Before you vote to raise your taxes…

Until the last election, Scottsdale had a 100% “Republican” city council and mayor. I put “Republican” in quotes, because I always thought the party platform’s primary plank was fiscal responsibility. During the last decade, our elected officials (including Mayor Jim Lane, Virginia Korte, Suzanne Klapp, and even some who are supposedly populist politicians who are […]

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“Media Buy” has a whole new meaning in Scottsdale

About a month ago, I published additional details in the ongoing saga of former-fake mayoral candidate Bill Crawford and his phantom nominating petition signatures, including Crawford’s cowardly attempt to bully me into silence with an empty threat of a lawsuit over comments his lawyer mistakenly said I posted on AZCentral. Thinking (foolishly, as it turns […]

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Another $4 million taxpayer subsidy down the drain

Tuesday night the Scottsdale City Council and Mayor Jim Lane voted to flush another $4 million of your money down the award-winning toilets of the Scottsdale Cultural Council. Fiscal Year 2016/17 Scottsdale Cultural Council Financial Participation Agreement – Approved on Consent. Request: Adopt Resolution No. 10452 authorizing Agreement No. 2016-065-COS, an annual financial participation agreement […]

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Some truths about Phoenix’s property tax deals

I don’t think this appeared in the Republic’s online AZCentral site, but it was clipped and forwarded to me by a sharp-eyed ScottsdaleCitizen reader who knows I have been highly critical of GPLET abatements for private developers. Thanks MK. While I do not believe the GPLET mechanism has been used directly in Scottsdale, the principle […]

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Mesa Hopes New ASU Campus Spurs Downtown Growth

Cities across the Valley are looking inward these days, refocusing resources and money on creating attractive downtowns. Now, Mesa city officials are hoping a deal with Arizona State University will jump start their downtown’s growth. Voters will have their chance to approve the potentially $160 million dollar project to build a new ASU campus in […]

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Scottsdale Museum of the West management agreement amendment

Shades of the Scottsdale Cultural Council…let’s throw good taxpayer money after bad. The Museum of the West, Inc., got the City Council to give it free land and over $11 million in taxpayer money for the purpose-built structure…mind you, that’s BORROWED money, for which we (the taxpayers) are on-the-hook. Plus, we gave them a $400,000 […]

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The ongoing obituary of the Scottsdale Cultural Council

“Instead of a city of arts and culture, we are a city of entertainment,” [Agnese] Udinotti says. “It’s a party city now.” But Scottsdale’s arts scene has ebbed and flowed in the past. There’s a chance at another comeback, right? She’s cutting with her opinion.”It doesn’t come back.” Becky Bartkowski has penned a hard-hitting piece […]

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