McClellan: Is ‘Total Tea Party Takeover’ good for Gilbert?
Mike McClellan
Mike McClellan is a Gilbert resident and former English teacher at Dobson High School in Mesa.
Welcome to the discussion.
-
Current users sign in here.
34 comments:
Rules of Conduct
© Copyright 2013, East Valley Tribune, Tempe, AZ. [Terms of Use | Privacy Policy]
A Division of 10/13 Communications
JerryMcBee posted at 7:01 am on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Only one word comes to mind after read this and it is! “Hogwash” The clean version! I guess I should have added “What else would you expect from the East Valley Tribune” but then looking at the writer and where he comes from …then it becomes just another one of those sheep who blindly follows along behind the one in the front not knowing which cliff there about to fall over!
Arizona Willie posted at 7:37 am on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
It probably isn't good for Gilbert --- but it may be good for Arizona and the U.S.A. to let the Tea Party have a town to run into the ground and show what happens when the Tea Party gets control.
With the Tea Party's anti-tax -- anti-government mindset they would certainly fail at running the show.
It's easy when you stand on the outside criticizing.
republicaningilbert posted at 8:25 am on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Most agree that the town of Gilbert is doing better since conservatives took over the council. As far as the school board, "dissident thought is ignored, contrary opinion squashed, and lockstep behavior rewarded." That is the way the GPS board has been run for years. They don't ask questions. Teachers here know that they have nowhere to turn when retaliation is rampant because the board is in lockstep with administration and does not represent the people. If that kind of oppression is your idea of good governance MClelllan, you are part of the problem.
JerryMcBee posted at 8:36 am on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
You're right mike! Today the Gilbert council and tomorrow the Gilbert School Board! Who's what else the sky is the limit! Have a nice day Mike, I plan on it
. Jerry
Robin Goodfellow posted at 9:00 am on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Gilbert has been headed down this path since long before the Tea Party got its name. Biggs, especially, has a track record of thinking things through only far enough to make a straw man case for his favored few. (His fire district meddling cost both sides hundreds of thousands of dollars before they finally reached a conclusion that reasonable folks could have reached over pie and lemonade.) Like our original tea partiers, this Tea Party is founded in a rebellion against wrongs that really do need correcting, but their short sighted methods may well bring us all down before we get close to a solution.
KellyTownsend posted at 9:40 am on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
I am pleased to read this, as it is a reminder of how the tea party is incrementally taking hold of the offices it needs to in order to bring us back into fiscal responsibility. McClellan forgot to mention we had a balanced budget and the new argument is whether we should put our surplus in the rainy day fund or not. Now there's a good argument to have. It is this conservative mindset that got us there, and we can bring homeostasis to the school system and Town Council as well. It may sound scary to moderates and Democrats, but the conservatives are not looking to bankrupt the schools, just bring a good solid budget that eliminates wastes and maximizes the dollars that reach the classroom. I have a hard time finding a reason to complain about that. Keep it up, Gilbert. Fiscal sanity is on the way.
ChillyWilly posted at 10:16 am on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
It is actually fascinating to watch progressives discuss the issues of the day. You are right Mike.... the Tea Party is an amazing and powerful influence. You should get it right, however, who and what the Tea Party is. The Tea Party are your neighbors.... grassroots Moms and Dads and children whose goal is to restore government to its proper role. You mentioned a few things.... the reduction in funding charitable organizations. The proper role of government is to NOT get into the role of spending other people's money for the sake of their charities. Private money and plenty of it bolster these organizations as they should. You also misrepresent "funds" set aside to create jobs and attract businesses to the city. You also about cuts in bloated school budgets as if it were a bad thing. As a person who has worked with school boards and their budgets in the past.... the waste in these programs are mind boggling. A school district is not about the benefits and desires of the teacher's union.... it is about educating children. Recently it has been a breeding ground to develop young misguided activists... see TUSD. It is time the schools get back to educating and get out of political agendas.
Accuracy posted at 10:49 am on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Sunday East Valley Tribune cover story: “Is Tea Party losing influence?”
Now, Mike McClellan answers that Tea Party question with his question, “Is ‘Total Tea Party Takeover’ good for Gilbert?” Showing how the Tea Party is not losing its influence in Gilbert.
