TAKE ACTION Express EMail Your Support for ArtSpace Mesa

If  you are available in-person this Thursday morning at 07:30 a.m.get up and go to First Street across from the Main Library to the Lower Council Chambers,
come and support
Mesa Artspace Lofts
HOME application!

Any time before that please take a moment to write an e-mail of support to YOUR Councilmember and the Mayor and City Manager



Just Do It!
 
Mayor John Giles - mayor@mesaaz.gov (ian.linssen@mesaaz.gov)

D1 - Councilmember Dave Richins - district1@mesaaz.gov (alicia.white@mesaaz.gov)
D2 - Councilmember Alex Finter - councilmember.finter@mesaaz.gov (randy.policar@mesaaz.gov)
D3 - Vice Mayor Dennis Kavanaugh - district3@mesaaz.gov (jared.archambault@mesaaz.gov)
D4 - Councilmember Chris Glover - councilmember.glover@mesaaz.gov (andrew.calhoun@mesaaz.gov)
D5 - Councilmember David Luna - councilmember.luna@mesaaz.gov (marrisa.ramirez-ramos@mesaaz.gov)
D6 - Councilmember Kevin Thompson - councilmember.thompson@mesaaz.gov (matthew.clark@mesaaz.gov)

Big Corporations Get A Big Slice-of-the Pie Here in Mesa ... is That The News?

Or is this?
Cities looking to spur economic growth should reconsider those tax breaks and subsidies intended to lure out-of-state corporations, and invest in local entrepreneurs instead, a new report suggests
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/corporate-subsidies-states-should-invest-entrepreneurs

State Job Creation Strategies Often Off Base,” a report by Michael Mazerov and Michael Leachman with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, indicates that only 1 to 4 percent of total job creation each year stems from relocated out-of-state firms. About 87 percent of private-sector jobs created between 1995 and 2013 stemmed from in-state businesses, created by startups, entrepreneurs or the expansion of employment at existing companies.

Cities are hotbeds of entrepreneurship, but they’re still offering millions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks to lure large corporations even when those corporations create relatively few positions, for example Apple's new global command center here with about maybe 90 jobs.
“Policymakers should reject major income tax cuts and new corporate relocation subsidies, and reconsider those already enacted,” argue the report’s authors. “Public investments that help build a skilled workforce and improve the quality of life for local residents are better bets ― successful entrepreneurs report these factors are key to where they founded their companies.” 
The report cites a 2014 study of 150 founders of some of the United States’ fastest-growing companies, which found that only 5 percent of entrepreneurs cited low tax rates as a factor in deciding where to locate.
The majority chose to start their businesses based on where they lived at the time. When asked why they lived where they did, founders cited quality of life factors like access to recreation or cultural institutions. Most founders had lived in their cities for at least two years before starting their companies.

ASU // As You Like It [Or NOT] ??

Sorry folks, but your MesaZona blogger has an admitted aversion to "factory education" just like a distinct disagreement with "factory farming".
Furthermore, after living in some of the big urban centers here in America, I like small - like the "one-square mile" here I chose to live in two years ago.
Sure, whoever was here before did let bad things happen but we now know more about smart growth rather than fast growth. Contrary to the motto for one city agency, Mesa is not endless - no city is. There are limits.
Let's give BenU & Wilkes University @ Mesa Center for Higher Education a chance - later, mebbe for ASU.

Jeff Speck: The walkable city

How do we solve the problem of the suburbs? Urbanist Jeff Speck shows how we can free ourselves from dependence on the car -- which he calls "a gas-belching, time-wasting, life-threatening prosthetic device" -- by making our cities more walkable and more pleasant for more people.

Ted Talks - Elizabeth Lev - The unheard story behind the Sistine Chapel|...

POTLUCK > Did Ya Know Still Illegal in Arizona?



In the great state of Arizona, where many people wonder if reasonable minds in the State Legislature have gone on vacation, throwing a potluck lunch or potluck dinner where everyone brings something to a buffet table at social clubs and church groups - can land you on the wrong side of the law.

