Millions of Wasted Dollars Hidden by Supervisors’ Creation of Special Taxing Districts

Part 1 of a 3-Part Series

One of the biggest secrets the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors do not want you to know is how they farm off parts of county government that chronically lose money into separate “special taxing districts” where financial losses are all but hidden from the public.

Instead of making these sinkhole areas of county government financially responsible, the Supervisors hide them where taxpayers don’t hear about their losses, allowing them to freely continue their irresponsible spending unaccountable to anyone.

Sure, the County Supervisors brag that they never directly raise your property taxes because they shift responsibility to the special districts to raise your property taxes. 

Take for example this little nugget that did not get much attention.  Recently, the Special Healthcare District in June voted to raise your property taxes.  Did you hear about it?  Did you know about it?  No because the county’s special taxing districts fly under the radar of the taxpayers and largely aren’t covered by the media.

Over the next three installments, we will examine some of these districts and the millions of taxpayer dollars that are going down the drain.

Maricopa County Special Healthcare District

The Maricopa County Special Healthcare District (MIHS) was created a few years ago by a ballot proposition and consists of a healthcare insurance plan and a couple of hospitals.  However, MIHS was largely created because it continues to lose huge amounts of money.  The debt was siphoned off into a different district where its losses would go undetected and would not count against the county budget.  Once separated, it could have its own property tax separate from the general county budget.  This property tax could increase as much as its board deemed necessary because it was no longer accountable to the county.

Let’s take a closer look at the continual losses that MIHS posts, particularly the specialty clinics:

• Dental services lost $538,000 last year.
• Oncology inpatient services lost $1.7 million in 2008, and oncology drug costs lost the district $2.2 million.
• Urgent care, which is not a mandated service, lost $2 million in 2008.

Simply eliminating dental, oncology, urgent care, the FHCs and Complete Care Comfort would have saved the district $8.3 million in 2008.

We also looked at the county medical center and how it handles itself.  An overview shows us that the Maricopa County Medical Center accepts any patients for treatment, even if they refuse to pay.  An easy cost-cutting measure could be implemented if the district made a decision to turn away patients that refused to pay – which accounts for about 26% of its patients – and send them to other area hospitals that are better able to accommodate for their needs.  Yet, the MIHS Directors haven’t made that decision, so Maricopa County taxpayers are stuck paying for their care.

Now, let’s take a look at the MIHS District’s budget for the current year.  This year the district’s budget is $27.8 million.  However, there is a large problem going unnoticed.  You see there is this thing called a balance sheet where income and expenses are measured.  On one side, the expense side, we know the number is $27.8 million but on the income side, it is only projected to be $20.8 million with no hope of making it up by the end of the year.  Just to hammer home the point, that is showing that the MIHS District will be spending $7 million more than they have.

Does it get any better?  No.  The 2009-2010 budget is estimated to have an overall $44 million operating loss.  The Maricopa County Medical Center is facing decreasing operating revenues and the amount of debt is expected to increase.  Despite the fact that the Maricopa County Health Plan is seeing increasing revenues, its expenses are increasing as fast as revenues.  I think we can safely predict what the result will be – expenses surpassing revenues and creating more debt.  As it stands, the district owes $17 million to the county in debt service reimbursements for loans the county made to the district previously.

The hope that the debt will be cured by federal money is also not a possibility.  The district currently receives federal Section 1011 money for treating illegal immigrants, but that is being cut in half, from $5.4 million this year down to 2.7 million next year so either number of those treated needs to decrease or once again expenses will exceed revenues.

In Their Own Words

We tracked down what some have said about the MIHS District and its financial standings but it has left us scratching our heads.  See for yourself…

• Last fall the Chairman of the Board, Gerald Cuendet, said that if things kept going the way they were, the property tax could be eliminated. What happened since then?

• The board voted in favor of a tax levy for itself last year.  One of the directors, Gail Hendrix, objected to tax levy on the basis that it was a double tax.  Gail noted that since people are already taxed by the federal government to provide free healthcare to those who do not pay, why should people be taxed again at the local level?  Unfortunately, the CEO of the district and a trustee for the Don Stapley defense fund, Betsey Bayless, convinced the other board members to outvote Hendrix and approve the highest amount possible for the tax levy, 7.8%.  By the way, it is important to note here Betsey Bayless is making $350,000 per year and has no medical or healthcare education at all as far as we know.

We are only scratching the surface here but considering how expensive it is running the MIHS district and that costs and taxes continue to increase, does it really make sense for the Maricopa County government to run a healthcare district?  Especially since The County Supervisors have made it clear they are not going to provide any oversight, the MIHS District will not provide oversight, and the fact that taxpayers already pay federal taxes to provide for federally mandated healthcare services to indigents.  Seems to us that it just doesn’t make fiscal sense to tax property owners again to duplicate what could be done more efficiently in the private sector.

