Thanks Florence!

Dear Readers,

Remember how San Tan Valley was thinking about incorporating? Well, I thought we were going to vote on the issue this November, but it turns out that we won't be.

The city of Florence said we couldn't even vote on the issue.

See, in order for an unicorporated community in Arizona to become a city, all municpalities within 6 miles of the proposed borders have to give their permission. And Florence, a city in Pinal County AZ within 6 miles of San Tan Valley's proposed southern border, did not give their permission. Florence said no chiefly because they would lose about a million bucks in state-shared revenue.

I just learned about state-shared revenue, too. From my understanding, the money from Arizona state taxes go into one big pot, and then the money gets redistributed to the cities and towns. Well, if San Tan Valley became a city, it would be entitled to a slice of the state-shared revenue pie, thus effectively taking pie away from all the other municipalities in Arizona.

Anyway, the bottom line is that the Florence city council voted no and San Tan Valley can't become a city anytime soon.

Hooray!

I'm happy about the news for the reasons I already wrote about at the other end of this link.

What's funny is that lots of letters to the editor were published about the subject, a lot of public debate went on, political groups were formed, websites for and against were set up, signatures were gathered, surveys were taken and polls were conducted, but the Florence city council, in one swift motion, put an end to all that hubbub.

Now, I should add that I'm not totally on board with the reason Florence voted no. Florence just wanted more money from the government. In effect, Florence residents are taking money from San Tan Valley residents. Maybe something should be done about that. Maybe some laws should be changed. I don't know.

The same type of redistribution of wealth happens on the national level as well as the state level and the local level. It even happens a little bit on the global level, through the United Nations and foriegn aid.

As long as this type of redistribution of wealth continues, there will be people fighting for a bigger cut of the tax funds. Randy Lockner, the Citizens for San Tan Valley Incorporation and the Florence city council, are just the latest examples of people fighting for a bigger slice of government pie.

Hmmm...

So I think I do wish that San Tan Valley residents could vote on the issue of incorporation- it seems unfair that Florence, which has a population of 10,000 can tell San Tan Valley, which has a population of 80,000, that it can't vote on becoming a city. But then I wish that San Tan Valley residents would vote no on incorporation. Does that make sense?

I bet the Citizens for San Tan Valley Incorporation's next plan is to hire a bunch of lawyers and lobbyists.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa