By Linda Goldenstein
(July 24, 2018)
Sedona has been my family’s home since the 1940’s and I love it like no other place in the world. I am proud to be a supporter of the arts and an advocate for philanthropy. These two passions are at the top of my list for voting YES for Sedona Home Rule.
By continuing to allow our city to manage and set its budget, we will continue to see our non-profits succeed with supportive funding from the city. Just some of the nonprofits that will continue to benefit are; Sedona Recycles, Verde Valley Caregivers, Sedona Humane Society and more. Without these services in our community, what do we have? A piece of a community without the passionate pursuit to help others leaves me with a sense of loss in our future in Sedona. I believe that’s neither who we are nor what we want. We are a passionate community of givers and supporters and by passing Sedona Home Rule we can continue these efforts.
This is truthful and logical information.
Sedona has always been about Home Rule – a community where we care for each other and treasure making decisions together in true Western fashion. We are facing new challenges now, but giving control of our budget to far-away Phoenix – where the law requires it be reduced by more than half – would trigger a self-destruction I never imagined we could impose on ourselves.
I have faith we see the value in keeping control of Sedona’s future here among us. Our community is changing, the scope of Arizona is changing, but that doesn’t mean we have to halt progress. As a business owner and resident, I’ve faced traffic and had employees feel the pressure of juggling their schedules to make it to work on time at those peak times of the year. By voting YES on Home Rule, I know traffic improvements and solutions are around the corner and we will all benefit from them. It’s progress in a way that keeps Sedona moving and provides our city with local control. The plans for Sedona in Motion are extensive, impressive, and long overdue. But, if Sedona Home Rule doesn’t pass, we will not see the progress in transportation. It will be chaos.
I believe we won’t force our own community to slash services to the needy, shutter parks, halt progress with transportation, or diminish the ranks of our police officers. I believe in our community and the ability to work together, even with differing opinions and focus on the future, the future of Sedona.
Please join me and vote YES on Home Rule.
19 Comments
Thank you Linda! How heartbreaking it would be to see budgets cut for our community buildings and services like the Humane Society, pool, and library.
I’ll be voting yes on Home Rule with you.
This whole real issue is very simple how is Sedona better off with half its budget taken away and the money put in the bank we’re at camp respect I just left the office today at the city finance director the city has almost 1 years worth of revenue in the bank the average for most cities is 15 to 20% this is just crazy people want to kill the chamber and they’re willing to kill the city to do it
There is no loss of money to the non profits, There is no such thing as a $24.3 million catastrophe unless the voters ignore the options.
I think the people in this town are smarter than to allow scare tactics and manipulation to decide their and the city’s future. Trusting the incumbents got us into this mess.
https://vimeo.com/281679213
The foundation of Liberty is our ability to rule ourselves. And it begins at home.
This argument reminds me of the streetlight debacle years ago. We, as a city, were on the cusp of taking ownership over 89 a and getting a very substantial package from ADOT to do so. Then, in stepped the people who masquerade as ‘against’ govenernment control, who, it turns out, are just unwilling to take responsibility for our own destiny.
Now, we have traffic problems we are helpless to resolve without ADOT dictating terms. In the future, we would have to conform to the states idea of what our own budget would be. A No vote is another surrender to helplessness and fear.
Please don’t listen to the nattering nabobs of negativity. Vote Yes on Home Rule!
Cynthia, the state does not set Permanent Base Adjustment, the people or the council does, and the voters OK that via the ballot box. Home Rule is unchecked spending, not state control. The state of Arizona has created a wonderful system that puts us in control of our own budgets and also allows the citizens to set controls on the leaders.
Wouldn’t it be nice to do that on a national level – called a Balanced Budget Amendment in the US Constitution.
I love your comment on the 89A issue. We had the deal done, signed and almost delivered until short sighted folks decided they did not want the responsibility. Owning that 108′ corridor with 89A in it would have been wonderful thing.
Please visit us for a Home Rule town hall, we would love to talk to you.
http://www.arizonaliberty.us/Home_Rule_Town_Hall.html
Mike
Mike how are you can explain the paid people you hired to get signatures, you made the statement they were all volunteers well in eight over til it’s over I can hardly wait till Wednesday’s newspaper
Steve, we paid NOBODY to collect signatures as our PAC report will show.
Yes Steve – we DO file our PAC reports on time.
