Generally, I avoid the comments on StarNet stories because most of them are made by morons who have no idea what they’re talking about.
Here’s an example: I was looking at some of the recent stories about Prop 200 and came across this gem by “James O. (oienjmo),” who suggested a long list of cuts that could be made to fund police and fire. Never mind that the grand total of everything that he lists comes out to—well, I’m not going to do the exact math because it would be a waste of time. But near as I can tell, it’s less than $10 million a year, which isn’t much when you consider that Prop 200 would cost an estimated $63 million a year.
Anyways, that’s not my point. The thing I found amusing is that James O. included in his list a $14,922 contribution to 88-Crime. Yes, that’s right: He wants to fund cops by cutting a program that helps people report on criminals. Genius!
The rest of James O.’s list, after the jump:
This is how we will fund Police and Fire.
Government was not made to provide every service, that’s where private enterprise comes in.$621,900.00 TPAC
$38,000.00 Tucson Bot. Gardens
$61,000.00 Tucson Art Museum
$33,000.00 Childrens Art Museum
$758,740.00 Access Tucson
$244,600.00 Civic events
$700,000.00+ Toilet rebates
$64,000.00 Pro Neighborhood
$10,000.00 Art tours
$1,470,650.00 TREO
$14,420.00 Tucson Sister Cities Assoc.
$10,818.00 El Centro Culteral de las Americas
$63,756.00 Metropolitan Education Commissuion
$46,575.00 PimaCo/Tucson Women’s Commission
$16,227.00 Humane Society
$49,347.00 Community Mediation Services
$27,000.00 Tucson Pops Orchestra
$558,000.00 Schools Plus Jobs
$4,247,824.00 Tucson Convention/Visitor
$450,000.00 Job Path
$331,390.00 Downtown Tucson Partnership
$337,500.00 Critical Path Institute
$14,922.00 88-CrimeTHESE ABOVE ARE ALL NON FUNDED PROGRAMS, that the M&C has chosen to fund over our POLICE and FIRE
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2009.
Well, Jim Nintzel, his toilet rebates ($700,000.00+) kinda jumps out at you…
these people have it down to the penny but then they throw in the +
What’s going on with that?
Talk about being a complete moron… Nintz, you take the cake. All the waste here and you only focus on 88-crime. Whether it’s $10 million or not, these are all non essential services that can go away with little to no impact on the city. Why don’t you do some real reporting and talk about the discretionary funds the city council is just sitting on to fund their silly pet projects? How about Nina trasoff getting greased to the tune of $4 million so Mr. An can move in downtown. I guess this is why you’re writing for a second rate rag.
Arts, education and job securement assistance. Get rid of it all. That will certainly make Tucson a more desirable, safer place to live.
tucson sucks anyways…nobody wants to live their..its going to become like yuma before you know it
erlichman,
I agree some of the programs should be cut and Nintz again missed a bigger issue with this story. Just like how he missed a bigger issue with MOCA getting a dollar a year rent. Why do some businesses get deals like that when other businesses do not?
Some of those programs should not be cut or dropped. One is 88-Crime. Also organizations like the Humane Society help alleviate the cost of running PAC. So we should look twice about some of them, since cutting them might cost the city more in other areas.
When I see FIVE cop cars show up to handle a minor fender bender I know we don’t need anymore police on the streets. Our resources just need to be utilized more efficiently. Do you think any properly run business would send five vehicles and five workers to do such a minor task? This prop is asking for a lot of money so they can spend it elsewhere not on police and fire dept. like they say.
Tucson sucks……And it is getting worse every day. Tucson seems to be the Mecca for homeless and those with mental problems……..
I left Tucson 3 months ago and moved to sunny and cool San Diego and am loving it. The final straw for me was when 4 Tucson Police officers showed up and arrested my 11 year old son for selling lemons in an empty lot! As for myself I got 2 tickets for being with him, one for facilitation and another for the contributing to the delinquency of a minor, I guess the small ice chest he had was a big deal. I have seen a police car once in my new neighborhood and have seen only 1 minor crime a tagging on the curb which I went and cleaned off myself. Move from Tucson while you still have a chance people you will be better off.
Hey Erlichman:
Actually, I did do a story on that outside agency spending, just two weeks ago. You can find it here:
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/balanci…
As you’ll notice, I asked all three Republicans seeking City Council seats what they’d cut off that list. Ben Buehler-Garcia had nothing he’d cut; Steve Kozachik said he’d add more spending to it by giving more money to the Humane Society; and Shaun McClusky said he’d cut TREO, Access Tucson and some of the festival funding.
So while you might think it’s waste, most of the people running for the council appear to disagree with you.
I left Tucson about 1 year ago. I am a Tucson native ( I’m 57 ) I now live in N.W. Georgia. Clean air, nice folk, peace and quiet! I shoul have done this years ago. While some of my heart still lives there, I can no longer see myself living there. Tucson has changed, and NOT for the better. There are so many attractions around here its scary. What most impresses me are CLEAN, CLEAN streets and yards. Not much trash on the sides of the road. Its a whole new ball game here. Sorry Tucson but you just dont have the charm you used to have. Now they want to take away the cultural activities like the arts? For shame for shame.
