“Protect and serve” means more than just keeping the peace and enforcing the laws — for Phoenix police, it means ensuring their neighbors have plenty on their tables this Thanksgiving.
Phoenix Police Department’s Desert Horizon Precinct donated 865 turkeys for St. Mary’s Food Bank on Tuesday morning. They couldn’t do it alone: community members rallied around their local department’s cause, making the massive contribution possible.
The collaborative effort between community and police allowed St. Mary’s Food Bank to not only reach but exceed its goal of 10,000 turkey donations this year.
The generosity means that much more, as Thanksgiving prices remained higher than they were several years ago, and more families have turned to food banks for help amid rising inflation. St. Mary’s Food Bank has around 1,500 families coming through its Phoenix Neighborhood Food Center every weekday alone, more than during the height of the 2020 pandemic.
The Arizona Food Bank Network has reported its monthly service numbers amounting to over 600,000 individuals. In July, the state saw a record number of households turning to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits: over 460,000 families. HonorHealth Desert Mission Food Bank reported serving double the number of households daily.
According to the USDA, about 12 percent of Arizona households met the threshold for food insecurity, meaning they lacked consistent access to enough food. Food inflation rose 25 percent from 2019 to 2023 (according to the USDA), with grocery prices increasing well over one percent in the past year alone (according to the Consumer Price Index). That latter increase marked a five percent jump from 2022 to 2023.
Officers also assisted with loading the turkeys and food boxes at the food bank’s headquarters.
St. Mary’s Food Bank president and CEO, Milt Lou, said in a press release that the donation turnout was “exciting.” Lou envisioned the happy scene to be had on Thanksgiving Day, when the many families that came to them for help walked away with a full Thanksgiving spread.
“[We’re happy] to make sure that every family that comes to us today and tomorrow will receive a turkey along with all the fixings, fresh produce, and bread,” said Lou.
Phoenix Police interim chief Michael Sullivan said in that same press release that he hopes this effort serves to show the reliability and dedication of his officers.
“These donations tell me you can bet on the Phoenix PD to come through when you need us and bet on the City of Phoenix,” said Sullivan. “The beauty of Phoenix’s community — now that’s something to be thankful for.”
St. Mary’s Food Bank also collected donations to buy turkeys for this year’s distribution. A $20 donation assured the purchase of one turkey and a meal of pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and a produce bag including onions, carrots, and potatoes.
This year, St. Mary’s Food Bank expects to distribute around 23,000 turkeys across the Valley. That’s above its total of 21,000 turkeys distributed last year.
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Arizonans enacted a major incentive for local governments to address homelessness.
Voters approved Proposition 312, which requires local governments to compensate its property and business owners for damages caused by the homeless. Governor Katie Hobbs certified the proposition on Monday alongside all other election results.
Proposition 312 would secure compensations through a refund on property tax payments up to an amount matching costs incurred by local government’s “failure to enforce laws and ordinances prohibiting illegal camping, loitering, obstructing public thoroughfares, panhandling, public urination or defecation, public consumption of alcoholic beverages, and possession or use of illegal substances.”
Should the cost of damages exceed the property tax bill, the proposition gives the owner the right to apply for a refund from their next property tax payment(s) in perpetuity until that initial balance is paid.
“Property owners would be eligible annually for refunds until the taxing entity begins enforcing the relevant public nuisance laws,” stated the ballot summary.
Policy experts anticipate the Arizona proposition to inspire other cities to adopt a similar policy.
The Goldwater Institute, which crafted Proposition 312, said in a statement on Monday that the measure provided another tool in addressing the homeless crisis facing Phoenix and major cities in other states. Victor Riches, Goldwater Institute’s senior communications manager, said in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal that the proposition should serve as sufficient motivation for local elected officials to act with more urgency.
“Proposition 312 should be a wake-up call for elected officials forcing law-abiding businesses and residents to pay the price for a crisis they didn’t create,” said Riches. “The message to politicians couldn’t be clearer: Do your job. Enough is enough.”
Riches identified Phoenix and its infamous downtown area unofficially cordoned off for the homeless (“The Zone”) as a prime example of the “government malfeasance” that allowed the adverse effects of homelessness on properties and businesses in the area.
“Property values plummeted in the Zone. Small businesses suffered. People lost their livelihoods as dozens of business owners had no choice but to close up shop,” said Riches. “And even as the city spent over $180 million to address the crisis (only a fraction of which is publicly accounted for), the number of homeless people in Phoenix rose 92% between 2018 and 2023.”