Last week, at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, Donald Trump said, "The Tea Party is a tremendously powerful group of people. They love this country, and they want to see this country succeed."
No one really knows the political impact the Tea Party is going to eventually have. But one thing is for sure: The Tea Party (on the Republican side) are energized to make sure President Obama doesn't have a second term.
chuckles3 posted at 10:50 am on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
"It probably isn't good for Gilbert --- but it may be good for Arizona and the U.S.A. to let the Tea Party have a town to run into the ground and show what happens when the Tea Party gets control."
Your are right there...just look what the Tea Party did to our greatest cities after decades of total control....Detroit, Wash DC, LA, ....oh, wait. That was the Liberal Democrats. My bad.
chatmandu002 posted at 12:02 pm on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Mike,
The liberal/progressive democrats call the Tea Party values of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market enterprise as radical and extremist, while advocating for bigger government, progressive socialism, redistributive taxes and social justice(except for rich white folks). So which is the radical extremist position?
truthcommonsense posted at 1:15 pm on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Mike,
What is a Tea Partier?[wink]
So.....that means Mr. McClellan you COMPLETLEY AGAINST wise spending, accountability and truth in spending within govenment....INCLUDING the School Board.....throw fiscal responsibilty, and integrity, out the window to bring in corruption, payoffs, waste, and fraud, and unaccountability so we deprive the teachers, the students and the taxpayer of excellence within the school system and town governments. That is swell Mr. McClellan.....I guess you'll be voting for the same school board members so you can keep the corruption, the unaccountability, and more, siphoning from our schools....Nice real nice. We get what we vote for.....LOOK at what we have....pathetic.
Mike McClellan posted at 1:22 pm on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Ms. Townsend -- soon, apparently, to be Rep. Townsend in the state legislature, TEA Partier extraordinaire, neglects to mention how that budget was balanced in part.
That'd be by the almost $1 billion in revenue the sales tax generated. A sales tax, by the way, that I'm guessing Ms. Townsend opposed. Just like, I'm guessing, she opposes extending the tax.
Without that $1 billion -- which most legislative Republicans opposed -- the state would be $200 million in the hole rather than with an $800 million surplus. So to suggest that "conservative principles" led to the budget surplus is disingenuous on the part of someone as informed as Ms. Townsend is.
And Ms. Townsend served on the citizens' budget committee for Gilbert --maybe she can suggest where the district can save $17 million each year if the override doesn't pass.
As to chillywilly claiming I misrepresent the slush fund the Gilbert Town Council has to provided corporate welfare for certain businesses annointed as "winners," having emailed by the Mayor and the Town Manager, I believe the fund is just what I identified it as. If chilly has some way to disprove it, show us.
As to chillywilly's claims about the Gilbert schools, again, where's the beef? Show us the bloat in GPS, show us how what the GPS schools teach lead to "student activists," show us how GPS is controlled by teachers' unions. In other words, chillywilly should get beyond the TEA Party talking points and give us some proof.
VofReason posted at 2:00 pm on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
That is the joke here, liberals use words like balance budgets and smaller Government as pejoratives. They are definitly OK with letting the big Government take care of "it", I mean they certainly cannot be trusted to be responsible for themselves. It may cost twice as much and be half as effective, but if someone else takes the responsibility and someone else is paying for it, they are in.
mrconservative posted at 2:24 pm on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
I'll tell you this much, Mike - another four years of Obama is not good for this country, nor is it good for the world.
samkat posted at 5:21 pm on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Lets examine this statement: Gilbert = Mormons = Tea Party. About the only person named that I do not believe is is Mormon is John Sentz. I have known him for years and he is a straight shooter.
Now, with that said, I don't think the tea party has any more common sense than the moveon.org folks. What we need are legislators willing to compromise to break the congressional logjam.
KellyTownsend posted at 5:39 pm on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Mr. McClelland. I think I may have struck a nerve, because you seem to be quite angry in your post. I know this is a touchy issue that ruffles a lot of feathers, particularly because we all have an investment in one way or another. However, I would like to approach this without venom and with plain and basic talk that will accomplish results, not burn bridges.
