Tucson Speaks Out: December 13

Data centers' promises

Data centers. Bad all around. Water needs. Power needs. Air pollution. Noise pollution. Air temperature increasing. We don’t need the data centers in Pima County. JOBS are simply not a good enough reason to allow ANY project. Jobs means more housing, which means more water use, which means we are in trouble. Our beautiful area is being torn up in a never-ending cycle of exponential indifference by decision-makers. Water matters. Energy use matters. The desert matters. The environment matters. We don’t need corporate promises of a benign impact on the area. The area has been an almost automatic “yes” when it comes to development. Time for a change. Often money and jobs blind public officials, and these projects are worse than any other projects rubber-stamped by officials who supposedly represent us. Thinking the benefits of data centers will outweigh the harm to the environment is more than wishful thinking.

Peter Bisschop

East side

Stop regressive fee on vulnerable residents

The City of Tucson has proposed tripling the per-transaction regulatory fee for pawn shops and secondhand dealers from $1 to $3. This item, along with other fee adjustments, will be considered during the meeting at City Hall, 255 W. Alameda St. on December 16, 2025, at 5:30 p.m.

This fee applies to each reported transaction or item processed by pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers, distinct from the city's unchanged transaction privilege tax (approximately 8.7% combined rate in Tucson) — among the higher rates in the state.

For affected businesses, including pawn shops and thrift stores, the increase means an additional $2 per transaction. High-volume operations could face thousands in added annual costs, squeezing margins on low-value items and potentially raising prices.

This burdens resale enterprises that foster sustainability, recycling, and access to affordable goods for lower-income residents — effectively acting as a regressive tax on vulnerable community members and hardworking Tucsonans.

Your voice matters — attend and speak out.

JL Wittenbraker

Midtown

Irony

The picture of Bondi and Patel congratulating each other on the arrest of the man accused of planting bombs near the Capitol is the pinnacle of irony. Their statement that those who attack our institutions, legislative bodies and citizens will be held accountable is laughable in light of the pardons of 1,500 rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6th, injuring 100 officers and damaging parts of the building. One wonders if they see the irony in their own words. What will they say when the accused files a motion to dismiss his case under the very broad language of Trump’s pardon of those accused of acts in or near the Capitol that day?

Rick Unklesbay

Midtown

Trump 'inherited a mess' lie

Donald Trump’s favorite political lie is that he “inherited a mess” from Barack Obama. The facts demolish that claim. When Obama left office in 2017, the U.S. had added over 11 million jobs, unemployment was under 5%, GDP had been growing for years, the stock market was near record highs, and inflation was low. That is not a mess, it is a recovery. He simply took credit for an expansion already well underway.

Now the same rewrite is aimed at Joe Biden. Biden left office with inflation near 3%, about where it stands today. This was after Trump's disastrous Covid response, supply chain shock, and global inflation. Biden went about fixing the economy without blaming Trump.

Trump never inherits disasters; he inherits functioning systems and declares them “ruined” so he alone can claim to “fix” what was never broken. It is a con as old as politics itself. The tragedy is not that he tells it. The tragedy is that millions still believe it.

Lawrence E. Mazin

SaddleBrooke

Trump just doesn't get it

Trump just doesn't get it. First, he says affordability is a hoax. Then he tells us, once again, that we don't have to buy two dolls for our children. We're talking food, electricity, insurance premiums and healthcare. Only Trump can talk about toys! He destroyed the economy he inherited which economists called the best economy in 80 years. One can't help wondering if he is not seriously demented or simply the spoiled man-child who cannot imagine the life that most of us lead.

Barbara Benjamin

Foothills

GOP: Mystifying, hypocritical

Every day the Republican Party becomes more and more mystifying and hypocritical.

A Republican leader in the Arizona legislature wants to rename a well-traveled stretch of highway after the murdered Charlie Kirk in honor of his advocacy for free speech.

Simultaneously, Arizona's U.S. Senator, Mark Kelly, is receiving death threats following the hostile statements and actions of Trump and Hegseth all because they took offense to Kelly's truth telling words: Illegal and/or unlawful orders need not and should not be followed.

Honoring a person who they like for exercising their right to free speech while calling for the death of a person they don't like for exercising their right to free speech is the epitome of hypocrisy; a hypocrisy voters will surely see through.

