Downtown Dispute
Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller is on the warpath again—this time against Rio Nuevo
With bipartisan support, a bill to extend the life of downtown Tucson’s Rio Nuevo district has passed the Arizona House of Representatives, and is now moving through the Senate.
Rio Nuevo—a term that became synonymous with scandal during the first decade of this century—is now run by a board appointed by the governor and legislative leaders. In recent years, the district has been a vital factor in the ongoing (and long-awaited) revitalization of downtown Tucson.
The main opponent of the legislation: Pima County District 1 Supervisor Ally Miller. Miller has a history of making delusional statements about Rio Nuevo. Remember when she claimed a letter that she penned to the FBI launched an investigation into Rio Nuevo’s books, when in reality it was a request from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office for some forensic accounting assistance?
Once again, Miller’s feverish imagination is running wild as she seeks to end Rio Nuevo. It doesn’t matter that district has seen tax revenues soar in the downtown core, or that more people than ever are enjoying downtown Tucson, or that the district has aided the development of a new hotel (with more on the way); made a deal that helped lure Caterpillar to Tucson; improved the Tucson Convention Center to pave the way to bring the Tucson Roadrunners hockey team here; finally got a project started on the old Thrifty block on Congress Street that was a vacant lot for more than a decade; found a new home for the Greyhound Bus station; and is now working to improve Broadway between downtown and Country Club in order to revitalize the Sunshine Mile as part of the widening plan for the corridor. (There are more wins in recent years for Rio Nuevo, but you get the idea.)
Miller, who is always unhappy when things go right in Pima County because it undercuts her narrative that we’re living in the fourth circle of hell, focused her complaints on the notion that Caterpillar isn’t even building it’s promised $43 million headquarters.
But Fletcher McCusker, the chair of the Rio Nuevo Board, easily countered that argument by showing lawmakers photos of the construction site.
“Apparently, she hadn’t gotten out of her office,” McCusker says. “All you have to do is drive to the site and you’ll see a foundation being built and plumbing going in.”
McCusker says the construction has taken a bit of time because there was a landfill on the site that required remediation, which took six months to haul away 25,000 truckloads of trash. But Caterpillar already has 450 employees in Tucson, with plans to add another 300. The company has already outgrown the office space it leased from the county and has found additional space in the office tower at 1 South Church.
McCusker is baffled by Miller’s crusade against Rio Nuevo.
“Everybody in the rest of the town—and in the state, really—celebrates our downtown,” McCusker says. “It’s really quick remarkable what has happened. In spite of that, Ally decided we should be put out of business and we’re corrupt and just a bunch of cronies who only do deals with our friends and the whole thing is a big scam.”
House Bill 2456, which passed the House on a 38-17 vote, would extend the life of Rio Nuevo for an additional 10 years, or through 2035. That means that district’s tax-increment financing program, which essentially allows Rio Nuevo to hang onto half the state sales generated in the district above the level collected in 1999, will continue to provide seed money for a variety of projects. There are a few other provisions in the legislation; if Rio Nuevo sells a property it owns, the proceeds will go into the state’s pension funds, and any property that it still owns in 2035 would revert to the State Land Department.
The bill is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Commerce and Public Safety Committee on March 12.
Miller, who did not return phone calls from Tucson Weekly, is having a hard time convincing Republican lawmakers to support her latest efforts to keep Tucson shitty. That’s partially because the legislation has been championed by state Rep. Mark Finchem, a conservative GOP lawmaker from Oro Valley who’s been a Miller ally in the past. Finchem says he’s no fan of tax-increment financing, but in this case, the TIF exists and—since a new board took control a few years back—there’s a lot getting done downtown.
“Seven or eight years ago, I never went to downtown Tucson,” Finchem says. “I avoided it. Today, it’s been a 180-degree turnaround.”
As for the complaints from Miller? Finchem says simply: “We’ll just have to agree to disagree.”
The televised edition of Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel airs 6:30 p.m. Fridays on the Creative Tucson network, Cox Channel 20 and Comcast Channel 74. This week’s guests Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson, Tucson City Councilman Paul Durham and Democratic candidate for governor Kelly Fryer. The TV show repeats Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday nights at 6:30 p.m. The radio edition of Zona Politics airs at 5 p.m. Sundays on community radio KXCI, 91.3 FM. Nintzel also talks about what’s happening in Tucson entertainment on The Frank Show at 9:30 Wednesday mornings on KLPX, 96.1 FM.
Correction:
This article appears in Mar 8-14, 2018.
When the facts are not in your favor, get personal and nasty — Gee, they didn’t teach me that in Journalism 101. Guess they thought we wanted to be reporters and not house organ flacks for politicians and cronies.
Readers should know that it was the Arizona Daily Independent, that “bullshit factory” in the words of the Weakly’s editor, which broke the World View hydrogen balloon explosion while the rest of the media hid their heads in the sand, and it was Supervisor Ally Miler’s “feverish imagination” that made actual reports on the considerable extent of the damage public and launched a (hopefully) independent investigation, the results of which we are still waiting for. I’d call that doing her job. When no one else did theirs.
Missing from the Weakly’s analysis of Rio Nuevo is the very large fact that it is exempt from the State Gift Clause prohibiting giving taxpayer dollars to private parties, as was done with Caterpillar. So we out here in Picture Rocks can’t get the County to grade our dirt roads once or twice a year because those roads, which County vehicles use, are technically private easements and County maintenance would be considered an illegal gift. So they tell us. Maybe Rio Nuevo could adopt Picture Rocks?
The millions of taxpayer dollars lavished on Caterpillar ignore the fact, found with just a little bit of research (that darn Journalism 101 again), that those jobs came at the expense of Caterpillar closing their South Milwaukee operations and terminating 900 people in a community of 2500 families. Do that math — that’s hardly “a win.”
Rio Nuevo has been the black ops, the dark money, for the County Administrator and his cronies on and off the Board of Supervisors. The Tucson Weakly covering for them and personally attacking their fact-based critics is a shame. The paper used to have integrity.
The weakly. I love it. Ms. Miller has more brains in her pinky than Dick, Sharon, Ramone and Dingleberry combined.
Maybe the AzAg should investigate the influence the local lying media has over our Electeds. Talk about a worthless one sided political stunt by a Rag Paper.
The trolls are out in force today. Only three of you texted each other to leave whiny comments? You guys are either lazy or there arent enough of you to care about. Bye Felicias.
Blow it out of your ass.
Republicans: Tax and Spend democrats are destroying our ability to attract and retain business
Also Republicans: How dare Democrats offer tax incentives to attract and retain business
The party of no is just the party of delusion now…
The Democratic Party is now hoping to win elections by not announcing their platform on social or economic issues. tells you a lot about just how popular socialism isn’t.
Crackpots gonna crack.
Can’t decide which is funnier: Ally’s faceplant, or watching CW13 and his fellow Felicias get owned.
Peabrain, where’ve ya been? Owned? What has your blind ass been reading?
I mean, Ally’s faceplant is funny and all, in a pathetic, slapstick kinda way. But watching CW13 and crew get all dewy because people are calling out their little princess is hilarious.
Seriously, did your mother have any kids that lived?
On the other hand, Ally’s farcical stumble and flop can be traced back to the rustic buffoon tradition of ancient Greece, whereas CW13’s idiot dribblings have more contemporary roots, the film oeuvre of Pauly Shore, for example. This is going to take some more thought. Don’t worry, CW13, you’re going to get a trophy either way.