Tucson Speaks Out: February 25

Voter rights shouldn’t have a price tag

While Representative Juan Ciscomani remains silent on the plan to send a drydocked hospital ship to Greenland, a nation with universal healthcare, his recent vote for the SAVE America Act creates a more immediate crisis for Tucsonans.

The Act requires a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Yet a passport costs $130 and birth certificates aren't free either. By requiring documents that cost money without providing them at no cost, this law effectively becomes a 21st-century poll tax.

As a member of the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Ciscomani should be focused on the "power of the purse" to help Americans instead of funding phantom medical missions abroad. If the government requires a $130 document to exercise a constitutional right, that document must be free. Otherwise, we aren't "saving" the vote; we're putting a price tag on it. Our Representative should show some independence and demand fiscal and constitutional sanity.

Holly Hilton

East side

Rethinking the RTA

The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) in Pima County is a pseudo-governmental agency created in 2004 by Arizona legislation as a special taxing district, activated by voter approval in 2006 to fund transportation amid rapid growth after prior local efforts failed.

Its statutory design undermines accountability: It binds new taxpayers to 20-year plans and a half-cent sales tax decided by past voters, with little mid-term recourse without another referendum.

The governing board — nine members with equal votes from Pima County, Tucson, South Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Tohono O’odham Nation, and the Arizona Transportation Board — gives tiny South Tucson (one square mile) the same power as much larger Tucson, often skewing priorities.

It’s time to rethink the RTA. Shorten plans to 10 years or less for regular voter input. Replace the elected-official board with merit-based industry professionals subject to annual reviews, performance milestones, and transparent ROI metrics. This would deliver expertise-driven, equitable results for all residents.

Douglas Jones

East side

Coolidge racial slurs, etc.

Dear Editor,

We also experienced similar behavior (racial slurs, cussing and poor sportsmanship — to say the least) from the Coolidge High School student body, when PVHS (Tucson) varsity volleyball team played Coolidge in September 2025. I spoke with the Athletic Director and the Assistant Principal, who were both in attendance. Both of them seemed dismissive to the disgusting behavior their students were displaying.

I informed our AD at PVHS who filed a complaint with the AIA.

Without consequences, children will continue to behave badly. It’s a shame the administration continues to turn a blind eye to the ongoing situation at their institution. Not surprised that nothing has changed.

Sincerely,

Elia Graciela Manjarre

PVHS Former Varsity Volleyball Coach

East side 

The winter of our discontent

Humiliation and being perceived as a failure are Trump’s worst enemies. What he fears most is personal damage from his long, toxic friendship with convicted child sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. The filthy, raw essence of the Epstein stink, like dirty fingernails at a black-tie dinner party, is sinking the president, costing him his legacy. Americans are living through the “Epstein Administration Coverup.” Trump’s and his buddy Epstein’s parallel-world relationship lasted for many years in New York and Florida. That’s why Trump, Donald J., is mentioned 38,000 times in the heavily redacted FBI’s Epstein investigation files, more times than Jesus is mentioned in the Bible.

There is no bottom to Trump’s dictatorial hysteria, his industrialization of hate, his childish pettiness, his brittle temper, and his malicious personal conduct. The man and his “Imperial Presidency” have no moorings in reality. Trump’s psychological, emotional, and cognitive decline worsens by the day. There will be a reckoning. Courage, America.

Jerry Wilkerson

SaddleBrooke

Defund ICE? Remember January 6

Unlike the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that was created in 2003 to protect our borders, the nameless, masked and heavily armed ICE agents who are terrorizing our communities are a new phenomenon altogether. Whereas legitimate Border Patrol agents vet those seeking asylum and entry into the US to keep us safe, these ICE agents are assaulting and kidnapping law-abiding men, women and young children whose only crime is the color of their skin. They are protecting no one, and they are making all of us less safe.

True to Project 2025, in March of that year Trump pardoned 1,500 convicted terrorists who attacked our Capitol on January 6, 2021, to create his cadre of violent, lawless enforcers and murderers bent on detaining and deporting over 1 million Latinos a year regardless of their citizenship or legal immigration status. They were terrorists then and they are the real terrorists now.

Defund ICE? Absolutely. They are a plague on our nation.

JB Marshall

Oro Valley

Current DEI nonsense

Our current government’s EEOC is suing Coca Cola for sex discrimination against men because they held a women’s only forum about navigating a male-dominated industry. The men claim financial losses and “emotional pain, suffering ... and mental anguish.”

