Here’s the Thursday night press release from the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce:

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The Tucson Chamber’s Executive Committee has voted to oppose Pima County’s proposed half- cent sales tax, as there are no guarantees that the property tax would be reduced by a dollar- for-dollar rate in the future.

The committee questioned the county’s attempts to merely substitute or increase taxes rather than examine its spending habits or consider the return of surplus monies to taxpayers.

Members of the committee applauded Supervisor Ray Carroll’s opposition to the sales tax and suggested that any proposed sales tax increase should be referred to the voters.

The Chamber does, however, support the county’s efforts to look at other opportunities for diversifying revenue sources as a prudent financial practice.

Pima County also has proposed an increased subsidy of $21 million for Kino Hospital, a move the Chamber supports. While the increased subsidy is appropriate, as Kino Hospital plays an important role in our community by caring for our uninsured and underinsured population, efforts must be made to help Kino become self-sufficient, based on its contractual agreement, the committee says.

With increased infrastructure needs, the Chamber committee believes it also is critical that the county apply greater emphasis on adequately meeting the needs of the community by thoroughly examining the spending priorities and reallocating expenses from other redundant or unnecessary areas in the budget.

To ensure a more transparent and accountable budget process, the Chamber strongly recommends the creation of an independent Citizen’s Budget Oversight Committee to thoroughly analyze local government budgets.

The Chamber also evaluated the city of Tucson budget and concluded that a move toward performance-based budgeting would be most beneficial in determining benchmarks for success and maximizing taxpayer dollars for specific needs.

The committee suggests that in the event the city departments fail to meet the determined objectives, the mayor and council should define, relate and implement corrective actions.
The Chamber supports the city’s 7 percent net increase in spending but will closely monitor spending increases in future budgets to ensure that revenues, spending and “capacity” funds are appropriate and conducive to Tucson’s growth.

State requirements for “capacity” funds make up a significant amount of the overall spending increase per state requirements for counties and municipalities to anticipate additional funds such as grants.

Infrastructure needs also must be addressed within the city and should be considered a greater priority in the budget.

In addition, the Chamber supports the city’s efforts to acquire and store more CAP water resources for its customers, as well as its proposed 6.2 percent water rate increase to achieve this objective.

The Chamber also recommends a Citizen’s Budget Oversight Committee to evaluate the city’s budget, as well as the county’s.
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