I lived in Tucson for almost 30 years. It has turned into a dump. I left about 5 years ago and recently went back to visit friends. I was shocked how much it has degraded just in that time. Either that or my eyes finally adjusted to seeing clean streets, clean yards, nice neighborhoods and friendly clean people. Looking at Tucson’s dirty houses, streets, people and yards made me sad. How pitiful and run down Tucson looks. And to think it used to be a great beautiful place. Even flying in on the plane and looking out the window depressed me. SAD SAD SAD city!
Just about everything on James’s list is more valuable to Tucson than a few more cops on the street. If people are that paranoid about crime and don’t understand or care about the quality of life in their community, they should just stay home, put bars on their windows and hire someone to guard the place.
Fortunately our city council and 3/4ths of surveyed voters aren’t that nervous, and it looks like Prop 200 will not pass: http://tucsoncitizen.com/mark-evans/archiv…
For those who haven’t had the experience, I was taken to TMC after an accident, and received a bill for $1,000 for the ambulance ride. If our first responders charge citizens as if they were a private company, they shouldn’t need or get public funds.
I would have to agree because I do think that cops and firefighters are getting short changed in this situation. Why not help out the people who fight to save you with their own lives by getting them more help!
the Folly,
Were you part of the accident or did you just drive by and develop an opinion? If you were not part of the accident, your opinion really does not matter. Maybe some of the offices you saw were trainees and were still under the FTU program. Maybe you only saw the first few minutes, and some of the officers left after you drove by them. Also calls that come in from 911 and dispatchers sometimes do not give enough information. So you have more officers than you need just in case the situation is worse than it was described.
There are some cases you will find where the police mismanaged the situation. However, I normally see are people complaining about police and law Enforcement just to complain. People that will try to find the fault in anything the Law Enforcement does.
Tucson Police Department is undermanned, especially during the increased calls they receive during the night.
Tucson Dean,
Did you used Southwest Ambulance or did Tucson Fire Department actually transport you to TMC? If it was Southwest Ambulance, it is a private contractor and part of their contract is they bill the patient or insurance company.
Here is a question for the people that do not support Prop 200. Do you support the other propositions for funding the school system? Some of them are actually going to raise you taxes. I find it funny that the Democrat Committee in Tucson supports propositions that are going to raise taxes for schools, but are against Prop 200 because it might raise taxes. Personally, if it comes down to helping our police officers and fire fighters by raising a tax or two, I would not mind. I rather raise taxes helping a service I might use (public safety) than a service I will never use (public schools).
Seems Nate1980 is worried…
Nate: If you have good public schools, you’ll have less need for cops. You “use” the public schools every time they graduate a kid with a decent education who can go off to college or land a decent job, just as we all “use” the police when they arrest a serial burglar before he can strike again.
I don’t oppose Prop 200 because it would require the city to hire more cops. I’m all for hiring more cops. I oppose Prop 200 because it locks in spending that the city may not have–and that means we don’t get our potholes fixed and we don’t got our parks maintained.
The Realtors are selling Prop 200 as important because our crime rate is so bad we can’t attract new businesses. How are we going to attract them with lousy schools and crumbling streets and neglected parks?
Well talking about TUSD, and their messed up priorities I will never directly use them if I ever have a child. Unless they start cutting non-essential classes like Raza Studies, they should not be wanting a tax increase. Now, they want to extend kindergarten to a full day by raises taxes? I do not see a reason making kindergarten longer other than making a teacher a expensive babysitter.
TUSD has had problems for many years. Some of it is not their fault and it is an underlining problem our country is having as a whole. Children are becoming more lazy and do not take school very seriously anymore.
The city parks can be maintained in other ways that can cut city spending. General clean up can be conducted by local community groups around the park. The Boy Scouts, Explorers, local churches, and other groups could commit to help cleaning the parks and keeping them clean. Also little effort by everyone can greatly improve the cleanliness of our parks. I do not know where you grew up, but I was taught by my parents if you see garbage lying on the ground throw it in the trashcan.
Advanced maintenance like plumbing, would still be under contract. However, we need to be frugal with our money and have open bids for these contracts. The city should already be doing this with every contract they award.
Road maintenance should be right behind funding our police and fire in terms of the general budget. However, smaller neighborhood roads could be maintained by Home Owner’s Associations. I have heard some do this already, by taking dues and using them to fix small pot holes. I probably would not mind as much getting a fine for my trash can being out to long if I knew my money might be going to fix the pot hole down the street.
Still, if all else fails and Prop 200 can not be funding by cuts alone, I do not mind raising my taxes to pay for more police and fire. I understand we can not do blanket cuts on certain programs because it might cost Tucson more in the long run.
I agree with some of the posts here which point out how easy it is to not see the trees from the forest. In particular, when the scope is aimed at art programs. Some art programs are good. Some art programs are not. The mentality of assuming ALL art programs are good is simply total nonsense – lazy thinking. Those who fancy themselves on the left should stop being so dogmatic, and start being more critical and demanding of art programs which receive public money. For example, that the recent debate about MoCA funding became a debate about one negligible piece of “pornographic” art is criminal – criminal for both sides to have taken the debate in that skewed direction. I write this as an artist who has experienced good and bad art programs, galleries and museums from the inside out, in many cities. Again: not all art programs are the same, and they cannot (should not) be lumped together when considering funding. It’s not as hard as you might think to audit an art program.