dog. When all else fails, use the power of the courts like a rolled newspaper across the snout. That will guarantee their attention.
Contact Joe Higgins at joe@joehigginsinc.com or Chris DeSimone at provenpartners@comcast.net. They’re the hosts of “Wake Up Tucson,” which airs 6 – 8 a.m. weekdays on The Voice KVOI 1030-AM. Check out their blog at www.TucsonChoices.com.