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President's Message:
CALL TO ACTION
We Need Your Help Now!!
The Tucson GLBT Chamber of Commerce believes that continuing our downtown development, a series of projects lumped together under the general name of Rio Nuevo, is critical to the economic recovery and success we all, as business people, are counting on in this difficult economic time. We believe that there is both the will and the ability to overcome some past mistakes and move forward in a cost-effective and transparent way. If we allow politics to kill this now, it will be decades before we can recover the momentum.
One big problem has been that our legislators and our local press have not heard from Rio Nuevo's supporters. Of course, there's been plenty of negative press.
Attached for your reference and use is a letter from Jeff di Gregorio, along with talking points and contact information for our southern Arizona legislators.
I ask that each of our members take a few moments to create a letter of support and either e-mail or snail mail it to the entire southern Arizona delegation. In addition, send letters to the Star and Citizen.
The future of our community is at stake. Now is the time to act.
Thanks.
Sheldon A. Fishman, MBA, CFP®
Financial Planner
LPL Financial located at Pyramid C.U.
520-795-7950, ext. 7005
520-940-0884 (cell)
sheldon.fishman@lpl.com
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April 17, 2009
Dear TGLBTCC Members and Supporters of Downtown,
The Arizona State Legislature has discussed shutting down our Rio Nuevo Tax Increment Financing District to close a hefty budget shortfall.
The “TIF”, as it's called, is the mechanism by which we may reinvest into Downtown Tucson a portion of state sales taxes earned in Downtown Tucson, rather than remitting those dollars back to Phoenix. If this privilege is revoked, it will negatively impact the progress being made to the infrastructure in Downtown and could curtail future projects such as the expansion to the convention center and the building of the new convention center hotel—hurting economic development prospects throughout Metropolitan Tucson.
Obviously, this progress is an enhancement to your business and livelihood as well as to the evolution of the city's core and creating a vibrant center of living, working and playing.
As a member of the Rio Nuevo District Board, I personally commit myself to ensuring that the program move forward with greater focus, transparency, accountability and independence from the politics and bureaucracy that have been obstructions to progress in the past. If you've been Downtown in the past two years, you've seen incredible progress in both public Rio Nuevo investment and the coinciding private investment. A great deal more is on the way.
We need your help to urge the state legislature to continue the TIF District – asking them to continue the flow of our tax dollars to fund the growth of our Downtown. Please consider writing a letter asking our legislators to keep the TIF alive. For your convenience, I've included an e-mail contact list of our legislators and the single-point mailing address for snail mail is listed below.
This is your chance to be heard. It is best that letters are written in your own voice. Tell your own brief story of your personal and/or business investment in Downtown and why you support the continuation of the TIF district and development of our Downtown. A list of talking points follows on the next page. A one-page letter is ideal.
Your letter and the help it brings to this effort is much appreciated. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.
Many thanks,
Jeff DiGregorio, TGLBTCC Member
The Royal Elizabeth Bed and Breakfast Inn
stay@RoyalElizabeth.com / (520) 670-9022
Please e-mail your letters using the contact information on the following page
or send snail mail to any or all Senators to:
Senator _______
Arizona State Senate
1700 West Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85007-2890
Talking Points on the Rio Nuevo Tax Increment Financing District
(use these points in your letter as you see fit)
• TIF = Tax Increment Financing district – the public funding mechanism for downtown revitalization.
• TIF dollars come from the sales tax generated on purchases in Tucson. TIF was approved by the state legislature to allow the City of Tucson to use the tax revenue to revitalize our Downtown. It is similar to the TIF in Phoenix that paid for construction of the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.
• The TIF dollars must be used in Downtown on public projects. These projects include utility work, streetscapes (Scott Avenue, Congress Street), façade programs, infrastructure work such as prep for the modern streetcar and the Fourth Avenue underpass. The dollars are being spent to create an environment attractive to private investment.
• Everyone in the state will benefit if Tucson's Downtown is transformed into a vibrant area that generates tax dollars that can be used throughout the state.
• As a small business owner anywhere in Tucson, you are already invested in Downtown and it's success is important to economic development of the entire metro-area.
• Keeping the TIF district in place will create new businesses and boost existing business to increase chances for success for all. Taking away the TIF will severely impede the ability to revitalize our Downtown.
• The City is already investing TIF dollars to improve streetscapes and buildings to create an atmosphere conducive to attracting customers and more investments. Pulling the plug on TIF will harm what has already begun.
• Downtown needs the TIF money to bring the convention hotel and improvements to convention center to fruition.
• The Rio Nuevo District Board is led by Tucsonans Jeff DiGregorio (Royal Elizabeth Bed and Breakfast Inn) and Anne-Marie Russell (Museum of Contemporary Art) who are business people, themselves, and are actively engaged in moving Rio Nuevo forward with commitment to greater focus, greater independence from City politics and bureaucracy and greater transparency and accountability.
Please send your letters to the following state representatives:
Sen. Jim Waring
jwaring@azleg.gov
Sen. Ken Cheuvront
kcheuvront@azleg.gov
Sen. Ron Gould
rgould@azleg.gov
Sen. Barbara Leff
bleff@azleg.gov
Sen. Debbie McCune Davis
dmccunedavis@azleg.gov
Sen. Richard Miranda
rmiranda@azleg.gov
Sen. Russell Pearce
rpearce@azleg.gov
Sen. Steve Pierce
spierce@azleg.gov
Sen. Manuel Alvarez (So. AZ Delegate, District 25)
malvarez@azleg.gov
Sen. Paula Aboud (Southern AZ Delegate, District 28)
paboud@azleg.gov
Sen. Al Melvin (Southern AZ Delegate, District 26)
amelvin@azleg.gov
Sen. Linda Lopez (Southern AZ Delegate, District 29)
llopez@azleg.gov
Sen. Jorge Luis Garcia (So. AZ Delegate, District 27)
jgarcia@azleg.gov
Sen. Jonathan Paton (Southern AZ Delegate, District 30)
jpaton@azleg.gov
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