Sorry to disappoint.Our biggest expense is going to be suing the City, the Council and key staff, plus the counties which we did last Friday at the Superior Court in Prescott.
The little Pickels orchestrated ploy is backfiring. Probably a tough conversation you are going to have with all your Hotel donors to your PAC. That stunt just infuriated over 600+ voters. Good idea? Keep up your brilliance.
Here is a reminder of who they are in case you forgot who pays your bills:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk_sAw_9shA&t=37s
Hotels First!
http://www.arizonaliberty.us
Linda,
You as well as all those who support “yes” on home rule mention all the cuts that would occur if “no” passes, but you never mention the $2.5 million given to the Chamber. Are you suggesting that if the no vote wins the City and Council will continue to fund this waste of money at the expense of the arts and meals on wheels? If you think the Council will do that, I hope you will join us voting out the incumbents.
Why The Sons of Liberty Fought the Revolutionary War?
Lets fast forward to the Civil War. A nation split between what was right and wrong for all people.
Then:
North and South.
The South is not rising again. They are still distancing themselves from their past. Austin, Big Tobacco. They are changing/discussing their names more than 150 years later.
Now:
Resident and Business.
The Chamber of Commerce has no right to rule over the land. They do not win.
The City gov’t is in place to rule for the people, not just people in business. They need to be replaced with new. They are all beholden to someone you don’t know.
VOTE NO to Home Rule and regain our Sedona so we may fix years of problems created by the recent past and present.
VOTE NO
What? Your post here makes no sense.
Linda,
We have been friends for years and I value that friendship. From your comments, I suspect you may not be familiar with an alternative to this issue. There is more than just a YES or NO vote on our City’s bugetary problem.
Voting No on Home Rule does not mean that the City would suddenly be restricted to a $24 million budget. We, as citizens of Sedona, have the ability to raise that base from $24 million to $36 million which was last year’s actual spending. If the Sedona voters do that, none of the funds to the non-profits would be cut.
We can do that by voting NO on Home Rule on August 28th then vote YES on the Permenent Base Adjustment in the November mid-term election. From that time on, the Pernenent Base of $24 million will disappear forever and our base would then be $36 million.
Right now, the City Council and Mayor are projecting the next budget to be $47 million from last year’s $36 million. Don’t you think it’s time to stop this runaway spending?
That is not correct we do not have a budgetary problem, our budget hasn’t moved in almost 13 years our budgetary problem is we’re not spending enough. We have the income we have the projects we have the people we don’t need somebody who lives in the village of Oak Creek telling us how much we should spend. There will be no vote in November on PBA, The whole petition for PBA is a scam probably illegal let’s see what paper has to say tomorrow .if the city Council and the people think we need a permanent base adj, then we should discuss it then vote on it in next year, and the amount should be well above what we spend. The way the PBA is being presented sedona would not be able to use new government state funding grants for projects as it would put us over the limit that doesn’t make any sense. So what if the city budget went from 36 to see 56 million, if the money came from the state /federal government or city savings and the money is spent on city projects, Sedona has been under spending for years, Sedona has adequate savings, now‘s the time to fix our roads, now is the time to vote yes on homr rule, don’t let Arizona liberty/Sedona tea party dictate the city budget we have a city Council for that
Steve, why should we listen to you, you live in the canyon, you are not a Sedona resident.
Hasn’t been a Sedona Tea Party since 2014. Facts aren’t you big suit are they.
We don’t have a budget problem, we have a spending problem. Time for you to promote your own business, the city will keep all the bed tax to clean up after the tourists AND make their visit more enjoyable.
The city is NOT your private tax collector.
http://www.arizonaliberty.us
Every Tuesday – come for Home Rule town hall.
