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COMMUNITY ........ 14 Mesa teacher uses costumes to bring history alive.
OPINION ................ 20 Columnist says white males getting a bum rap.
EAST VALLEY
Mesa shop still fixes these PAGE 18 Sunday, October 7, 2018
Mesa voters get final say on massive bond, tax proposals BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributor
W
hen Mesa voters begin early voting on Wednesday, Oct. 10, a lot more will be at stake than their next elected representatives or, in two city districts, their City Council member. They are being asked to open their wallets for an array of bond proposals, tax increases and budget questions affecting the city and Mesa Public Schools. The bond questions alone amount to almost half a billion dollars – $300 million for the schools and $196 million in two separate questions for the city. In addition, the city wants to increase its local sales taxes to help pay for police and fire operations, and to hike
the hotel room-rate tax to promote sports tourism. The school system and city, which have separate governance, didn’t collaborate on the timing of their proposals. Each believes its requests are justified. But the combined size of the bond requests, and the sheer number of money-related ballot questions, has created an undercurrent of concern that voters could balk. The last day to register to vote is Tuesday, Nov. 9, and early voting begins the following day. That concern surfaced in April when the Mesa City Council was talking about a long list of potentially costly bond proposals. “We are going to exhaust our voters’ willingness to pay for some of these things,” Mayor
John Giles said before the council pared back some of the requests. “We can’t do everything.” Helen Hollands, spokeswoman for Mesa Public Schools, said that to her knowledge, the district is undefeated when asking voters to approve bonds for the massive district, whose 10,000 employees care for 64,000 students attending 82 schools. Voters approved the district’s last bond request, for $230 million, in 2012, and they have consistently agreed with district requests for budget overrides to allow additional spending. But Hollands said district officials do worry about “voter fatigue” and are relying on citizens to understand why the district needs See
BONDS on page 4
Church doubles size of Mesa temple area redevelopment BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
SPORTS ..................... 22 2 Mesa teams struggling for playoff spot.
FOOD ......................... 26 Parmesan gives chicken an Italian accent.
COMMUNITY........... 14 BUSINESS ...................18 OPINION ................... 20 SPORTS ....................... 22 CLASSIFIEDS ............. 24
A
n air of resignation seemed to settle over the Mesa Historic Preservation Board last Tuesday as members realized they were powerless to protect the Temple Historic District as they heard that a redevelopment plan for the area will nearly double. Carl Duke, vice president of City Creek Reserve, told the board that the first seven historic ranch homes planned for demolition last spring will be razed later this month on Udall street, west of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Mesa Arizona Temple. City Creek, the real estate division of the church, also plans to level six additional homes on Udall to create room for an 8.2-acre redevelopment plan – which was expanded from an original 4.5 acres – to add single family townhouses and garden homes to the mixture See
TEMPLE on page 9
(Pablo Robles/Tribune Staff Photographer)
The gardens have been stripped from the grounds of the Mesa Arizona Temple in advance of a massive interior and exterior renovation of the iconic city landmark. Concurrently, the development arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is undertaking a huge redevelopment project in the immediate vicinity.