We celebrated the recent opening of the St. John’s Skate Park – the culmination of a $500,000 joint city-county-church partnership. Read more in AZ Daily Star: Skate park opens at St. John's school on Tucson's south side
City budget post-mortem: The city council passed its budget last week. JobPath received $186,000 (including the boost from the TREO monies we fought for last fall), bus fares were not increased, and Kidco funding held steady while an additional site at Manzo Elementary that we advocated for was approved. The city manager’s proposed cuts to all three program areas were blocked. However, until the city resolves the unfunded pension liabilities future budgets will be even tighter and more contentious.
In Phoenix, Medicaid Expansion passed in the Senate and is now being debated in the House. We have heard that the House Speaker is trying to trade perks for votes so contact your legislators and tell them to vote “yes” on Medicaid expansion now. Click http://www.azleg.gov. That way they’ll know we’re watching. Speaker Andy Tobin wants to put it on the ballot instead and invite millions of out-of-state anti-affordable-care-act dollars to help us decide. Let’s not let him do it!