Pinal Partnership September Government Relations Committee Meeting Recap: Mesa Bond, 2020 Census, Small Business Grants, Board Liaison Updates

The Pinal Partnership Government Relations Committee, led by Co-Chairs Rebecca Timmer with Wilson & Co and Ben Bitter with the Town of Florence, hosted their monthly meeting on September 22, 2020. Guests included Mike Hutchinson with East Valley Partnership and Mesa Mayor John Giles, who gave a presentation on the City of Mesa’s upcoming vote on a bond to support continued growth in the city and surrounding regions (including many areas that directly impact Pinal County). We also heard updates about the 2020 Census and various business and community support efforts related to COVID-19.

Mesa voters will decide on November 3, 2020, if the City of Mesa will issue $100M of General Obligation Bonds to fund transportation projects throughout the city. Additionally, the city will receive $62 million from the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) under Prop 400. The bonds issued will impact the typical homeowner between $25 to $28 per year for the life of the bond, based on the average Mesa home value.

Mike Hutchinson gave opening remarks in support of the Mesa Moves Bond, Yes on Question 1 – Connecting Mesa’s Neighborhoods, and then introduced Mesa Mayor John Giles for a presentation outlining details of the bond. If approved, the bond will cover 10 major transportation improvements, several of which border Pinal County and are near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, where the city is continuing to see explosive growth. These projects are impactful to this region of the State. Click here to learn more about the bond and click here to see the full presentation.

Janeen Rohovit with SRP provided a Pinal Partnership Board of Directors update as she serves as this Committee’s Board Liaison. At the Board’s last quarterly meeting in September, they discussed Southwest Gas’ franchise agreement with the City of Maricopa as well as ongoing issues with Johnson Utilities and what’s before the Arizona Corporation Commission, as discussed at our monthly breakfast meeting. Click here to see the agenda before the ACC today.

Ben shared updates regarding the 2020 Census. There are a couple of lawsuits going on regarding extending the deadline from September 30 and allowing a separate count that includes those living in the US and another excluding residency status. The next two weeks will be crucial to census efforts. The US is at a 95.5% response rate including door-to-door while Arizona is at 92.8%. There are still over half a million people in Arizona that have yet to be counted so we continue to urge you to engage your friends/family, colleagues, and networks to participate in the Census and share information. To get more facts, response rates, and information go to www.2020census.com where you can drill down to local or tract levels.

Ben led a discussion of updates regarding community small business grants. Communities have been able to pay police and various other departments and now with extra funds they are able to support local businesses even more than originally planned. Heather Wilkey, Intergovernmental Relations Manager, Town of Queen Creek shared that in regards to the Community Business Grants Program the Town had 68 applications and awarded $285,000 (average amount requested $4,250).  The Town would love to have more businesses apply.  Here’s a video link on the process: Queen Creek Small Business Grant Program!  While the deadline has passed, the Town still continuing to award as the Council set aside $500,000 for this program.

Erika Coombs with Stifel shared a recap of the Arizona school districts having bond elections based on data the firm has collected. Total estimated bonds in 2020 come to $686,665,000 between 10 districts (6 Maricopa County, 2 Pinal County, 1 Pima County and 1 Yavapai County). The average bond sale amount is $68.6 million. The two in Pinal County are Toltec ESD #22 at $8 million and Florence USD #1 at $75 million. For comparison, there were 21 school districts in 2019 that asked for $1,626,451,000 (largest ask and largest approval $1,283,376,000). The average bond sale amount was $77.45 million. Three of them were in Pinal County: Apache Junction USD #43 at $60 million (failed), Coolidge USD #21 at $21 million (passed) and Maricopa USD #20 at $68 million (failed).

Liza Noland with Local First Arizona shared that Pinal County upped their support for businesses in unincorporated areas to $30k per business. The Town of Superior donated $100k for small businesses while BHP donated money for small business and school support. More information on the work the organization is doing can be found here.

Richard Rosales with APS shared their organization still has Community Support funds available that act as a credit to utility bills, up to $1,000. More information on that can be found here.

Mitch Basefsky with CAP informed us that Pinal County Supervisor Steve Miller was just appointed to the CAP Board for Pinal County for a six-year unpaid term. He was the only person running, so the election was cancelled, ultimately saving the Board hundreds of thousands of dollars in election costs.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27, 2020 via Zoom, where we will be hearing updates and discussing the Pinal County RTA as well as various election items. Committee meetings are open to all members of Pinal Partnership. Please contact Melissa Johnson if you would like information to join the committee and/or as a member of the Partnership.