Playing politics costs Pinal County taxpayers

The first time I remember hearing the name of state Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson, was when he participated in a Senate hearing panel on immigration last May. That's also when I heard the Republican-controlled Legislature's one-hit wonder and theme song, "Round 'em up, send them back old Mexico way and Arizona's problems will all go away, yippee-i-o-ki-ay."

The hearing was another wasteful, self-serving legislative joy ride on the taxpayers' dime. I referred to it in my May 27 column, "The numbers don't match Arpaio's hype," as "the usual good-old-boy, back-slapping, fanny-kissing festival." The state is broke, people don't trust government and their elected officials hold a grandiose, made-for-TV press conference disguised as an official, fact-finding government hearing.

The next time I heard Melvin's name was when I saw that he and two fellow Republicans - Reps. Vic Williams and Frank Pratt - were trying to legislatively manipulate the number of members on the Pinal County Board of Supervisors. Currently there are three supervisors, and the tusked ones wanted five. Under existing state law, the number of supervisors each county has is based on population.

Recent growth in Pinal County will automatically increase the board to five for the 2012 election. Even though the natural process would have increased the cash-strapped county's governmental footprint and costs to taxpayers in three years, Melvin and his groupies pushed the legislation against the wishes of the current board, which was already struggling with a shrinking budget and cutbacks. In July, the governor signed the bill into law.

The Pinal County Office of Budget and Research estimated the cost to expand the board for two years would exceed $1 million.

The new law, which applied only to Pinal County, directed the current supervisors to divide the county into five districts using the current boundaries for the Central Arizona College governing board. That alignment would mean Casa Grande would now have three supervisors instead of one.

A group of concerned county residents challenged the law in court. On Oct. 28, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Edward Burke ruled the law isunconstitutional. When interviewed by Capitol Media Services, Melvin admitted the bill was designed to shift control of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors from Democrats to Republicans. Democrats currently hold a 2-1 majority. Melvin called Burke's ruling "a crying shame" and admitted the bill was about "political control of the county."

Burke ordered Pinal County taxpayers to pay the plaintiff's court costs. It could easily cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. The county is going to have to scrape up a pile of cash they don't have. Now that's "a crying shame."

Another "crying shame" is the June 5 Tribune headline, "Pinal supervisors OK axing 160 positions." The story described how 42 county employees would be laid off on June 12 due to falling revenues. How many of those jobs could've been saved with the taxpayer dollars that were wasted at the state and county levels on this law that was pure political maneuvering?

How many police officers, sheriff's deputies and state troopers could've been hired to fight the Mexican drug cartels that call Pinal County home with the tax dollars that were wasted during the Republicans' failed takeover of the county?

Where was the state's legislative leadership, which allowed this bill to progress when Arizona and Pinal County are both struggling to pay the light bill and make payroll? Why expand government and increase taxpayer costs? Why play politics with scarce tax dollars?

Once again we see how and why things are really done at the state Capitol. It's not about us, it's all about them, power and petty partisan politics. The Republican-controlled Legislature and how it acts in these desperate times is a huge "crying shame."

Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley and can be reached at bill.richardson@cox.net.