Our Opinion: Bee should cough it up for local law enforcement
by Tucson Citizen on Aug. 22, 2008, under Opinion
Bee is a third-generation Tucsonan with a fine record of public service, but his campaign now is tapping our community's public safety resources and not giving back. That's wrong. And we expect better from Bee.
If anyone ought to know about the squeaky-tight government budgets in Arizona this year, it’s state Senate President Tim Bee.
Bee, after all, is the guy who brokered a tough compromise between fellow Republicans and legislative Democrats to produce an extremely lean state budget that Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano could sign.
Yet Bee’s congressional campaign won’t repay the Pima County Sheriff’s and Tucson Police departments for the $99,000 they spent while enabling his $600,000 campaign haul.
When President Bush came to Tucson on Bee’s behalf July 17-18, some 165 police officers and 161 sheriff’s deputies were deployed to help ensure the president’s safety, as reported Tuesday by Tucson Citizen political reporter Blake Morlock.
That’s money well spent; law enforcement in the Old Pueblo always rises to the occasion to help protect presidents and other dignitaries.
But this visit by the president was for a purely private party in a then-undisclosed Catalina foothills home, for select guests only and for one purpose only:
To raise money for Bee’s campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in southern Arizona’s 8th Congressional District.
The event paid off handsomely – for Bee, at least. His campaign called it the most successful fundraiser ever in southern Arizona.
The picture isn’t so pretty for city and county law enforcement agencies, which are struggling to maintain law and order despite tight resources.
Bee’s campaign doesn’t have to repay the agencies according to federal rules, said Bee spokesman Tom Dunn.
But what’s required by rules and what’s fair to one’s community isn’t always the same thing.
Tucson-area taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for a purely political, private fundraising event.
When former President Clinton came to town two years ago, local law officers also kept him safe.
But Clinton was appearing in Reid Park – in a Democratic rally open to anyone who wanted to attend. That’s a far cry from the swanky private campaign event attended by Bush here last month.
Bee is a third-generation Tucsonan with a fine record of public service, but his campaign now is tapping our community’s public safety resources and not giving back. That’s wrong. And we expect better from Bee.
His staff needs to pull some money out of that $600,000 windfall and put it back where it belongs: in the budgets of our local law enforcement agencies.
In tight economic times like these, that’s the only appropriate response. Public safety officers cannot be used for purely private security.
