At a debate last week between the four Republican candidates who want to replace Ann Day on the Pima County Board of Supervisors, Tea Party patriot Ally Miller slipped up big-time when talking about the county’s road-bond program.
As you can see in the video above, captured by ace videographer Dino Kadich: Miller, a self-proclaimed budget expert, declared that the county “is using (HURF) money for the bonds that we should be paying for with our secondary property-tax rate. We should not be using HURF money to pay for bonds. And that’s what they’re doing, and they’re playing a shell game with the money, and they’re moving it around. … That is wrong, and it shouldn’t be happening, and it needs to stop. In the last five years—I’ve done an investigation here—$80 million has been raided.”
Miller is evidently unaware that county voters, when they passed a 1997 bond package, specifically supported using HURF funds to pay off the roads bonds.
You could have argued against that route in 1997—as the Tucson Weekly did, saying that the county should use a pay-as-you-go approach instead of borrowing against HURF revenues. And you can say that the road-bond money, once it started coming in, wasn’t spent that well, as the late Chris Limberis argued in these pages back in 2001.
But you can’t say the money is being “raided” if it’s being used for the purpose for which voters said it should be used. What Miller is proposing—namely, using property taxes to pay back revenue bonds—is the sort of illegal shell game that she spends so much time bemoaning.
Also: It’s not much of an “investigation” if Miller can’t figure out at some point that her basic premise is wrong.
Call us old-fashioned, but we believe that if you’re going to accuse someone of criminal acts, you ought to at least get your facts straight.
We emailed Miller to see if she wanted to clarify her comments, but she is evidently still not speaking to us.
We’ll have more on Miller’s debate performance—including her fierce denouncement of the Tucson Weekly—in this week’s Skinny column, available on many newsstands now!
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2012.
As we learned from the Sarah Palin experience, tea party patriots vote exclusively according to the apparent authenticity of a candidate’s generalized anger. It’s elitist of you to be so nit-picky. BTW, could you do us a service and provide a list of the candidates with tea-party leanings? It’s impossible to tell from their signs.
It’s called raging, Jim Nintzel.
Jim, I always enjoy your writings but Miller makes a good point. Voters may have approved the bond but the impression was that our roads were going to be repaired. Tucson Weekly pointed out the shortcomings then and Miller is reminding people now what was wrong with how our county is run. I give her credit for calling out such policies which she would obviously work to change if we are lucky enough to have her serve. Your post focuses on the trees, not the forest.
What is clear from watching the entire debate video and from listening to the four GOP candidates during the campaign is that none of them have the command of the facts and the long record of service to this area that Nancy Young Wright has. Regardless of who emerges as Nancy’s opponent on August 28th, they will have to work damn hard to get up to speed with her. These are challenging times for Pima County and we can’t afford to have leaders who need either remedial education, or on the job training.
What’s with your raging against women? Every time a strong female emerges you go after her! Got a anti-mommie complex? Give it a break! Talk about the three stooges she’s running against!
Just knowing that Ally Miller has embraced the ideas brought forth by “Arizonans for a Brighter Future” instills great confidence in my opinion (NOT!!).
Nancy Young Wright is the person who should be voted as the best candidate for Pima County Supervisor. My opinion, however, is tinted by the realization that voters in Southern Arizona don’t necessarily vote for the best person. Witness the 2010 votes for Terry Proud (what’s she proud of…?) and Al Melvin. Two of the worst legislators around.