Vic Williams seeks a pay raise after hosing Pima County taxpayers

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Such hubris. The Arizona Guardian (subscription required) reports that Rep. Vic Williams wants to ditch his legislative job that pays only $24,000 year base salary for a Pima County Supervisor job that pays just under three times that amount. Rep. Vic Willims to run for county seat :

State Rep. Vic Williams said Thursday that he won’t be coming back to the Legislature next year because he’s running for an open seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors this fall.

Williams, a Republican from Tucson, says he’s has been exploring the idea for the past year and expects to make an official announcement within the next two weeks. His comments come days after southern Arizona businessman Mike Hellon announced his candidacy for the open seat.

“Everything I’ve been doing for the past year has been geared toward this,” Williams said. During that time he said he was putting together a campaign team, lining up donors and volunteers.

Really? This tool for our colonial overlords from the state of Maricopa has been sticking it to Pima County taxpayers for millions of dollars, and he expects us to reward him with a promotion and pay raise?

Vic Williams was one of the sponsors of a bill to rip off Pima County taxpayers for a wastewater treatment facility and to hand it over to the Town of Marana. Water is fighting words in the West, and most people would call this theft. Disputed treatment plant goes to Marana:

During a Monday midnight handoff, the town of Marana took control of the disputed Marana wastewater treatment plant and sewer system from Pima County.

The county protested the takeover, saying Marana hasn't paid for the plant, doesn't have the state and federal permits to operate it, and the state law that allowed the takeover is unconstitutional.

* * *

"We don't agree that Marana should be running the plant," said Jackson Jenkins, director of Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Management.

"We're going to obey the law; we're going to do it in protest; and we're going to follow the due recourse that we have," he added.

Taxpayers can expect more lawsuits to come.

Ann Day, the Supervisor whom he hopes to replace, didn't take too kindly to Vic Williams and our colonial overlords from the state of Maricopa shifting state expenses to the county and raiding other funds to "balance" the state budget by robbing Peter to pay Paul. Pima County taxpayers dig deep to pay for state cuts:

When the state slashes its budget, Pima County bleeds.

That's the message county supervisors gave to a couple of state lawmakers who crashed the supervisors budget hearing this week.

The county says $93 million of its operating budget is sent to the state to help balance Arizona's budget and a disproportionate amount falls close to home.

"We are at the bottom of the food chain," District 1 Republican supervisor Ann Day says. "That's the way counties were structured."

When the state passes its budget cuts on to the counties, she says, the buck stops here.

The real end of the line however, is the Pima County taxpayer.

* * *

Two state lawmakers, Rep. Vic Williams, a Republican from District 26, and Rep. Ted Vogt, a Republican from District 30, came to the meeting uninvited and unannounced.

Both filled out speaker requests and addressed the board about a proposed 11 cent property tax increase.

The county unloaded on the pair, accusing Arizona of balancing its budget on the backs of the counties, especially Pima County.

"That's an inflammatory statement," Williams told District 3 Supervisor Sharon Bronson. "And it's not true."

Vogt echoed that sentiment.

"The state has asked the counties to pitch in but it's not balancing the budget on the backs of our subdivisions," he told the board.

Pima County says it has cuts its budget by $136 million, lowered its property tax levy $18 million and cut 1,000 employees.

"It's doing its share," says District 5 supervisor Rich Elias.

"When you keep getting more and more bills and seven million dollars is in cash and the state won't tell you where they're using it, then it gives me the feeling we're getting hosed," he says.

"They're hosing the Pima County taxpayers is what they're doing," he says.

Vic Williams' hubris sets up a knock down drag out GOP primary for the District 1 Supervisor seat. Just last week Mike Hellon, the former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party and a onetime Republican national committeeman, jumped into the race for the District 1 Supervisor seat. The Skinny | Tucson Weekly:

Hellon isn't the only Republican candidate in the race for the District 1 seat, which includes the Catalina foothills and Oro Valley. Tea Party activist Ally Miller has been campaigning for the seat, as has mortgage broker Stuart McDaniel.

Hopefully a nasty GOP primary will clear the path for the only Democrat exploring running for the seat, Nancy Young Wright, who previously served constituents of District 1 in the Arizona House of Representatives and on the Amphi School Board. Wright will be the only reasonable choice for voters after this GOP primary.