Voters were not given a real chance to weigh-in on Pima County’s Prop 415 pork bond last year, but this year they can. Pima County has announced that it will begin accepting pro or con arguments for the 2015 bond election Publicity Pamphlet beginning May 18.
Arguments will be accepted through 5 p.m., June 5.
The Publicity Pamphlet will be mailed to county registered voter households in September prior to the start of early voting, as state law requires. It will contain each bond proposition as it will appear on the ballot and arguments for and against the propositions. The pamphlet will be published in English and Spanish.
Arguments must be submitted in writing either in person or by mail and can’t be longer than 300 words. The writer (or writers, if more than one author) must provide their full name, address and phone number and pay $100 per argument to offset the cost of printing and mailing. Only cash, check or money order made out to Pima County Elections Department will be accepted. Addresses and phone numbers are for county verification purposes only and will not be published in the pamphlet.
Arguments must be specific to a proposition and include the proposition number. General Arguments applying to all propositions will not be accepted unless the writer pays $700 to have the argument published with each proposition.
Supervisor Ally Miller was the only member of the Board to vote against the tax increasing measure.
The propositions, titles and their estimated cost are:
•Prop. 425 – Road and Highway Improvements: $200 million
•Prop. 426 – Economic Development, Libraries and Workforce Training: $91.4 million
•Prop.427 – Tourism Promotion: $98.6 million
•Prop. 428 – Parks and Recreation: $191.5 million
•Prop. 429 – Public Health, Welfare, Safety, Neighborhoods and Housing: $105.3 million
•Prop.430 – Natural Area Conservation and Historic Preservation: $112 million
•Prop. 431 – Flood Control and Drainage: $17 million
Last year, County officials were criticized when many letters of support including those from friends of Chuck Huckleberry, like Bob Gugino and County board members Ray Carroll, Ramon Valadez and Richard Elias made their way into the voter pamphlet, and opponents were left. Unlike County insider who were given a heads up about the opportunity to file an argument, Prop 415 opponents only access to small print public notices.
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