By Albert Vetere Lannon
The Yes on Pima Bonds campaign filed its post-election finance report with the county on November 25, just as people began being deluged with requests for holiday giving to non-profit organizations. Among the donors putting $369,240.75 into the unsuccessful Yes campaign are a number of organizations and their representatives who regularly send out requests for donations to their causes.
Voters, who turned down all seven bond measures decisively November 3, might be interested in where their donations to these organizations are going. Non-profit organizations which solicit money from the public and donated to the Yes campaign include:
- Western National Parks Association…………….$2,000
- Arizona Aerospace Foundation/Museum………$5,000
- Tucson Museum of Art…………………………………$5,000
- University of AZ Campus Research Corp……….$10,000
- Reid Park Zoological Society………………………..$5,000
- Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection……….$1,000
- Tucson Symphony Orchestra……………………….$5,000
- Tucson Children’s Museum………………………….$5,000
- Old Tucson………………………………………………….$2,000
- Arizona Land & Water Trust…………………………$1,000
- Arizona Theater Company……………………………$4,200
- Nature Conservancy……………………………………..$10,000
- Friends of the Sonoran Desert………………………$10,000
Curiously, the Friends of the Sonoran Desert received $9,700 back from the Yes campaign on November 2, one of several transactions that have not yet been fully explained.
Another was a $15,000 contribution from Tucson Regional Opportunities Inc., renamed Sun Corridor Inc. Many of TREO’s members were large campaign donors, and the business-political group receives Pima County money for “economic development.” KVOA News investigator Matthew Schwartz questioned whether taxpayer funds had been used to support the Yes campaign and brought a storm of protest from TREO members. Exactly what money that was and where it came from, however, has still not been explained.
TREO members who were also large Yes campaign donors include:
- Banner Health;
- Cox Communications;
- CopperPoint Insurance;
- Diamond Ventures;
- Sundt Construction;
- University of Arizona;
- Tucson Medical Center;
- Tucson Assn. of Realtors;
- Jim Click Automotive;
- Tucson Electric Power;
- HSL Properties
- Southwest Gas; and
- Hecker PLLC.
Larry Hecker chaired the Yes campaign as well as the County Bond Advisory Committee, and is TREO’s lawyer. Many of TREO’s donors stood to receive millions in bond funds. TREO head Joe Snell’s reported salary is $313,000 yearly, a bit less than the taxpayer dollars given to County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry.
It should also be noted that the Yes campaign reports no donations of $25 or less, while Taxpayers Against Pima Bonds filings show one-third of their $10,000 in contributions were from those small donors. The No campaign had only one “large” donation of $2,000, from the campaign manager’s daughter, congressional candidate Ruth McClung, while the Yes campaign received most of its money in large donations from wealthy corporations and business organizations.
And for a campaign proclaiming the need for the bonds to spur economic development, the Yes campaign’s expenditures went as far afield as Phoenix, Baltimore, Maryland, and Oakland, California. To be fair, the local Gloo Factory produced about $20,000 in Yes tee shirts, and David Steele’s Strategic Issues Management Group received the bulk of the one-third-million-dollar-plus budget.
Albert Vetere Lannon is a member of the Avra Valley Coalition