Local opinion: In Pima County elections, reality hits home
On May 7, District 5 Supervisor Adelita Grijalva stated: "we already have a very high local tax burden". Recently, Rex Scott celebrated taking on $55 million in new debt against the county's sewer system.
Our taxes are very high, but we cannot pay for fundamental county services. His math does not add up.
Since taking office, Rex Scott has passed four budgets. In each, he spent vastly more than the county's revenue. That is deficit budgeting, by any definition of the term. And his deficit is massive: he has spent $1.4 billion more than Pima County has taken in with its already "very high local tax burden".
With vigorous hand-waving, he wants you to believe that is okay because he covered the deficit with a mix of new debt and federal dollars. But he used those federal monies while D.C. itself is running a record deficit. There are over thirty-five trillion reasons why Rex Scott's spending is unequivocally deficit spending — whether from local taxes or federal. That is not okay.
The sad reality is that, by wasting federal money, Rex Scott has directly contributed to the inflation that is crushing our neighbors and leaving low- and fixed-income citizens of Pima County struggling to make ends meet.
Rex Scott's policies have been devastating. He is out of touch with District 1, and all of Pima County.
Per Pima.gov , Rex Scott came into office with revenues of $1.1 billion. He then passed a budget spending $2.1 billion. He recently claimed that he was magnanimously spending federal money on COVID. Wrong. By the time he completed that budget process in June 2021, we could already see light at the end of the COVID tunnel. He had no need to blow an extra billion dollars on COVID. Rex Scott spent that money unwisely. How much did he spend on undocumented entrants?
In four years, Rex Scott has spent seven times the revenue the county had coming in before — Supervisor Grijalva's "very high local tax burden". This is not responsible. This is certainly not sustainable. Whether from federal or local taxes, we pay for it. And what he can't get from the feds, he gets by issuing more debt in our names.
Rex Scott piling on debt means us paying more tomorrow so he can waste today. This is irresponsible.
We're suffering. Scott has dug Pima County into a deeper hole and made it harder for us to dig out.
That $55 million in new debt? That is only part of the $95 million debt Scott touted as a good thing. We did not vote on that, but now we owe it with interest. He also spoke of paying down just a portion of the county's existing debt over the next four years, in the same breath as he described the new debt. This is not good governance; this is a Ponzi scheme. And it will break us.
Think of it this way: With about a million people in Pima County, that means he just committed you to repaying $95 plus interest. Per Census.gov , 14.6% of Pima County is in poverty, and per-capita income is barely $3,000 monthly. The vast majority of our neighbors cannot afford to live in Rex Scott's Pima County.
My first priority is the county's fundamentals: public safety, roads and infrastructure, and essential services. The Constitution of the State of Arizona requires that of anyone who serves in public office. Second, I will push to pay off debt as aggressively as revenue permits. Third, as we clean up Rex Scott's debt, it will be my privilege to slash the "very high local tax burden". It is what I owe to the overwhelming number of supporters I have gained since 2020. It is what I owe every one of my Pima County neighbors as a home-grown, grassroots, responsible public servant.
Rex Scott can try to duck and dodge his record, but he can't rewrite his history, and he can't change facts: He has not served our interests. We're hurting. And he doesn't even see it.
Steve Spain is running for County Supervisor with the desire to serve his District 1 neighbors responsibly.
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