Category Archives: Taxpayers
Grand Slam for Corruption, Strikeout for Justice
The American Post-Gazette reports …
Emboldened by the verdict against Andrew Thomas disbarring him, the Maricopa County Supervisors are going on a spending spree of our taxpayer dollars awarding themselves and their cronies millions of dollars. Arpaio and Thomas had tried to prosecute county supervisors and judges, but the defendants cleverly turned the prosecution around on Thomas by filing bar complaints against him, knowing the liberal State Bar would punish him.
Now the Supervisors are handing out millions of dollars to themselves and their cronies like it’s candy. Even county employees who were not prosecuted by Arpaio and Thomas are getting in on the gravy train. Don Stapley’s secretary, who was not prosecuted, filed a lawsuit against the county demanding $1.5 million. The Supervisors’ hatchet man David Smith said she will be awarded $500,000. You have to wonder if this was a payoff to her for keeping her mouth shut about Stapley’s wrongdoing? Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox will receive $975,000 and retired judge Barbara Mundell will receive $500,000. The Supervisors have already awarded millions of dollars to other cronies for similar claims.
Wilcox, a Democrat, has a long sordid history of breaking the law and using her powerful political position to avoid punishment, some of which was reported by reporter Linda Bentley last year. A Grand Jury indicted Wilcox on 36 criminal counts over some of her recent misdoings. Gila County Attorney Daisy Flores thought Thomas’s prosecution of Wilcox had enough merit to initiate a review. Although she eventually dismissed the charges, no doubt due to political pressure, she did not initially express any problem taking over the prosecutions from Thomas, and spent 10 months going over 10,000 documents in the case. Flores concluded that Wilcox had indeed failed to properly report financial information.
Smith says that he would rather settle the lawsuits now instead of fully litigate them in order to save the county money. The truth is that these people have no valid claims, so Smith is helping them skate around the judicial process. This is not right, these claims need to be properly litigated so it can be determined whether they have any merit or not.
Have the county coffers become a revolving door now? Anyone that threatens to sue the county we just give them money? Who is next? Quick, file a claim against the county claiming that Arpaio and Thomas stressed you out, and you too can get in on the county gravy train. Hurry though, Smith is resigning this month, and Supervisors Stapley and Brock will not be running for reelection. The free taxpayer handouts will probably end come election time.
The Tea Parties have championed cleaning up the County Supervisors office, and they will continue standing up to this kind of abuse. This is outrageous that not only did defendants like Wilcox get away with crimes, but now they are profiting off the taxpayers and calling themselves victims. Get involved with your local Tea Party and let’s stop this now.
It’s truly a dark day and time for Maricopa County taxpayers.
Taxpayers Footing Bill for Yet Another New Cubs’ Stadium in Mesa
City fathers still haven’t learned how the game of spring training baseball is played, and the taxpayers have been had again.
For the second time in 14 years, the Chicago Cubs have played the threat of a move of their spring training headquarters to Florida against the city and its taxpayers.
Back in 1996, the city caved and the taxpayers spent millions to build the Cubs a beautiful new stadium just north of downtown Mesa.
Just 13 years later, the Cubs are already dissatisfied with that facility, and they threatened to move to Florida again.
To keep the Cubbies in Mesa, the city fathers promised yet another new stadium – this one costing a whopping $84 million! The money will come from taxpayers and private contributers.
In a back-patting session this week at the state capitol in Phoenix, team owners Tom and Laura Ricketts, and Cubs’ president Crane Kenney, made the announcement with Gov. Jan Brewer and Mesa city officials acting as cheerleaders. Mesa plans to build a new spring training complex despite a competing bid from Florida.
That’s the real game behind the game: teams in Arizona manipulate their host cities into spending millions of taxpayer dollars by threatening to move to Florida.
And guess what? Major league teams in Florida are doing the same thing there! They’re threatening their host cities by dangling the Arizona carrot.
If the cities in both states would let these ball clubs move away, they’d still end up with major league teams training in the present stadiums. That’s what they ought to do: make the clubs put their money where their mouth is and walk. As the Cubs head for Florida, they can wave to the teams heading for Arizona.
There couldn’t be a worse time, amidst this horrible recession, to soak the taxpayers for millions for a stadium that will be used for part of the month of March each year!
In 1996, Mesa demolished the old HoHoKam Stadium and built a new stadium, seating 12,500, by the same name and in time for spring training in 1997.
My, what a short shelf live these stadiums have. To be fair to the taxpayers, the new $84 million stadium ought to be used until 2075.