This 1c sales tax was sold to the tax payers as temporary. In good faith, those who voted for it did so with that in mind. As with any tax, once it is introduced, it creates a dependency and anyone opposing the extension is demonized as being against the people it supposedly benefitted. You are a good guesser that I do oppose extending it, because we need to live within our means, and spend what we have, without breaking our promises to the people we represent. It is conservative ideas that have kept the spending at bay and not put us in a place where we are borrowing $ in a time of surplus, as we had with Janet Napolitano. No one denies that revenue came in under the tax, however to extend it and break our promise only paves the way for further increases "in the name of the children," which the money wasn't appropriated that way for the most part anyway. Additionally, the conservative mindset also allowed for making the cuts where necessary so as not to have to extend the tax.
There is no apology for supporting the idea that we abide by the AZ Constitution and not create a deficit. I know that the people of this great community know that they have had to trim the excess in their budgets in order to make ends meet, and to go knocking on their neighbor's doors with hands extended asking for a temporary cash help, is something that brings embarrassment, at best. To then go to the neighbor and tell them they want the cash to keep coming, because we got used to the things we were buying with their help and don't want to let it go, and they should keep opening their wallets after all, is shameful. Why do it at the State level. Why keep spending when we don't have the money? Why would we keep throwing money down the drain on things we don't need when we can't pay the bills?
Arizona needs to reign in the spending, and that has happened under strong Republican leadership. History shows us what happened to our economy under Napolitano's tax and spend policies. Common sense budgeting is what's important.
And regarding the school district? I would like to see a full disclosure, itemized budget with exact expenditures for the community to scrutinize before I can even begin to talk about the school budget with you. A generalized summary of a budget is not going to cut it.
Mike McClellan posted at 6:39 pm on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Ms. Townsend, you are doing a fine job of revisionism. You might recall the trainwreck that not just Napolitano but the Republican legislature at the time conspired to create: cut taxes and increase spending. Taxes were cut during that time, but spending increased, a double-edged sword.
And as soon as the economy tanked, our sales-tax dependent state budget tanked as well. Shame on both the Gov. and the legislature.
"Once a tax is introduced it creates a dependency." That's an interesting proposition -- as our defense budget depends, surprise, on taxes. As do our highways and the rest of our infrastructure.
As to the sales tax, well, it's up to the people to determine if they want to continue to tax themselves -- direct democracy in action. How much closer to the people can you get than having the people decide that tax themselves? A vote will determine if we keep spending, as you say. If a majority of voters say so, then we will. Isn't that what the TEA Party wants, more power to the people?
As to reigning in spending, again, as you know, Arizona has cut the education budget considerably over the last 5 years, but prior to that, every study done by every group (maybe except the Goldwater Institute, but who really believes them?) shows that over the last 30 years, the education budget in our state has actually become smaller in real dollars. For example, in 1979, the K-12 budget made up 69% of the state budget; in 2009, it has shrunk to 57%.
Mike McClellan posted at 6:41 pm on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
But to add another correction, Ms. Townsend, I'm far from angry with your posts, and in fact find them fascinating examples of edging the truth in pursuit of an ideology.
KellyTownsend posted at 6:52 pm on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Correct me if I am wrong, but the legislature you refer to was pre-Tea Party? It is my firm understanding that any excess spending is in direct violation of tea party principles. Not interested in playing political tennis tonight with you. I stand firm in my vision to bring fiscal responsibility at all levels. Those who want to spend everything we have and then some, I cannot entertain a discussion. Doesn't sound like you are that person, however I am completely focused on working toward what is best for our State and the East Valley. At this point, fiscal responsibility is the way to go. Anything else is not a good use of my time.
chatmandu002 posted at 7:51 pm on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Cut til it hurts then cut some more. Make the government at all levels as small as possible. Let the people keep more of their money to spend as THEY wish.
truthcommonsense posted at 8:23 pm on Wed, Sep 5, 2012.
Kelly Townsend, you hit the nail on the head.....it is time to stop throwing money at education to expect a beneficial outcome when you have administrations and school boards that ignore ecomomics 101 and mismanage the funds to benefit everyone else but the teacher and the students.....the taxpayers have no clue where their money is going....the administsation makes sure of that!
And Mr. McClellan, you are the one edging the truth to promote your ideology...
k33j88 posted at 5:50 am on Thu, Sep 6, 2012.