That’s largely thanks to an unusual legal technicality -one that some Arizonans are calling “ridiculous.”
To celebrate the Full Moon Festival last month the Mesa Urban Garden invited everyone to a potluck in the late afternoon continuing with a celebration for the 4th year of the community garden on First Avenue. Was it illegal?

Or amazing that our elected state legislators can nitpick potluck, a common practice in social circles and at the same fight against  another kind of pot whose medical use was overwhelming supported by a voter initiative? In states where pot [more properly Cannabis ] has been legalized it has generated over $5.4 billion dollars in revenues and more jobs.
According to this report in Vice News/Munchies on 09 Feb 2016 by Alex Swerdloff Arizona’s anti-potluck law came to light when someone at the Apache Junction trailer park had enough of the potluck dinners that were thrown there on the regular. The unnamed potluck-hater discovered that, technically, you can’t legally throw a potluck in Arizona outside of a workplace.
Have no fear, dear readers, the elected representative from Mesa is following the big stink on this: According to Daily Miner, that’s when Representative Kelly Townsend, a Republican from Mesa, heard about the heat on potlucks. She says she initially thought it was “some kind of a joke."

But do not fear, friends: Arizona legislators are on it. This month, an Arizona House of Representatives panel took the first steps toward allowing community potlucks in non-work situations. (Arizona, by the way, still has some of the harshest laws against marijuana in the country.)

Townsend said she finds the potluck prohibitions “goofy.”

Cheers! We got A GEOO from The Governor > NOW Let's Hear A MEOO from the Mayor!

Gotta respect these two guys in Arizona - one started off cold in the ice cream business and the other made his mark in a personal-injury law office. Governor Doug Ducey beat the pants off ex-Mesa Mayor Scott Smith who lost that race for the governor's office, and John Giles was hand-picked to take Smith's seat here in City Hall. Both have now been in office for one year.
Could it be that the Mesa Mayor and the AZ Governor  have different leadership styles with John Giles choosing to run from behind when it comes to economic opportunities?

Time will tell - most likely they will work together focusing now on the goal of job creation in  "unusually uncertain", slow-growth national and global economic forecasts. Yesterday the governor's newsroom had an announcement:

ACA 2.0 To Amplify Arizona’s Job Creation Efforts

February 8, 2016

Governor’s Economic Opportunity Office To Boost Job Creators Large And Small, Expand Innovation, Help Arizonans Get To Work Easier And Faster

http://azgovernor.gov/governor/news/2016/02/aca-20-amplify-arizonas-job-creation-efforts

 

PHOENIX – A stronger focus on data and analytics when it comes to job creation, marketing and regulatory reform is at the heart of legislation introduced today in the Arizona House of Representatives to boost economic development.

Legislation sponsored by Representative Karen Fann will consolidate government offices by establishing the Governor’s Economic Opportunity Office (GEOO) – a one-stop economic development shop that will focus on:

• getting government out of the way of job creators
• provide a direct link between the business community and the workers and capital they need to be successful
• cut down on government overlap to make taxpayer dollars go farther
• create a more unified and effective approach to job attraction and marketing of Arizona.

Readers will note some of the same components in WhatWorksCities [underlined by this blogger for attention and reference]
There are more than a few posts on this blog about that and the struggle the nine-member Leadership Board appears to be having to create the open data portal more than six months after joining.

GEOO will serve as an analytics and strategy team under the Arizona Commerce Authority that will continually analyze:

• how Arizona stacks up against other states,
• identify ways to drive down regulatory and tax burdens, and
• provide real-time data so policy makers and government can move at the speed of business to bring new business to Arizona.

This will help ensure Arizona stays a step ahead of the competition in job attraction and creation.

Notice some other buzzwords in yesterday's press announcement: Ensuring government is open and accountable, and that taxpayer resources are properly spent . . . does the city of Mesa analyze return-on-investment ROI and publish the data and results and the sources?
Your blogger really likes the image to the right for Mesa - readers will note a radiating image generated in all directions.

Just like Mayor John Giles claimed to have created 8,700 jobs here last year, Arizona Republic  reporter Ronald J Hansen published an article  on 03 Feb 2016

Does Ducey deserve credit for jobs in 2015?
Readers are invited to use the underlined link and read what he wrote.