By Sam Campana | Point of View
Money back guarantee! More hair by morning! Lose 20 pounds in a week! Double your income — instantly! Now we all know those are scams.
What is not a scam is Proposition 490 to protect and preserve our city parks — and provide the resources to make that happen.
Scottsdale has maybe the highest quality of life of any city in America. High-paying jobs, easy and affordable access to health care, low taxes, highly ranked public schools, efficient transportation, clean (and warm) air, well managed water, well-maintained infrastructure, and good government. Not a scam.
So why? Why would 30 years of public policy makers in Scottsdale, elected officials, staff, board and commissions, and many energized nonprofits support the creation of the Mcdowell Sonoran Preserve?
And citizens voting for it five times! Because we all benefit!
A similar group of advocates crafted a conservative, thoughtful extension of that preserve effort by assessing the real needs of all our parks, the impact of our citizens and visitors using those amenities on our fire and police departments, and the wear on these assets over the next 30-years.
Vision. Planning. Inclusive listening. Hallmarks of Scottsdale. Actually reducing the tax to meet the true needs. As always, responsible public policy.
A scam?
City leaders, volunteers, stewards, police/fire organizations, commissioners do not scam their neighbors — not one of them is interested in unnecessarily taxing and spending our hard-earned dollars. We all live here. Your city does not scam you.
Shame on these few activists with untoward political power agendas planting bright yellow signs “billion dollar scam” with an arrow next to pro-prop 490 signs.
Ask yourself in this white-hot election campaign season — does the city I chose to live, work, play in scam me? Ever? In any sense of the word?
You may choose to not vote for a similar but lower tax you’ve been paying for 30 years (about $36/year) for sincere personal budget concerns. But this is not a scam.
You are being intentionally politically played by a few ultra-conservative activists — undermining our core belief in local government. That is the scam. Don’t fall for it. Thousands of stewards, volunteers, ambassadors, your fellow citizens provided input, oversight, and hands-on involvement for prop 490.
No scam. Vote for proposition 490. Vote for Scottsdale.
Editor’s Note: Sam Campana is a longtime community steward and former mayor of Scottsdale
