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COMMUNITY ........ 12 Mesa troop produces record number of Eagle Scouts
BUSINESS . ................ 15 Chandler company's bats a hit with MLB
SPORTS ......................19 Red Mountain High alum is All-SEC volleyball pick
EAST VALLEY
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Mesa vet's life restored by archeology PAGE 12 Sunday, May 20, 2018
East Valley cities deep into annual budget tussle BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributor
E
ast Valley, say hello to the folks at city hall. They are the ones who pave your streets, send police and firefighters when you are in danger, bring clean water to your home, haul off your garbage and, with one flush, make your sewage disappear. They build the parks where you and your kids can play, supply transit services, dispense the knowledge of the world at no charge via modern libraries, weave arts and culture into the fabric of our communities and, in a couple of cases, even give you a front-row seat to Major League Baseball. None of this happens, of course, without dollars – millions and millions of dollars. And now is the time when city councils must weigh the available dollars against the public’s insatiable demand for services, on the one
hand, and its natural desire to reduce taxes on the other.
Mesa expects downturn
As this budget season rolls toward final adoption of municipal spending plans in June, there is a general air of optimism fueled by one of the longest economic recoveries in American history, tempered by still-fresh cautionary memories of the Great Recession. Mesa, in fact, is planning for a downturn; Candace Cannistraro, Mesa’s management and budget director, told the City Council in March there may be trouble ahead. “At this point we are adding an economic correction to the forecast,” Cannistraro said. “We have not had an economic correction in quite some time … we feel relatively confident that the next five years we will experience some type of a correction.” “Correction” is the term economists use to describe a slowdown in an overheated econ-
omy, sometimes severe enough to be called a recession. That could create a double whammy for city budgets: First, local tax collections slow during the actual downturn. Then, two years later, the slowdown is reflected in lower payments from state-shared revenue because state revenue-sharing operates on a two-year time lag.
Chandler: Slow growth
Chandler doesn’t share Mesa’s worry about a future economic setback. But Dawn Lang, Chandler’s management services director, said recent robust increases in the city’s income are likely to be replaced by more modest growth over the next five years. During that span, Chandler is projecting 2 percent annual increases in operating-fund revenue. See
BUDGET on page 4
Districts warn teachers: Haunted by her loss Mind your tees and Q’s BY PAUL MARYNIAK Tribune Executive Editor
T EATING........................ 21 Mesa restaurant livens up Chinese cuisine
COMMUNITY.................12 BUSINESS........................15 OPINION......................... 17 SPORTS............................19 CLASSIFIED.................... 25
he petition drive for a ballot question on a proposed tax surcharge on high-income Arizonans to raise more money for public education has created a potential tempest with a Tshirt for teachers and East Valley school districts. District superintendents or their lawyers have warned teachers and other staff that wearing the signature red shirts to class could violate state law and cost them as much as $5,000 in civil penalties – at least if there is any message on them, including #RedforEd. Some districts, including Kyrene and Chandler Unified, specifically warned teachers that opponents of their six-day walkout might try to turn them in for violating Arizona statute 15-511, which prohibits the “use of school district or charter school resources or employees to influence elections.” Besides that, it also strictly forbids district employees from wearing any buttons or other items advocating for any political initiative or candidate while on school grounds as well as trying to influence See
SHIRTS on page 6
(Kimberly Carrillo/ Tribune taff Photographer)
Personal tragedy drives Jessica Curtis to give swim lessons to tots at Swim Kids USA in Mesa and run a support group for parents whose toddlers have drowned in unattended pool incidents. To find out why, see Page 3.