I am hoping that voting no on Home Rule, will derail or at least, postpone the ridiculous SIM, Sedona in Motion, plan. If you look at the proposals, the most divisive is at the bottom of the list, but still being considered, to put in “connector” roads through quiet, West Sedona neighborhoods, many established in the 50’s, to lesson the “impact” on 89 A. These roads cut right through property, wild ravines, wildlife paths, trails & forest. Two are proposed in my neighborhood, one next to my bedroom window, across a large, wild area that isn’t flat, nor conducive to any kind of road, let alone one reaching from Table Top to a rocky road across the ravine. The second is only a few houses away & has about 4 homes between them. That will destroy this neighborhood. I wasn’t informed, nor were any of my neighbors. Not only does this destroy long term residents peace, health & rights to a lifestyle they bought into long ago, it will not relieve the traffic on 89 A, when 2 more hotels/developments are being approved, that exit & enter from 89 A. Also, the heaviest traffic is down at the roundabouts, or off from Airport Road & we are far from that area. Why should people be driven out of town, to put attempt to put a bandage on a problem the city created for decades? What rights do homeowners have to say no? None. In fact, connector roads create more exits to 89 A. How will increasing more entries onto the road, lessen traffic? Have people looked at the maps of connector roads? Many who are on the chopping block, had no idea they were the sacrificial lambs, & I wonder if more people, voting yes, still don’t know if they are part of this plan.
Many people out here bought big lots in a rural area, far away from uptown to avoid the traffic, never dreaming decades later, we’d be sold out by the city that many helped build & maintain. How can a handful of residents dent the insane traffic? What if tourists cut through using these smaller roads? It won’t be safe without street lights, hydrants & wild animals running through. We won’t be able to sell our homes if we wanted to get out of this nightmare & many of these people work & support the town on a daily basis & would have to uproot families. I hope that by voting no, this sloppy plan will be reevaluated for its flaws & lack of transparency. Would anyone voting Yes want to volunteer their yards for a road? None of the other proposals have such a personal, destructive impact on individuals who have called Sedona home for so long. It is unfair & an unlimited budget will just give the city & the people running on “traffic” reform, more power to ruin peoples’ lives, incomes & put the tourists before the residents.
Steve Segner says “our budget hasn’t moved in almost 13 years.” He doesn’t live in Sedona so it’s not surprising he’s speciously making such a claim and adding that “we are not spending enough.”
The City’s Actual Expenditures/Expenses have risen by 41% during the last ten years. That is, from $28 million in FY 2008 to $39.6 million in FY 2018.
The City had a budgeted negative cash flow of $9,989,641 last fiscal year (2018). Budgeted expenditures were $47,752,118 with Estimated Revenues of only $37,762,477.
The Sedona in Motion plan takes a short-run outlook and ignores the fact that the Sedona Community Development Dept. is working on three new hotel projects whose humongous extra traffic was not included in Transportation Master Plan calculations. I refer to the Marriott Residence Inn (88 units), the Village at Saddlerock Crossing (Oxford Hotel – 126 units + ?), and the Ambiente (40 units).
There’s no maintenance of strong reserves to ensure long-term financial stability. And there are unaddressed public safety issues.
By the way, according to the City Engineer, drive-throughs that do not stop in Sedona now account for 50% of the traffic.
About discussing a PBA: Councilor John Currivan advocated for the City to take the PBA route, but the other Council members didn’t want to go along.
I am voting NO on Home Rule.
Jean j said By the way, according to the City Engineer, drive-troughs that do not stop in Sedona now account for 50% of the traffic.
Yes, and it will be much more this is a state hwy bringing traffic from Flagstaff…and to and from the Grand canyon so lets get Flagstaff to stop there visitors from going back to Phoenix on 89a.!
The chamber has not advertised in Phoenix in two years and Phoenix in one of the fastest growing areas in America and you know they will find Sedona on weekends get ready vote yes on Sedona In Motion Home rule.
About discussing a PBA: Councilor John Currivan advocated for the City to take the PBA route, but the other Council members didn’tt want to go along. And thank God they did the city need to study PBA, and they will and the number will be much higher the the Arizona Liberty number you can count on that.
You said Theres no maintenance of strong reserves to ensure long-term financial stability. Sorry wrong send has higher reserves the 75% of all the city’s in Arizona…. If you like I will meet with you and Karen at the city and we can go over the numbers …… Sedona won two awards on finance last year….. Jean please move to sun city everyone is just like you … you will love it and you can go after there HOA…..
Steve, why do you want a higher number on PBA than the city has been spending average for the last 5 years. What is up your sleeve?
Sedona carries the 3rd highest debt in N Arizona behind Cottonwood and Prescott Valley. Why?
No end of travelers to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon have driven through Sedona instead of taking the I-17. Chalk this up to the 50% drive-through rate from Chamber of Commerce billboards advertising Sedona and “Visit Sedona” images on Sky Harbor Airport flat screen TVs.