Bertha Lewis, www.huffingtonpost.com, February 5, 2009

Friends, there are some things that cannot go unchallenged. They are affronts to human dignity and to what it means to live in America.

Yesterday one of those things happened in Maricopa County, Arizona, the mega-county that contains Phoenix. In a move that smacks of the treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay and that harks back to the days of the chain gang in the South, the Sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, is clustering 200 undocumented inmates of the County Jail in their own special tent city. The tent city is surrounded by an electric fence, further bringing home the treatment of human being as chattel. The Phoenix New Times has a compelling story detailing yesterdays outrage.

We cannot let this stand. We are circulating a petition that asks Congressman John Conyers, the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, to hold hearings into this latest outrage and the long history of abuse carried out by Sheriff Arpaio.

What makes this move especially troubling is the Sheriff’s determination to expand his tent city to accommodate up to 2500 prisoners, an indication of the scope of his determination to continue his devastating policies of racial profiling, retaliatory arrests aimed at silencing critics, and forced family separation.

These actions are an affront to anyone who cares about human rights and are the logical outcome of a police state mentality that sees the only solution to our immigration challenge coming at the end of a gun.

Therefore, we at ACORN, through our Arizona ACORN members, are taking a stand against this action and the on-going immigration enforcement policies of the Sheriff that have resulted not just in this indefensible move, but in widespread human rights abuses of American citizens and our immigrant cousins.

We are following the lead of community leaders like AZ ACORN Board Member Alicia Russell who said, “This march is an extremely callous and inhumane move, aimed directly at degrading undocumented immigrants. In claiming to justify this action as a way to improve ‘budget savings,’ Arpaio is degrading these immigrants, violating their civil rights, and overreaching his jurisdiction”, the entire Maricopa County town of Guadalupe, and Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability (MCSA) who recently staged a “Death of Democracy” funeral procession protesting the Sheriff’s actions.

We are answering the call of local leaders like Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon who has demanded a federal probe into Arpaio’s recent crime sweeps in Hispanic neighborhoods using tactics that are tantamount to racial-profiling and reflect poorly on all Arizonans, regardless of their ethnic heritage. We are answering the call of Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, who said, “We treat people equally in America. I think it’s wrong.”

Even the conservative Goldwater Institute calls Apraio’s policies “ineffective” in a report released in December. “[He] has diverted resources away from basic law-enforcement functions to highly publicized immigration sweeps, which are ineffective in policing illegal immigration and in reducing crime generally[.]”

Help us take a stand by asking Rep. Conyers to lead an investigation into these tactics. America needs to stand for justice under the law, not the law of “just us”.

 

Joe Arpaio Goes Medieval, While Barack Obama’s America is a Million Miles Away

Welcome to the 14th century…

We live in two Americas: Joe Arpaio’s medieval Maricopa County, where barbarism reigns, and our corrupt top cop parades hundreds of Hispanics through the streets in chains, like captives taken in some feudal conflict from faded memory. And then there’s Barack Obama’s America, one of enlightenment, and the rule of law, and education and justice. But for the time being at least, Obama’s America ends at the borders of Maricopa County.

Joe Arpaio is the King of Maricopa County. He can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. And today, our sadistic septuagenarian wanted an inhumane spectacle to make everyone ignore the fact that one of his chief underlings, Captain Joel Fox — the MCSO’s bagman — was being scrutinized over a $105,000 campaign contribution made to the Arizona Republican Party, which was used to smear Arpaio’s opponent Dan Saban in the 2008 campaign for sheriff.

 

Please note the word “UNSENTENCED”…

It’s not the first time Arpaio’s pulled something like this, of course. He did it in 2005, when 700 prisoners were moved from one jail to another in only their pink underwear and flip-flops. But this time, for all intents and purposes, Arpaio was segregating inmates according to race, moving over 200 “illegal aliens” to their own Tent City, ringed by an electric fence.

Almost all of the men running the press gantlet were Hispanic. They wore striped uniforms, were chained to each other, and in some cases carried their belongings with them in paper or plastic sacks. Their garb read “UNSENTENCED,” a reminder that 70% of those in Joe’s jails have not been convicted of anything, and are simply awaiting trial.

Many of the guards were Hispanic; not a bad move, when you’re pulling a stunt as prejudiced as this.

It was a sad parade, to say the least. Some of the men hid their faces from the cameras or looked away. But in my estimation, they have nothing to be ashamed of. Rather, it’s the MCSO personnel who participated in this obscene farce who should be ashamed. Unlike during Arpaio’s anti-immigrant sweep a couple of weeks back, no one wore ski-masks to this Joe Show.

