THEATRICS ON CONGRESS
The Rialto Theatre saga took another twist this week, with the City
Council voting to move forward with a plan aimed at finding a
compromise to resolve the differences between the Rialto Theatre
Foundation and developers Don Martin and Scott Stiteler, of the Downtown Tucson Development Corporation.
The downtown theater, which is owned by the city and managed by the
Rialto Theatre Foundation, is one of the few elements of Rio Nuevo that
can be called a success.
But the foundation and its executive director, former Tucson
Weekly editor and publisher Doug Biggers, have been fighting
for the theater’s future after Martin and Stiteler informed the Rialto
Foundation that they planned to evict the nonprofit organization from
the space surrounding the theater that the Rialto has been using as a
green room for performers, as an administrative office and for storage
space.
We’ve discussed the details of how this sorry state came to be in
recent weeks, but here’s a brief recap for those who came in late:
Martin and Stiteler were furious with the Rialto Theatre Foundation,
because attorneys for the foundation stood up and protested a deal that
would have delivered $4 million in city property and control of much of
the eastern end of downtown to Martin and Stiteler. At a June meeting,
the council asked for another two weeks to examine the deal; the
developers, in turn, walked away—and then turned their sights on
hammering the Rialto.
In reaction to the eviction notice, Councilman Steve Leal asked the City Council to consider condemning the property, which
Rialto management claims it needs to continue operating.
Why should the city step in? Because it owns the theater, and the
council needs to protect its asset. The Rialto has proven itself to be
an economic engine of the downtown arts and entertainment district over
the last four years by bringing hundreds of thousands of people
downtown, for hundreds of shows.
When it came time to discuss the theater at the Tuesday, July 7,
City Council meeting, the council moved behind closed doors in
executive session to discuss their legal options.
When they emerged, council members gave little details about their
conclusions—but they voted to go forward with an appraisal on the
property, which would be the first step toward condemnation.
More importantly, they called on the Rialto Theatre Foundation, the
Downtown Tucson Development Corporation, the Rio Nuevo District Board
and the city to enter into negotiations to resolve the fight between
the developers and theater once and for all, with an update due at the
council’s August meeting.
Whether the council’s vote is enough to forestall eviction remained
to be seen as of press time.
“The city and the theater were backed into a corner by the
developer,” said Michael Crawford, president of the Rialto
Theatre board. “The City Council tried to send a message without
hitting them over the head with a hammer. They said, ‘Come back to the
negotiating table, or we’ll go with condemnation.'”
ALL FIXED NOW?
You know that $3 billion budget crisis? Well, there’s no more need
to worry: The Arizona Legislature solved our problems earlier this week
by taking out a big ol’ payday loan.
Just kidding, just kidding—although that’s not far from the
truth. Rather than dealing with the roots of Arizona’s financial
crisis, lawmakers came together for a special session and unanimously
agreed to keep the schools open, hang on to the health-care stimulus
dollars and take care of a few other details.
And then they adjourned until further notice, without figuring out
how to pay for it all.
Oddly, that doesn’t mean the special session is over; it just means
that it’ll continue without any real lawmaking getting done. It’s the
legislative equivalent of the Korean War.
Still, the unanimous vote to resolve the immediate financial
problems stands in stark contrast to the 170-day regular session that
ended last week. The final result of that was a lousy budget that Gov.
Jan Brewer promptly vetoed, creating a great deal of hostility
in the process.
In a statement to the press, Senate President Bob Burns went
so far as to say that Brewer’s behavior was “incomprehensible,” and
added that “the governor is having problems managing the level of
responsibility to which she has been elevated.” Speaker of the House
Kirk Adams issued a statement saying that Brewer’s “decision to
veto the education bill puts schoolchildren, hardworking teachers and
employees in our public schools in jeopardy.”
Republicans were so mad at Brewer, in fact, that they did the
unthinkable: They made a deal with Democrats. Earlier this week, they
spent exactly one day in special session, voting to pass the
aforementioned bills that restored education funding (and added 2
percent for inflation) and ensured there would be enough health-care
funding for the state to qualify for stimulus dollars. They also took
care of a few other details.
Then lawmakers adjourned, probably until Labor Day.
The big problem: The current budget is out of balance by an
estimated $2 billion. That means that the state will be spending money
that it doesn’t really have for the next two months.
Exactly how that will be resolved remains to be seen, but
legislative leaders from both sides of the aisle say they’ll be meeting
this summer to try to hammer out a new deal.
It strikes us as fundamentally absurd that lawmakers couldn’t work
this out sometime within the first six months of the year, but maybe
now there’s a chance they’ll find a way to bridge the funding gap
without selling off the prisons and enacting tax cuts for the
wealthy.
SPEAKING OF MONEY TROUBLES
The state’s latest financial numbers show that the state remains in
a world of hurt. In the month of May, the state collected $457 million,
which was $238 million less than it collected in May 2008. Sales taxes
dropped more than 21 percent compared to May ’08, and income-tax
withholding dropped nearly 20 percent.
That’s the 16th straight month that sales-tax revenues have dropped.
They’ve dropped by double-digits for the last seven months.
The big declines continue to come from taxes on car sales—down
32 percent compared to the prior year—and taxes on construction
work, which dropped 42 percent compared to May 2008. General retail
sales dropped about 7 percent.
In the first 11 months of the fiscal year, state revenues have
dropped $1.184 billion compared to the previous year.
In short: Arizona hasn’t hit the bottom yet.
But there’s a bit of good news: More Arizonans are playing the
lottery! Tickets sales were up $6.9 million over May 2008.
SCRAMBLEWATCH 2010: WILD AND CRAZY RUMORS
Is Grant Woods, moderate Republican and former state attorney
general, really thinking about running for governor as an
independent?
And is J.D. Hayworth, a former Republican congressman and
current radio talk-show host, really getting set to challenge Sen.
John McCain?
Find early and late-breaking Skinny at our new daily dispatch,
The Range, at blog.tucsonweekly.com.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2009.
