THE VOICE OF THE EAST VALLEY SINCE 1891 AND WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR LOCAL REPORTING
THE SUNDAY
Politics merge for Chandler mother and son
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Chandler/Tempe Edition
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This Week
NEWS ............................. 6 Muralist works with local teacher to address teen grief
COMMUNITY.......... 12 Kiosk at clinic helps patients get medications quickly
EAST VALLEY
Citizens of the Year named by Mesa PAGE 11
Sunday, January 7, 2018
Tempe tax breaks for 2 developments under scrutiny BY WAYNE SCHUTSKY Tribune Staff Writer
T
he Arizona Attorney General is investigating the city of Tempe in connection with a Tucson area state legislator’s claims that it improperly used the Government Property Lease Excise Tax to benefit two developments. Republican state Rep. Vince Leach requested that Attorney General Mark Brnovich investigate GPLET benefits the city gave Graduate Hotel, 225 E. Apache Blvd., and the Bank of the West building, 1625 W. Fountainhead Pkwy., claiming they were not entitled to the tax breaks. GPLET is a development tax incentive established by the state in 1996. It allows devel-
(Tribune file photo)
Graduate Tempe, a hotel on Apache Boulevard, is one of two developments in Tempe being investigated by the Arizona Attorney General's Office.
opers to temporarily hand over ownership of a property to a local municipality in order to
temporarily replace a structure’s property tax burden with an excise tax. Tempe said the tax incentive for Graduate would turn a once-blighted property into a community asset and that the one for Bank of the West would help it create by June 500 jobs paying an average $75,000 annual salary. GPLET also allows the city to award an eight-year abatement of that excise tax. Under statute, Leach and all state legislators have the authority to request an investigation by the Attorney General if they believe a local government has issued an ordinance, regulation or order that conflicts with state law. The Attorney General is required to complete the investigation within 30 days of the See
TAX BREAKS on page 6
ASU honey bee lab works to save the vital insects SPORTS ...................... 18 Talented sophomore leads Basha girls soccer to new heights
EVENT ......................... 21
Wild Horse Pass hosts Indian ‘Storytelling & Song’
COMMUNITY.......... 11 BUSINESS.....................14 OPINION.................... 16 SPORTS........................ 18 FAITH........................... 20 CLASSIFIEDS............. 22
BY WAYNE SCHUTSKY Tribune Staff Writer
T
ucked away in a dirt lot at the southern edge of Arizona State University’s Polytechnic Campus in Mesa, the Honey Bee Research Lab is home to wideranging studies into the winged insects that play a vital role in pollinating the country’s food supply. The facility – which can house around 1 million bees in peak season in the spring – gives ASU faculty and graduate students space to conduct research on many beerelated topics, including genetics, breeding, behavior and physiology. One recent study at the facility tracked the effects of different sugars, including highfructose corn syrup, on honey bee health, said Osman Kaftanoglu, Honey Bee Research Lab project manager. Kaftanoglu, postdoctoral researcher Chelsea Cook and research technologist Cahit Ozturk presented the findings at Apimondia World Beekeeping Congress in Turkey in September with the talk “Effects of Glucose, Fructose and High Fructose Corn Syrup on the Development, Memory and Learning Behavior of Honey Bees.”
They plan on publishing the findings in the future. Other topics of research include bee vaccines. Gro Amdam, a professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences, is developing the world’s first vaccines to protect honey bees from deadly diseases. Much of the research in the facility revolves around searching for ways to sustain and grow honey bee populations, which have waned in developed countries in recent years due, in part, to heavy pesticide use and the effects of global climate change, Kaftanoglu said. He added that there were 5.5 million to 6 million honey bee colonies in the U.S. in the 1950s, but now the number of colonies is less than 2.6 million, a decline of roughly 50 percent. Honey bees, often viewed as pests in Arizona, are actually vitally important to the See
BEES on page 4
(Wayne Schutsky/Tribune Staff)
Osman Kaftanoglu readies to wrangle some bees at the Honey Bee Research Lab at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic Campus in Mesa.