SUN LAKES REPUBLICAN CLUB
MINUTES
When: Oct 11, 2023 6:30PM-8:30PM
Where: Sun Lakes Country Club Navajo Room
Who: Approx. 100 guests
AGENDA
- Chairman Mike Tennant welcomed the guests.
- Linda Gorman led us in the Invocation.
- Chairman Mike Tennant led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
- Mike reminded everyone to check the Maricopa County Elections website to make sure they are
registered to vote. Just enter BeBallotReady.vote in your search engine and it will take you to the page where you can check your voting status. Or click here: https://recorder.maricopa.gov/elections/beballotready/ - Mike also announced the upcoming keynote speakers . For November it will be Cathi Herrod from the Center for Arizona Policy. She will discuss the deceptive petition that is being circulated about abortion and other issues around the same subject. For December we have our annual Christmas Gala. For January the keynote speaker will be Sheriff Mark Lamb who is running for Senate.
- Jean Milberger announced the 11/11/11 Veterans Day Celebration to be held at the SLCC flag pole. It will be on November 11 at 11 AM—that is what the “11/11/11” means.
- Seats for the SLRC Christmas Gala were available for sale at the meeting. They can also be purchased by US mail. Any questions? Email PK (the Secretary) and ask. Her email address is danceswithbunnies@q.com
- Les Mingus said a few words about the war taking place in Israel.
- Kurt Rohrs spoke about the Chandler School District.
-There are 3 seats open which will be voted on in 2024. He had petitions to sign for 3 conservatives who are running, and circulated them among the group.
-He also mentioned that he finally got an answer as to how much reserve cash there is in the district. He got the information by contacting the government over and over again. He said the number is in the neighborhood of 87 million dollars. The district is going to ask for a bond issue on the next ballot. He says they need to be held accountable by forcing them to do a line by line explanation for all things they claim they need to purchase. This is rarely done and it is why there is so much unaccounted for money in districts. Once they make a line by line projection they need to be held accountable to that projection. He didn’t say who can do this or how it is done.
-He commented that he is pushing for “career development” in the district, ie to make kids aware of and prepared for careers that do not necessarily require a college degree. Practical careers that they can walk into directly after graduating from high
school in most cases.
-He also mentioned that, compared to schools nationwide, AZ is right about in the middle when it comes to Reading and Math proficiency. There was a Q&A session after his talk.See attached PDF from Kurt Rohrs entitled “CUSD financial Notes”
explaining sources of District Funds and the difference between Capital Funds and Operating Funds. - Our keynote speaker was Aimee Yentes and Greg Blackie from AZ Free Enterprise. Their talk was entitled “Freedom to Move’. They brought up the following points:
-The government from the global level on down to the local level is pushing a “green” agenda. They want to cut back on privately owned vehicles and homes and instead create “15 Minute Cities”. This was first implemented in Paris and the Parisians are not happy with the outcome.
-The ways they push people into the process is to : charge people for the use of roads, raise gas prices, create more parking restrictions, raise the cost of cars, and restrict movement between “neighborhood zones”. These steps push the drivers into walking, biking or using public transport.
-“Vision Zero” is a program touting that they would be “making the streets safer by cutting back on cars”, by making streets less wide and adding bike lanes. However facts and statistics show that these changes actually made the streets more dangerous!
-California is trying to tie “miles driven” to extra charges or taxes. This would be another way to disincentivize people from driving their cars. They shared that Prop 400 was advertised that it would expand freeways. However, the money was used mostly for “green” projects. They said we need to VOTE NO on props like this. They said that the 70B transportation plan, that was set for renewal in 20 years, was supposed to build freeways but only one new freeway was built. The rest of the money went to
the “public transportation fund” and was spent on other things. They are vilifying freeways as being “barriers”, whereas in reality the freeways actually create connections, and are what ties people together by making their travel faster and easier.
-They said that one way to see cars is to see them as what give us autonomy, privacy, safety and liberty of movement. They are a practical way to assist someone in their job choice as well. They say the right for a person to own a car and to use it how that person wants should be protected at the ballot box. - The 50/50 raffle was $40.
Sun Lakes Republican Club
October 17, 2023
CUSD Financial Notes
- Major Sources of District Funds
a. Property Taxes – more than half of your property taxes go to fund CUSD Base Funding and Override Funding (Operations) and Bond Payments (Capital Projects)
b. State Income Taxes – more than half of the State’s budget goes to support public school funding with payments sent from the State to the Districts through the County Treasurer’s office.
c. Bond Sale Proceeds – sold to investors in the public Bond Market
d. Federal Grants – directed through the State Treasurer’s office and then through the County Treasurer’s office.
e. Additional Local Revenues — Student Activity Fees, Food Service Income, Community Program Fees (aWer school programs), GiWs and Donations. - Capital Funds vs. Operating Funds
a. Capital Funds are used for construction and equipment (including technology purchases). They are funded through Bond Offerings and through the State Facilities Board (SFB) which allocates available state funds to Districts for Construction Projects.
b. Maintenance and Operations (M&O) funds are used to pay daily operating expenses. About 85% goes to Teacher and Staff salaries. Another 10% goes to Purchased Services, which mostly of which goes to contractors not directly employed by the District
(Substitute Teachers, Special Education Professionals, Repair and Maintenance Contractors, and other outside Support Contractors).
c. There are rather specific restrictions regarding how funds can be spent once they have been allocated to the District for a specific purpose.
d. Simple way to remember:
i. “Bonds = Buildings”
ii. “Override = Operations”
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