Nearly 59 percent of voters (1.8 million votes) approved Proposition 312. The legislative vehicle for the proposition, HCR 2023, passed in both chambers with bipartisan support earlier this year.
Major leftist organizations said in their arguments against Proposition 312 that the cities and counties shouldn’t face financial punishment for the acts of the homeless, and reduced tax revenue would hinder funding for community assistance geared toward homelessness.
Among those to oppose Proposition 312 were Civic Engagement Beyond Voting, Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest, Opportunity Arizona, Fuerte Arts Movement, Living United for Change in Arizona, and the ACLU of Arizona.
The Common Sense Institute Arizona (CSI) found in a report released last month that the proposition would likely improve property values.
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Cochise County approved the election results, despite their hand count audit failing to count nearly 60 percent of the required number of ballots.
The Cochise County Board of Supervisors accepted and certified their canvass during a brief special meeting on Wednesday.
The county’s election director, Marisol Renteria, presented the canvass alongside Joe Casey. Casey said that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre gave election officials permission to certify the election despite the incorrect hand count total.
“On November 19, it was brought to our attention that there was an incorrect calculation done on the number of hand counts for early voters but at this time we had contacted the secretary of state and county attorney’s office and we’re in agreement that we are ready to certify the election,” said Casey.
Casey noted that the discrepancies found within their undercounted hand count audit were within the “acceptable margin of error.” Indeed, Fontes’ office has marked the status of the county’s hand count as “completed,” having discrepancies “within the acceptable margin.”
None of the supervisors questioned or challenged the audit undercount, contributing to the brevity of the meeting at just seven minutes long.
My Herald Review first reported on the county’s failure to audit all the required ballots.
Hand count audits ensure the accuracy of the machine ballot counting.
The report from the county’s election director, Marisol Renteria, showed that the county audited only 200 ballots rather than the nearly 500 required. State law requires auditing one percent of the total number of cast early ballots. Cochise County based their one percent off of the initial batch of early ballots tabulated on Election Day, rather than the total number of early ballots cast.
Casey noted that the county experienced other issues during the election as well. This included vote center wait times reaching well over two hours, a bomb threat on Election Day at vote center two, and a power outage on November 13 lasting about five hours.
“We did deal with some challenges, some abnormalities and some incidents throughout the last few weeks,” said Casey.
Supervisor Peggy Judd — who made the motion to accept the results — thanked the elections staff, and added that they weren’t at fault for the election issues, including the recently-discovered audit undercount.
“No one can be blamed, it was just something that was going to happen. It would have happened to anyone. I’m glad it wasn’t me,” said Judd.
Judd and fellow supervisor Tom Crosby faced indictments for felony-level election interference and conspiracy over their delaying certification of the 2022 election results. Judd and Crosby maintained concerns over election equipment malfunctions that occurred and desired a complete audit of in-person election day ballots.
Last month, Judd pleaded guilty to election interference and entered into a plea deal for a misdemeanor, avoiding the felony punishments: 90 days’ minimum unsupervised probation and a $500 fine.
Supervisor Ann English commended the elections staff for finding solutions to the problems presented during the election. English remarked that this time around, the county had “an efficient, effective election.”
This election, the county had 82,200 registered voters, with a 72 percent voter turnout (almost 60,000 voters).
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Thanksgiving dinner will cost less than it did last year, but it will still be harder on your wallet than before President Joe Biden took office.
Per the Farm Bureau’s annual analysis of Thanksgiving dinner staple costs, the price reduction of nearly five percent from last year is “moderate” and not near enough to undo the “dramatic increase” that occurred two years ago.
A Thanksgiving meal still costs 20 percent more than it did in 2019: about $58 for a feast for 10 this year. Last year, the same meal size cost about $61, and in 2022, it cost about $64.
This annual Thanksgiving dinner survey relies on shoppers across 50 states and Puerto Rico to survey their local grocery store’s prices for classic feast items: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, peas, cranberries, celery, carrots, pumpkin pie ingredients, whipping cream, and milk.
The “moderate” price reduction only occurred with some of these classic holiday foods — others rose in price. Costs were lower for turkey, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots and celery, pumpkin pie mix, pie crusts, and milk, but costs were higher for dinner rolls, cranberries, whipping cream, and stuffing.
