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Let the Dialogues Continue

by on Oct. 07, 2009, under Life, Politics

I attended another City of Tucson’s Community Key Services Dialogue tonight at the Ward 6 council office, 3202 E. 1st street.

In attendance were the some of the City staffers that were there last week at the first dialogue in Ward 3 (at the NW Neighborhood Center). Councilmember Nina Trasoff and City Manager Mike Letcher did the welcomes. The format was the same, with six break out tables of residents discussing the same questions I wrote about in my previous blog “Let the Dialogues Begin” on 9/28/09.

Neighbors/activists I recognized participating tonight: Paul Mackey, Les Pierce, Don Ijams (Neighborhood Support Network), Colette Altaffer & Ruth Beeker (Neighborhood Infill Coalition), Robin Gomez, Bill Dupont, Mary DeCamp (candidate for Ward 3 council seat), Joanie Sawyer (Pro Neighborhoods), Alice Roe, Tres English.

Again, there was a promise at the end to post these comments and suggestions on their website, www.tucsonaz.gov/dialogues. But again there was no consensus on what are the City’s top budget priorities and what areas need to be cut. I wonder how the City Manager & his staff will weed through all these suggestions to come up with “key services” that should be prioritized for the City’s budget. Otherwise, these public dialogues may become mere “discussions”, with no solutions.

There are still five more City dialogues to attend in case you’ve missed the first three.

Coming up tomorrow night is the one in Ward 4 at Desert Sky Middle School, 9850 E. Rankin Loop, at 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Be there to express your opinion on how the City of Tucson should prioritize their budget, but I wonder what the final outcome after these 8 dialogues will be. Stay tuned.

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  • http://pointmantucson.yuku.com/ mike_brewer

    Have never understood why commercial, retail, office and  industrial rents are a protected class of taxation. Why not give at least a look and see at the revenue that would be gained from a 1/4% tax on these commercial enterprises, especially when so many are out of state franchises.
    I am always astounded at the fact that we will look at taxing residential renters, but not those who would can afford it and  just pass it through in a near negligible amount.
    Porque no?

  • Carolyn Classen

    Thanks for your comment Mike.  If you can’t attend these “dialogues”, you can send comments to dialogues@tucsonaz.gov.  Not sure if anyone at the previous dialogues mentioned this idea about taxing commercial renters. Each of the six discussion table had so many diverse suggestions listed on the poster boards.

  • Carolyn Classen

    Proposition 200 wasn’t discussed much at the two dialogues I attended. For up to date info on Prop. 200 I refer you to the political blog, http://www.blogforarizona.com, with a link about the Thursday press conference at Reid Park Zoo (which I did not attend):
    http://arizona.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/no-on-prop-200-press-conference-this-thursday.html
    Seems like opposition is growing, as we all receive flyers pro and con in the mail:
    http://arizona.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/update-ii-opposition-to-prop-200-continues-to-grow.html