In May the AZDI reported that prior to her removal from the new Rio Nuevo District Board, Jodi Bain had started asking questions about why City sales tax revenues were up, but mysteriously Rio Nuevo TIF revenue is down. For that, she was vilified by City Councilman Steve Kozachik and ridiculed by other City operatives.
Bain, Rick Grinnell, and Alberto Moore had inquired about speculation that the tax forms submitted to the State may be missing the TIF code which would designate tax for Rio Nuevo because City staff no longer educates businesses to properly file the forms for Rio Nuevo. The City has always been responsible for educating and tracking the businesses in the District to ensure truthfulness and accuracy of these forms.
The new Rio Nuevo Board discussed asking the City to look into the matter and stated it was too early to point a finger without more information. The Board also discussed starting an intern program to work on this issue. Koz was seemingly outraged by the Board’s intended line of inquiry.
Kozachik ranted in his weekly newsletter in May, “if they understood the statute by which their own existence is formed, they’d know that if TIF falls below their ability to pay debt service, the City has to pay the excess. Why would the City shave money off from the collections if we’d have to pay it in the end anyway?”
Kozachik conveniently ignored the fact that if the District is shut down oversight would vaporize. and short falls in debt service ultimately would fall to the state.
State Senate President Steve Pierce at the request of Fred Boice, Jim Click and other powers-that-be quickly moved to remove Bain and Grinnell from the Board. Fletcher McCusker, and Christopher Sheafe replaced the two watchdog members.
McCusker, a seasoned and reasoned businessman took the Bain inquiry seriously. Very seriously. On the advice of members of the Board and the public, McCusker set about finding those missing millions of revenues. Despite the fact that the City is not fully cooperating in good faith the District, the District and State have identified approximately $2.2 million in revenues.
The City would only provide a list of over 1000 business names in the District. They claim they do not have the businesses’ addresses.
As a result, Rio Nuevo can now pay their bills and then some. Alberto Moore hopes that the District can now begin to work with entrepreneurs on developing job creating, revenue generating enterprises in the Rio Nuevo District.
The District stumbled coming out of the gate by proposing to purchase an option on the Manning House. However that move was intended more to force a legal decision by the Legislature and prod private purchasers.
“I see this as a systems issue, no education program in place, no preprinted forms, no mailing list,” said McCusker. “ The District has separated itself from the COT, we can’t use them as an excuse any more. It’s our money, we will go get it, hold the state accountable and touch every merchant.”
MCCusker and Moore say they are committed to the completion of the audits in an effort to discover what and how the City of Tucson blew through $230 million dollars with nothing to show for it.