Mike, you're a perfect example of why the "Tea Party" has become so popular. You and your ilk are fast-becoming an oddity and obsolete. A sleeping giant has awoken to the progressive(liberal) agenda and the destruction and waste left in its path. Fiscal responsibility, restoration of checks & balances, States rights, these are honorable goals and desires, something you liberals will never admit.
Mike McClellan posted at 9:15 am on Thu, Sep 6, 2012.
I'll believe your TEA Party boilerplate when I hear people like you demand an end to corporate welfare, either through subsidies, tax loopholes, or these new local and state slush funds designed to give cities and states the power to determine winners and losers in business.
When you demand that the Arizona Commerce Authority reveal who it's giving money to, how much money, why those particular businesses receive the money and what the specific tradeoff for that money is, then I'll start to believe that the TEA Party's sincere.
Ms. Townsend is going to the legislature in January. I'll be curious to see if she makes those demands or she just goes along with the prevailing TEA Party controlled legislature, which created this ACA.
Until we see people like you up in arms over corporate welfare, the TEA Party rhetoric is myopic.
Robin Goodfellow posted at 9:36 am on Thu, Sep 6, 2012.
This discussion has been really interesting. Mike's fear of "Tea Party Tyranny" is certainly justified. Tea Party members seem to have, in their minds, equated the concepts of "spending reduction" and "fiscal responsibility", a mistake that gives rise to a one-dimensional view of a multi-dimensional problem. Whether that vision is "laser focus" or "tunnel vision" is a matter of perspective. As with all such things, where you stand very much depends on where you sit.
On the other hand, the "non-Tea Party" folks, seem to be content to make minor tweaks to a major problem, metaphorically worried about whether the passengers sit in first class or coach as the train speeds over the cliff. That clearly won't do.
One thing we should be clear about, the Tea Party, in its present incarnation, is not a SOLUTION to fiscal irresponsibility but rather a REACTION to it. And that is a key distinction; they are very much reactive rather than proactive so their focus has so far been on what to cut now with litle consideration for the long term costs. In my view, that short term perspective casts a significant shadow over the tremendous long term good that they could do.
The best present and future outcomes will not be achieved by focusing on the financial questions alone. We can neither throw money at issues nor blindly slash funding and expect a positive result. If we are to leave our children a country worth living in, we need to define what services we need from government, what we are willing to pay for those services, and how we go about funding them.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 12:07 pm on Thu, Sep 6, 2012.
If you want to see why the state of Education in America is scraping the bottom of the barrel, World-wide....you don't have far to look to see the reason.
The teachers that I had in High School had mental acuity, learning not just degrees, just seeing how they comported themselves, how they groomed and dressed in a business-like attire and took command in a classroom earned your respect.
What do we have now, Ms. Jane Brodie's with tattooes, bare legs, no make-up (what ever happened to teachers looking feminine instead of masculine), buzzed, spiked, pony-tailed or 18" wide Afros or corn-rows, Skittles-colored hair dye-jobs and sandals that are little better than flip-flops.
The men aren't much better. Looking like surf-dudes or rappers. Those Ubangi earlobe cylinders, body piercings, tattooes galore, shirts with no colors or polo shirts (male teachers the reason they are called "polo shirts" is because polo players are the only ones supposed to wear them on the job). Go to any High School in the Valley of the Sun and try to pick out the teachers from the students = impossible.
Let's hope that like the Litchfield School Board that the Gilbert School Board institutes teacher dress standards and if it takes a "Tea Party" majority to bring sanity back to the teacher group...the we should all be for it.
As for the "Guest Commentor" reference to..."where dissident thought is ignored, contrary opinion squashed, and lock-step behavior rewarded".
The "Guest Commentor" seen the YouTube video of the House of Representative's passage of the Obama-Care Legislation ???....no debate, no amendments, disident thought completely ignored by Democrat Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, and .....LOCK-STEP VOTING BY EVERY DEMOCRAT REWARDED BY THE WHITE HOUSE.
VofReason posted at 12:53 pm on Thu, Sep 6, 2012.
"Gilbert ACT scores rise as record number of students take test ". This is a headline article in the Trib today. Now how does this reconcile with Mike McC
"apparently having no problem slicing the funding for education". Huh, just weird. Maybe spending more for Education doesn't mean better outcomes. Who could have seen that, maybe it is just a myth?
