Vote For Kelly—The Business World Is Watching
by Don on Jun. 08, 2012, under UncategorizedTucson has a reputation as a kooky, liberal, often-silly town that’s not friendly to business, especially larger companies. That needs to change.
Electing Jesse Kelly to Congress on Tuesday will send an important message: Not all Tucsonans view the free market and bigger business with disinterest, if not outright disdain. Tucson can, indeed be a place where businesses can grow and flourish.
When businesses and entrepreneurs look at Tucson nowadays, what do they see?
- “Baja Arizona.
- “Rio Nuevo,” a new synonym for mismanagement and squandering money.
- A city council dominated by Democrats, focused on the downtown (and that blasted streetcar) and seemingly indifferent to the suburbs where most Tucsonans live and where most new businesses of any decent size will lay down roots.
- A preference for smaller, “boutique” businesses, like trendy cafes and antique shops, over larger firms. (It’s those larger firms, however, that can pay good benefits to large numbers of employees and serve as economic engines that make a town healthy.)
- Public schools that teach students to chain themselves to furniture at public meetings and stalk out of class in protest against (fill in the blank) at the drop of a hat.
- The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental activist group that will sue anyone, anywhere who does anything that might disturb any kind of plant or animal. Tucson is the CBD’s home! If you were a businessman, looking for a city where you can expand your business, would YOU want to move to the town that is the HOME BASE for America’s most litigious Luddites?
- Our horrible roads. You don’t have to drive on them; you can see how bad they are from outer space.
Tucson has two Congressmen. One is Raul Grijalva. Chairman of the House Progressive Caucus. Famous for (among other things) calling for an economic boycott of HIS OWN HOME STATE and asking for UN observers to monitor elections in the United States.
On Tuesday, we have a chance to show the nation that Tucson can elect a different kind of Congressman.
Ron Barber says that he wants the rich and the corporations to “pay their fair share.” That means that, SOMEONE has to decide (a) who is “rich” and (b) what constitutes a “fair share.”
Ummm…who’s going to decide what’s fair? The Democrats answer that question by looking in their mirrors. And, they seem very comfortable with assuming that role for themselves.
That’s chilling. Would you want to live in a world where SOMEONE ELSE decides what’s fair and what isn’t? Think about that as you vote on Tuesday.
Let’s say you’re a business owner in California. You’ve had it with the state’s out-of-control taxes. You’re ready to pack up and move to a place that’s friendly to business.
What would make you want to stop in Tucson? Would you want to set up shop in a community whose elected leaders seem to tolerate business as a necessary evil? Who prefer an economy shaped and driven by their own partisan hands, instead of Adam Smith’s invisible one? Who think that they, and not the free market, should decide what’s fair? Who think that it’s OK for businesses to operate and try to be profitable…as long as they do it in that teeny-tiny box of opportunity that government is willing to let them have?
I’m CERTAINLY not saying that Jesse Kelly’s election, in and of itself, would turn Tucson into an economic boomtown. It wouldn’t. What it WOULD do is send a message that many Tucsonans want to be friendly to business, and see our local economy grow and diversify. That many of us DON’T see businesses as a cash cow to be milked, then abused.
Lots of businesses are leaving states that punish success with high taxes, excessive regulation and bloated bureaucracies. (Look no further than California). They’re looking for new homes in communities that want to partner with business, not squeeze it. Most of them are heading for Texas—-which, as a result, is flourishing.
THIS is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Tucson. Take advantage of the golden opportunity created by the ever-increasing number of businesses who’re fleeing the Golden State. Give them some reasons to settle here!
THIS is the kind of enthusiastic, pointed, un-caveated, non-wishy-washy, pro-business and pro-free market message that those wealth-creators want to hear from southern Arizona, as they look for a new place to set up shop:
The recent economic crisis must be a wake-up call for the US Government to end its incessant spending and regulatory vice-grip over the economy. Only free markets and the entrepreneurial spirit can save America, not the heavy hand of government. Rebuilding our economy is the moral challenge of our time, and good paying jobs lay the foundation for American greatness.
Restoring our economy begins with getting Washington out of the way and inviting businesses back to American soil. For too long, politicians in Washington implemented big-government policies that pushed businesses overseas. It’s time we bring them back with open arms. We must stop punishing success and work to reduce personal income taxes, investment taxes and business-ownership taxes. The tax and spend mentality that controls Washington will bring about the collapse of the US economy and we need to stop this Administration in the upcoming elections.
The $787 billion stimulus has failed, and unemployment in Southern Arizona has increased. The people of the United States are realizing that government cannot create jobs, as government has no resources of its own. Only the private sector can create jobs and better our standard of living through production and innovation.
Let’s give those businesses a reason to take a second look at Tucson. By electing Jesse Kelly, we can send a message that Tucson is ready to change its anti-business image and get back on track. That we, as a community, really DON’T think—like too many of our elected leaders apparently do—that’s it’s up to them to determine what’s fair and who should succeed and who shouldn’t.
Now is the time to send that message, before those entrepreneurs who’ve given up on California find new homes, and we miss out on a great chance to lure new, meaningful economic opportunities to town.
Update: Investor’s Business Daily lists some of the states that are forcing capable, competent employers and entrepreneurs to run for their lives:
Many [Wisconsin residents] were flat-out offended and angered that the far-left flooded into their state to attempt to overturn the voice of the people. These voters, like the majority of the American people, are tired of being fooled or even fooling themselves. They look at the life-destroying economic collapses in Greece, Spain, Italy, Illinois, New York and California and now know exactly the cause and who is willingly spreading the disease.
When things have gotten SO bad, that your state’s government is being compared to the economic basket-cases of western Europe, it’s time to pack the moving vans and move to another state. On Tuesday, let’s send a message that at least some Tucsonans think that California sets an example that’s to be avoided, not emulated.
Update: Apparently California won’t be the only “blue” state shedding employers and entrepreneurs in the very, very near future: From the Cadillac of conservative/libertarian blogs, “Instapundit:”
ILLINOIS TEACHERS BEWARE: Your Pension System Is A Scam. “Specifically, the Illinois Teachers Retirement Fund is one of the country’s worst funded pension funds. According to accountants — who use softer methods to measure the health of public funds than they do of private pensions — teacher pensions in Illinois are only 45 percent funded — the fund is expected to be able to pay less than half the pensions Illinois politicians and union heads have been promising for years. . . . It is, in other words, a scam. Both the politicians and the unions want to fool people. They want teachers to think they have secure pensions and they want taxpayers to think that these big pension promises won’t cost them much money. Assuming unrealistic rates of return allows them to square the circle: they can promise big pensions without raising taxes to pay for them right away.”
When that pension bill comes due, who will Illinois politicians try to soak? You guessed it—capable businesses. Businesses that are capable of packing up and moving elsewhere.
Update: Some commenters just got banned. If you come to Fort Buckley solely to be a pain, then you won’t be coming here for long.
It’s not that I think you’re losers. You’re just not my kind of winners.
