Mesa Repub Bob Worsley + His Shameful Tax Schemes

SHAME ON YOU Bob Worsley!

Once again today, dear readers, your MesaZona blogger is finding it hard to live up to his last name - mellow I am not.
For months now a group of 'highly-influential friends' referred to here as THE FOG, with disclosed and undisclosed real estate ownerships, family connections and/or overlapping business interests [some of whom hold onto elected political offices here in Mesa and the Arizona State House] have been playing their hands for their questionable own personal financial gains on the table of schemes gone-bad.

Most recently the taxpayers of Mesa REJECTED one of their campaigns back in November 2016. . .  that one involving the mayor and the ASU mascot Sparky used in a privately-financed $500,000 Public Relations stunt that back fired in a major screw-up.... Here they go again!  
For months now there's been another Pie-In-The-Sky scheme thrown together, cooked-up coining the phrase COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT DISTRICT, the subject of more than a few posts on this blog site:
March 6 THE PRICE IS RIGHT > Click here
March 4 KEEPING YOU INFORMED: Anyone here in Mesa Howling ... Click here
Feb 19 BEWARE: When Giles, The FOG, and Worsley Use The Phrase . . . Click here

Filling in some more details today from a non-profit group of actively engaged citizens and journalists, here are some excerpts that you are encouraged to read



Will another city spend tax money ....

Arizona Coyotes are banking on it

By Christian Britschgi  /   March 13, 2017  /   News  /   No Comments

Source: WatchDog.org
Earlier this year, Mesa Republican Sen. Bob Wolsey [seen at far right with friends] introduced legislation that would allow for the creation of a new type of taxing entity known as a community engagement district, in which tax revenue could be diverted to pay for the construction and maintenance of sports facilities that could also benefit him and the FOG here in Mesa - conflict of interest claims were widely published in media, including a number of posts on this blog site.

Arizona Senate President Steven Yarbrough and House Speaker John Mesnard, both Chandler Republicans are mentioned in this featured article. 

Under the proposed legislative trickery plan , a host city could opt to set up a CED, in which up to half of eligible state sales tax revenue — which typically would go to the state general fund — could be diverted to pay for construction of a sports facility. The CED would also gain the power to independently add an additional 2 percent surcharge.
The plan failed to gain traction at the tail end of the 2016 legislative session, but has since attracted the enthusiastic sponsorship of  Worsley, who dubiously claims that it keeps the team in Arizona without using state tax money. Instead, he says, it would “create new revenue, new jobs and new tax dollars where today none of that exists.” Also saying said he crafted the bill to be “location agnostic.”

Sean McCarthy, senior research analyst for the Arizona Tax Research Association, described the bill as “the least transparent way to provide a public subsidy to a team.”
Contrary to supporters’ claims that the bill would not touch state funds, McCarthy argues that the diversion of sales tax revenue from the general fund is in effect no different than using the tax code as a means of appropriating funds.
A Senate fact sheet on the bill acknowledges that it would have a negative fiscal impact on the state general fund, both from the diversion of funds and from any migration of economic activity from “from fully taxable areas to the CED.”
McCarthy also criticized the claim that a CED would produce economic growth, telling Watchdog that most of the activity associated with stadiums could be classified as commercial retail and that “moving commercial retail around does little to stimulate your economy.  You do nothing to change disposable income in an area.”
This squares pretty closely with the economic literature on sports facility subsidies, which has repeatedly found that they produce little in the way of economic benefits either for cities or the taxpayer.
Aside from fiscal conservatives, opposition is also percolating among Senate Democrats, and Yarbrough has told the Arizona Republic that it does not yet have the votes to pass.