Gilbert Watch recently became aware of an irresponsible decision made by 3 members of the Higley School board. They voted 3-2 on September 10, 2013, to accept $750,000 in grant money from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to construct and operate a 24-hour publicly accessible Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) station. The board members who opposed this decision are Jake Hoffman and Kristina Reese.
What is wrong with these other three board members? Logic and data seem to have no place with the majority of the governing board. Why not build a solar power plant while you’re at it? Not only did Venessa Whitener, Kim Anderson, and Denise Standage refuse to pay a shred of attention to Board Member Hoffman’s pleas to table the agenda item for further research, but they also refused to consider several of his numbers-based arguments.
Would somebody give them a course in Marketing 101? Economics 101? Math? The Basics of Research? How about teaching them the Founding documents of this country and its free enterprise philosophy?
Thus, Higley Unified School District will spend your tax dollars trying to run a gas station, while attempting to semi-educate your kids. This tax-supported Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fueling station will compete directly with a privately-run CNG station less than five miles away, Clean n Green. Higley’s government-run station will cost the taxpayers far more than the measley $750k in grant money. Board member Hoffman estimates the cost to taxpayers at $2.3 million. One of the reasons that Higley wants the CNG station is to reduce air pollution created by busses. However, the District doesn’t own any CNG vehicles! The District would have to replace 62 busses and 53 fleet vehicles. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is yet another "environmentalists’ dream" fuel technology that has not succeeded in the market without taxpayer subsidies and tax credits.
According to Governing Board Member Jake Hoffman, “This is yet another example of government, more immediately this school district, attempting to outsmart the free market by arbitrarily choosing the winners and losers.”
This has FAIL written all over it.
Here is the chain of events that led to this fiasco, followed by an ACTION you can take to stop it:
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Gilbert Watch
Limited Government. Low Taxes. Free Markets. Personal Responsibility.