VofReason posted at 1:03 pm on Thu, Sep 6, 2012.
Mike McC's Corporate welfare, tax loopholes etc etc. If this refers to Companies being able to keep more of their profit, I won't exactly equate that to throwing more money at Education. Completely agree that all citizens and companies should have a very simple flat tax law. No loopholes (read politicians giving favors) for anyone. Make evryone have skin in the game. As we know, a large % of the population pays no taxes at all- right?
Arizona Willie posted at 3:21 pm on Thu, Sep 6, 2012.
VofReason == it is NOT true that 47% of the population pay NO taxes.
Google is your friend === USE IT.
chatmandu002 posted at 3:49 pm on Thu, Sep 6, 2012.
Willie,
Actually 46% did not pay any federal income tax.
Daddyburger posted at 6:49 pm on Thu, Sep 6, 2012.
Dear Mike:
I am aware that my point was made in a previous discussion on this site about education in Arizona (Gilbert included).
I would like to convince you that once Arizonans see improvement in student achievement they will be willing to pay more for those who are responsible for that improvement. In most cases that would be teachers. In the private sector that would be known as an increase in "productivity."
Until "productivity" improves in our school systems and kids start learning as evidenced through testing and actually being able to compete in our world economy, I don't see any sentiment for the taxpayers (tea partiers included) to increase funding for education.
A retired principal
k33j88 posted at 7:11 am on Fri, Sep 7, 2012.
Mike: Sheriff Arpiao has proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Birth certificate is a forgery: why shouldn't a recipient of financial aid have some "skin in the game";and you libs just love any anti-gun bill. Non-profits, by definition, are tax exempt. Why should they be given additional "preferential treatment? Crony capitalism? Tax advantages for businesses that offer livable wages is something that should be encouraged, not demonized. Your arguments, Mike, are full of holes. Clearly, socialists ideals have clouded your judgment. Dissent protects democracy, if the statist in power approve of such.
Mike McClellan posted at 8:35 am on Fri, Sep 7, 2012.
So, k33, who should decide what businesses get those breaks? The town of Gilbert has only so much money to divvy up, so how do they decide the winners and losers?
The oil companies provide "livable wages," and they get government subsidies even as they earn historically high profits. So why do they continue to get those subsidies?
As to your anti-gun nonsense, why don't you identify one anti-gun bill introduced by the Obama Administration? One.
Meanwhile, the Republican platform includes a plank that says the government should not be able to limit the size of clips or magazines for guns -- you okay with that?
Because if you are, you realize that you are tacitly supporting giving future Tucson and Aurora shooters even more firepower.
Bluepoet posted at 2:02 pm on Fri, Sep 7, 2012.
Wow, some pretty wild digressions, from the subject matter of Mike's oped! Next, we'll be talking about the price of ice, in Uganda...
I agree with Robin Goodfellow--the Tea Party is a Reactionary organization. Of course, that's obvious, because it is, for the most part, populated by Republicans who find other Republicans too Leftist--especially with regard to the fiscal side of politics.
The thing about the Tea Party, in Gilbert, however, is--how could we ever tell whether they are a shift in "vision" from the folks who preceded them? Even though it is now a full-fledged city, the government of Gilbert is still nothing more than a Chamber of Commerce, with HOAs as the "social" support system...
pd posted at 11:49 pm on Fri, Sep 7, 2012.
ChillyWilly states, "You also about cuts in bloated school budgets as if it were a bad thing. As a person who has worked with school boards and their budgets in the past.... the waste in these programs are mind boggling."
This TEA party mantra reminds me of the false accusations leveled at Republicans at the Democrat convention this week. There may have been waste 20 years ago, but consistent cuts in per-pupil spending have cut the lion's share of the waste, and now the only thing bloated in our schools is class sizes staffed by less teachers and teacher assistants making less money. It used to be that Democrats and Republicans alike supported the school system. Now, with TEA partiers controlling the party and spouting off these baseless claims that there are millions of dollars being wasted by the school districts (not true), our kids' educations are absolutely being negatively affected. Like I said, go look at the real numbers and you'll see that I'm right. I'm a non-union Republican school teacher who will be campaigning for Romney/Ryan, but I cannot support the anti-Public education agenda of the TEA partiers in this state. "Wise spending" my eye.