How absurd. Women earn $0.74 for every dollar earned by men. When I graduated from college, my male colleagues were offered management training positions — my female colleagues and I were offered spots in the secretary pool. Paid leave after having a child is inadequate. Women make up only 35% of the workforce in the highest-paying jobs although they outpace men in college degrees. A third of women report sexual harassment on the job.

But EEOC’s priority is defending the “emotional pain and suffering” of men in the workplace because they weren’t invited to this forum? Give me a break.

Americans need to ask how they want their tax dollars spent — and vote accordingly.

Kathleen Harris

Foothills

Water

Project Blue, Hudson Mine, CAP, Colorado River, Sierra snowpack, Lake Mead, swimming pools, lawns, fountains, agriculture and household irrigation, population growth, unfettered development, toilet to tap. No water, no town. Makes the RTA debate moot. It's the water, stupid.

Dean Steeves

East side

RTA election fundamentally flawed

Tim Steller thinks he has a tough "yes" or "no" decision to make on the Proposition 418/419 Special Election. It's more complicated than that, Tim. I want to vote to approve the "significant changes" to several projects in the original 2006 plan yet not vote in favor of the RTA Next plan and 20 more years of regressive sales tax. I can't vote my choice because the two totally disparate issues of modifying the old plan and approving the new plan have been consolidated. It looks to me like the structure of this election is fundamentally flawed and is therefore violating my constitutional right to vote on these matters separately, as mandated by state law. Obviously, I'm voting no on both propositions. If this election passes, you can add my name (and probably many others) to the list of plaintiffs suing the RTA Board — all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court if necessary. 

Maureen McCarty Lueck

West side

Special Counsel's report

I see on the news this morning that my favorite federal judge, Aileen Cannon of Florida, has ruled that Jack Smith's special counsel report on Trump's mishandling of classified material will not be released to the public. Cannon, a Trump appointee, was largely responsible for torpedoing Smith's investigation while it was in progress. Appointed by Trump despite her lack of relevant judicial experience, she has been overruled several times by the Eleventh Circuit on appeal. This report should be made public promptly, but even if the full circuit orders its release, Trump will appeal to SCOTUS which will effectively preclude its release in the foreseeable future.

James Dolian

SaddleBrooke

Shame on the Star

Today the Star printed an opinion column from Rob Samuelsen. Yes, he was the chief financial officer for the RTA, but Mr. Samuelsen no longer lives in Pima County (Vail) as indicated by the Star. He doesn’t even live in Arizona.

Mr. Samuelsen can’t vote here any longer. He won’t have to live with the consequences of another 20 years of RTA. Yet, he says “we have a choice.” Yes, those of us who actually live in Pima County have a choice, but not Mr. Samuelsen. Lies won’t fix our roads.

Several opposing pieces on the RTA have been submitted to the Star over the last several weeks by actual residents but have not been printed by the Star. Yet they chose to print a pro-RTA column by a non-resident.

Shame on the Star for misrepresenting this column and the bias they are demonstrating on the opinion page. Shame, shame on you.

Ruth Reiman

Midtown

The Save Act should wake up women

The Trump/Republican party is working hard to prevent up to 69 million women from voting.

69 million Republicans, Democrats and Independents and others.

Do a fact check at least, soon.

Voter fraud is a hoax. Wake up, America, and vote.

Pat Bannon

Midtown

Your vote soon to be worthless

Now I watched pretty much every play in the Super Bowl, so the final score looked right to me. But Senate President Warren Peterson and House Speaker Steve Montenegro watched the same game and came away thinking that the final score should not have been decided by those playing their hearts out on the field. No, they wanted the final score to be decided by the NFL Scorer guy up in a booth somewhere.

They've said as much by petitioning the Arizona Supreme Court to legally empower individual County election officials to overturn the vote of the people and instead make the final call on who won.

Peterson and Montenegro want your precious vote to be worthless, setting a new low bar for doing anything to stay in power. Why have elections at all? Just leave it up to the County election supervisors. They know better than you.

Support your elected Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes. He is the official antidote to the poison those two are spreading.

Rick Rappaport

Oro Valley

A note to readers:

A Guest Opinion by Robert Samuelson in Arizona Daily Star Monday, Feb. 23 was incorrectly labeled as "Vail Opinion." The writer formerly lived in Vail but has moved out of Arizona.