Some of the inmates carried their belongings in paper sacks.

Joe’s aged gun-moll/PR wench Lisa Allen informed me before the prisoners were brought by that I would not be allowed into the new Tent City for the undocumented with the rest of the press. I told her she was breakin’ my heart, and asked if she had ovens in her concentration camp. She laughed it off. She did seem pretty proud of herself, as if she was the one who came up with this stunt du jour.

Next they’ll have ‘em “breaking rocks in the hot sun”…

After the prisoners filed into their new home, I tried to follow them, but was ordered away by a corrections officer specifically assigned to make sure I didn’t get in to ask Joe how he was going to pay for Joel Fox’s possible $315,000 fine for successfully skirting campaign finance laws. So I hopped a ride with Sal Reza and some other activists, who were nearby and headed to where a line of protesters led by former state Senator Alfredo Gutierrez was.

Straight out of Cool Hand Luke.

On our way out of what is clearly county land, we spotted one of Reza’s fellow activists with the group Puente being detained by MCSO for “trespassing.” His name is Orlando Arenas, and he was leaving the area when Joe’s goons stopped him and arrested him. Reminds me of ACLU legal director Dan Pochoda’s arrest at the Pruitt’s protests in 2007. In that case too, the MCSO arrested someone for “trespassing” as they were leaving. At least in that case, it was on private property.

Afterwards, the sheriffs’ deputies blocked the marchers from coming any closer to the Tent City for Hispanics, and we all walked several blocks over to Maricopa County’s Juvenile Courts building.

Assembled for a news conference there were lawyers Danny Ortega and Antonio Bustamante, the AZ ACLU’s Executive Director Alessandra Soler Meetz, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, and others. They denounced the day’s events, all while being menaced by about a dozen or more MCSO thugs nearby.

Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox (second from right), the ACLU’s Alessandra Soler Meetz, Danny Ortega (last on the left), and others blast Arpaio.

“Doing publicity stunts…like this stunt on the backs of immigrants,” stated Wilcox. “We will no longer tolerate that. We will be writing to the United States Justice Department. Things have changed in Washington. We will write a letter that will be answered, and we will put a stop to this.”

I wish I could feel as confidant about the new administration, but I am not. Especially since one of new DHS chief Janet Napolitano’s first official statements declared her intention to ramp up the 287(g) program. Wilcox also talked about how the BOS had ordered Arpaio to find 20% in budget cuts, and that the Supervisors were unanimous on this. I’ll buy the unanimous part when I see the Supervisors actually cut Arpaio’s budget themselves, without waiting for Arpaio to follow their directive.

As I was leaving, I waylaid Alfredo Gutierrez, whose new bilingual Web site La Frontera Times is a must read these days, and asked if he knew how Arpaio could top himself after this latest circus act.

“Public floggings,” he quipped. “Every time he does one of  these things, it increases the level of audaciousness…I used to think, `Well, now, he’s gone too far, and the public’s gonna have some revulsion to this.’ But I don’t believe that any more. I think he’s got kind of a zeitgeist of hate out there. This Romanesque show is going to resonate.”

We talked about how we both thought Arpaio would love to provoke a fight with the Obama administration. And I mentioned that I was pretty cynical that help was on its way from the feds.

“I can’t allow myself to get cynical,” he told me. “Then there really is no hope. I’ve got to believe that [the Obama administration] is going to take this on, this level of violation.”

The answer is, it doesn’t…

I hope he’s right, of course. But unless this situation gets the attention it deserves from the national media, I fear Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder will simply leave it to Napolitano to handle, since she has the leash on Arpaio’s 287(g) authority. And we all know that Napolitano has made doing nothing into a career.     

[Source: Michael Clancy, Arizona Republic] — Work to dismantle downtown Phoenix’s laser begins today, with hardly a soul to lament its demise.  When the steel spider of a structure was built in 1986, it was billed as Phoenix’s answer to the Eiffel Tower.  It operated for less than a year before its lasers were turned off for good.  Now, the laser and Patriots Square, where it was situated, are being torn down to make room for CityScape, a huge, mixed-use project stretching from First Avenue to Second Street between Washington and Jefferson streets.  Dismantling the structure will take three weeks.  “I am not shedding any tears over it,” said Attorney General Terry Goddard, who was mayor at the time the laser was installed.  “The concept was noble, but frankly, it never worked.”

The laser was the brainchild of architect Ted Alexander, and it captured the imagination of at least some people at the beginning, in the mid-’80s.  Patriots Square was being rebuilt to include underground parking, and a contract for design of the park went to Alexander.  In an early story in the Phoenix Gazette, Alexander said the laser would give the city “a town square that is unequaled anywhere in the country.”  [Note: To read the full article, click here.]