On September 16, the new Mesa Arts Center opened with a well-received concert by tenor Michael Crawford of Phantom of the Opera fame. The performance was almost universally praised, with patrons as far away as New York coming to Mesa for the gala event.

In spite of its popularity, the Arts Center has also been a source of some controversy. Some residents who lack a full picture of the City's finances, mistakenly believe the Center is somehow responsible for Mesa 's budget problems. The facts, however, are far different than many people's assumptions.

The city funds its operations from three primary sources: state-shared revenue, local sales tax, and profits from the City's utility operations. These are the largest revenue sources for the City's "General Fund", which pays for police, fire, parks, libraries, and the general operation of the city. Significantly, Mesa is the only major city in the Valley, and the largest in the country that does not have a local property tax, due to a 1945 Council decision to rely on utility revenues instead.

In 1998, voters approved a special half-cent 'Quality of Life' sales tax. The half-cent Quality of Life sales tax is divided in two portions. The first quarter-cent portion of the tax was used to build Brimhall Pool, fund two adaptive response fire units, transportation projects and construct the Mesa Arts Center. This quarter-cent portion of the tax is due to expire in 2006. No General Fund dollars were spent on the construction of the Mesa Arts Center.

One of the major benefits of the Quality of Life sales tax is that the Mesa Arts Center was paid off as it was being built, rather than use debt financing, as is customary with such large capital projects. When the projected cost of the Center exceeded expectations, Mesa residents raised $4.9 million in private money to fully equip this state-of-the-art performance and teaching facility.

The other quarter-cent portion of the tax funded the hiring of 120 additional police officers and 65 of firefighters. This quarter-cent will continue in perpetuity to fund the new police and fire personnel and maintenance and operations of the new facilities (including the Arts Center ) constructed with the expiring portion of the tax.

Other arts programs in Mesa , including the Arizona Museum for Youth, Mesa Southwest Museum , some functions at the Arts Center , and small grants to local arts programs like the Mesa Symphony, are funded by General Fund taxpayer dollars. Mesa is projected to spend $2.3 million General Fund dollars on the Arts Center each year, as well as $2.2 million and $1 million on the Mesa Southwest Museum and Arizona Museum for Youth respectively.

Along with other Councilmembers, I have advocated and voted for efficiency savings and reductions in these costs. However, even if we reduced the amount spent on these projects, the savings does not even come close to the amount that will be necessary to bridge a projected $42 million budget deficit in Fiscal Year 2007-2008. This deficit is due mostly to the increased debt service on the bonds that were issued previously to build roads and infrastructure for newer sections of our city.

Despite our budget constraints, the new Mesa Arts Center has the potential to be a significant economic engine for not only the downtown area, but the community as a whole. It is attracting a variety of notable performances, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Lord of the Dance , Michael Crawford of Phantom of the Opera , Bill Engvall of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour , Olivia Newton John, Liza Minelli and Trisha Yearwood in the first year alone.

While there is disagreement about whether voters' should have approved the Arts Center in 1998, we need to come together as a community to focus on reevaluating how to finance the operations of a city larger in population than Atlanta and Miami.