The reason for prices of certain items going up while others have gone down has to do with the type of item. Increases occurred mainly in processed products due to nonfood inflation and labor shortages driving up costs for partners across the food supply chain. An exception occurred for fresh cranberries, but the 12 percent price increase is considered a stabilization of pricing after an 18 percent decline from 2022 to 2023. The Farm Bureau noted that, even with the price increase and adjusting for inflation, fresh cranberries have their lowest cost since 1987.
The average costs are as follows: $25.67 for a 16-pound turkey, $2.35 for 12 ounces of fresh cranberries, $2.93 for three pounds of sweet potatoes, 84 cents for half-pound of carrots and celery, $1.73 for 16 ounces of green peas, $3.40 for two nine-inch pie shells, $4.08 for 14 ounces of cube stuffing, $4.16 for one pack of dinner rolls, $4.15 for 30 ounces of pumpkin pie mix, $3.21 for one gallon of whole milk, and $1.81 for one-half pint of whipping cream.
The Farm Bureau also reported significant cost disparities based on region. Those in the Western states face at least 14 percent higher costs for a Thanksgiving dinner for 10, or $67. Comparatively, those in the Southern states have the lowest cost: $56 for a party of 10. The Northeastern states will have an average cost of $57, and the Midwestern states will have an average cost of nearly $59.
Those price disparities grow much more when adding less-traditional Thanksgiving favorites: ham, Russet potatoes, and green beans. Southerners, Northeasterners, and Midwesterners would only pay anywhere from $81 to $83 to add those favorites to their dinners. However, Westerners would have to pay over $93 for the same spread.
Farmers take the biggest brunt of inflation, experiencing lower and more volatile prices. The USDA projects that national net farm income will fall by $6.5 billion this year.
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The city of Phoenix will be in court on Wednesday over a lawsuit against its arrangement waiving $8 million in property taxes for a private real estate developer downtown.
The Arizona Court of Appeals will hear the case, Paulin v. City of Phoenix. The Goldwater Institute filed the lawsuit in May 2022.
Goldwater Institute Vice President for Litigation Jon Riches claimed the property tax exemption violated both the Arizona Constitution and court precedent prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars to benefit private interests.
“Arizona courts have been clear time and again: taxpayer dollars are to be put to public use, not to benefit private, special interests,” said Riches.
Phoenix waived the property taxes on a downtown high-rise development project by assuming the legal title from real estate developer Hubbard Street Group and leasing the property back to them. The city did so in order to capitalize on Arizona’s Government Property Lease Excise Tax (GPLET) abatement provisions. In so doing, the city of Phoenix ensured the Hubbard Street Group protection would be saved from having to pay millions in property taxes for the term of the lease — eight years. After that better part of the decade is up, the city will return the title back to the developer.
The Goldwater Institute maintains that this workaround adopted by the city amounts to, essentially, tax evasion: an abuse of GPLET and a loss of a revenue stream at a burden to other taxpayers.
As reported previously, the city of Phoenix assumed ownership after it declared the developer’s project, “Skye on 6th,” to be part of a slum or blighted area. As part of their arrangement with the city’s assumption of their legal title to the development, Hubbard Street Group agreed to pay over $500,000 in rent to the city, $30,000 to two school districts, and dedicate 10 percent of its residential units to workforce housing.
Skye on 6th is marketed as “the height of luxury.” The most affordable rooms (studios listed at 400 square feet) start at $1,500 a month. The most expensive rooms are on their penthouse floor, where rent starts at $4,500 a month and goes up to over $6,700 a month.
The project cost nearly $88 million to develop.
One of the represented taxpayers in the case, Bramley Paulin, successfully sued the city last year, Paulin v. Gallego, when he challenged the city’s restriction on temporary signage for the Super Bowl LVII. The Maricopa County Superior Court ruled the city’s resolution on signage was an unconstitutional restraint on free speech and delegation of government power.
Paulin and the other taxpayer in the case, Mat Englehorn, reside and own businesses in the Phoenix area.
The oral arguments are scheduled to occur on Wednesday at 9:30 am.
In 2020, the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled against a similar GPLET arrangement between the city of Phoenix and another high-rise developer.
In his ruling, Superior Court Judge Christopher Coury questioned whether GPLET could be relevant any longer given the tendency for abuse.
“This judicial officer questions whether the death knell for the GPLET’s usefulness has rung,” wrote Coury.
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