Dave Gallagher

Foothills

Degrading the office to a new low

Catching up on the news yesterday I turned to Fox News for, as usual, their opposing opinion. A commercial came on, it was Donald Trump introducing himself as the President of the United States and then telling us about his watches for sale. I could not believe I was seeing the President selling his brand of watches on a national network. I thought it was a joke. I thought it was a spoof that the news people would discuss. But no, it was a real commercial by the President for his brand of watches. To degrade the office of the Presidency with this level of crass behavior and demean the office of the presidency for personal gain is beyond belief. It is truly disgusting.

Carl Foster

Green Valley

Safe to go out now

I want to thank the Trump/Miller/Noem attack dogs for making me feel safe to go out of my house again. I can go to Home Depot now that all the Venezuelan gang members looking for an honest day's work are rounded up. And I can go out for dinner now that all the Mexican gang members that were there washing dishes and cooking are deported. And finally I can take a nice weekend getaway to a resort here now that the fill-in- the-country's gang members that were cleaning the rooms and working on the grounds are gone. Making America great day by day.

Steven Gorenstein

Northeast side

'Defunding,' ICE missions

"Defund the police" doesn't mean giving authorities less money, in actuality it means putting the money where it would do the most good. People would get needed "support" which would mean many fewer calls for the police to answer. Nobody wants to "defund" the police.

The legality of many ICE missions is very much in question. Enforcement and removal operations have gone berserk. Trump stated he would get rid of the worst of the worst, and he hasn't. When you are perceived as bringing violence, rudeness, and abuse of power, people react. BTW Trump is giving many criminals a free pass with his executive orders. No doubt drugs are a problem, but the kinds of solutions DT/GOP are taking are nonsensical. Interdiction efforts shouldn't mean going after innocent people, one or two "illegals" making a living, or blowing people up without cause.

Peter Bisschop

East side

Musings

1. Would you put your investments in the hands of someone who had personally declared bankruptcy six times?

2. Are we willing to go to war with Venezuela so the Epstein files will disappear?

3. Trump owes Putin for his victory in the 2016 Presidential election. Therefore, is Ukraine the repayment for that obligation?

Paula Cooper

Tubac

In the pocket

Affordable means more money in one’s pocket. During the four years of the Biden Administration, money in the pocket was reduced by $3,000. In 10 months, $1,200 of that loss has been recovered. How is the Trump Administration attempting to increase those dollars? The existing tax cuts to all citizens remain although every Democrat voted against that in the Big, Beautiful Bill. No tax on tips and overtime and reduced taxes on Social Security for all who are retired. The lowest gasoline prices in 8 years and continuing to go down. Lower diesel prices which will lower delivery prices on every item we purchase. Vastly lower drug prices have been realized including the fat drug. CAFE regulations have just been rescinded resulting in lower costs for new automobiles. Lumber prices are down and interest rates are slowly coming down. What are the Democrats' plans for affordability? Nada. Would you prefer illusory Democratic promises that have been historically broken or experience the positive results of actual actions?

Loyal M. Johnson Jr.

Oro Valley

Low class

Irrespective of Donald Trump‘s grifting, his “unorthodox” accumulation of wealth, and his laminated gold veneer, he will never have any class. You cannot buy class, Mr. Trump.

Nancy Williams

Northwest side

Never in my lifetime

Things I never thought I would see in my lifetime:

A convicted felon and a bragging sexual molester elected as president.

The President of the United States posting himself flying a plane and defecating on his citizens. What would the Founding Fathers have thought of that?

A very rotund president (who will never make the cover of Sports Illustrated) calling a reporter piggy and calling another reporter, Margaret Brennan, stupid several times.

Calling people from Somalia and other dark-skinned people "Garbage."

A president who has total disregard for the Constitution, which he swore an oath to uphold.

Masked men arresting suspected illegal immigrants, legal immigrants and U.S. citizens.

Pardoning a convicted drug lord while at the same time blowing up suspected drug boats. We have the largest Navy in the world which could interdict these boats and verify, before we sent the evidence/people to the bottom of the ocean.

Fred DiNoto

Northwest side

A pirate for all nations

Trump's legions have seized a tanker off of Valenzuela and swear to keep its cargo of oil. So at last we have it, what Trump believes in his dark heart. A pirate, a swashbuckler who plunders and rapes and ravages. Unfortunately, Trump is not so much a Blackbeard but rather a Long John Silver, quite adept in the chow line but not so much at the negotiating table. In reality he isn't the dark swarthy picture of old but a pale blubbery buffoon who destroys all in his path and ridicules those who dare to defy him. In his mind a dashing hero on the bounty main, in reality a demented idiot without morals or truthfulness. Sorry Donald, you are a child playing in an adult's world and you simply do not measure up.

Philip Reinecker

East side